In celebration of the forthcoming election day, here’s a video by University of Kansas Journalism School master’s student, Rhonda LeValdo. She’s been selected as a semi-finalist for the YouTube-Pulitzer Center “Project Report” competition. She submitted the video for a class on “New Media and Political Communication.” Note: I’m a graduate of the KU Journalism School (and The University of Michigan Law School).

Here, Rhonda interviews her grandmother, Rachel Blackwater, who is an Acoma Pueblo woman. Please pay careful attention to the segment “We Have Come a Long Way.” Source: The University of Kansas.

Cynsational Notes

“…with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, Native Americans were first granted U.S. citizenship and the corollary right to vote–54 years after African-American men were formally enfranchised with the 15th amendment (1870), and four years after women received the same right with the 19th Amendment (1920).

“However, voting procedures are delegated to the states, and well past 1924 some states misused this power to continue to deny Native Americans the right to vote. For example, as late as 1962, New Mexico still overtly prohibited Native Americans from voting.” Source: Democratic Policy Committee.

See Blog the Vote at Chasing Ray.