On Thursday, May 21st, 2026, the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act Campaign (RI VRA) hosted a lobby day at the State House to promote the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act (H8334/S3143) and its ten amendments. As group leaders in the campaign, and after experiencing actions and lobbying by over 100 people for the passage of the bill, we invite you to join the urgent Code Red for Democracy call.

As community leaders, we are calling on the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass the RI VRA and all 10 amendments before the session ends in June. There is extreme urgency.

Voting rights are being attacked across the country, both at the state and federal levels. The recent United States Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the federal Voting Rights Act. Action needs to be taken now. Rhode Islanders cannot afford to have their voting rights put at risk. The way to do this is to pass the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act and its ten amendments before the session ends, and implement the bill immediately upon passage.

“Standing inside the Rhode Island State House alongside Common Cause, The Womxn Project, the RI Coalition of Black Women, The Women’s Fund, Clean Water Action, and members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta sororities, lobbying for the codification of the Voting Rights Act into Rhode Island law, was a surreal and sobering moment — because sixty-one years ago, my grandparents already fought and won this battle,” says Shahidah Ali, the Political Action Committee Chair of the RI Coalition of Black Women.

The historic 1965 Voting Rights Act was enacted to dismantle systemic barriers that denied marginalized populations their constitutional right to vote. Over time, the definition of “marginalized” populations was expanded to include the demographics covered by the ten amendments, thereby extending the same protections. In a true democracy, there should be no barriers to the ballot box.

The Supreme Court’s decimation of this civil rights protection dropped like a hammer. The day after the ruling, elected officials in Tennessee and Louisiana moved with alarming speed to redraw voting maps, strategically diluting Black districts and erasing political power that communities had spent generations building. In a single stroke, Southern Black voters were catapulted back to the 1950s — back to marching, back to fighting, and back to proving that their vote deserves to count.

The NAACP quickly organized a march in Selma — not in remembrance, but in resistance. Not to honor the eve of the Voting Rights Act, but because they are standing once again at day one, stripped of the protections their ancestors bled for on that bridge.

“Across the South, Black voters are being forced to refight battles their grandparents already won sixty years ago. That is not progress,” said Shahidah Ali. “That is a crisis.”

Rhode Island is not immune. Without strong state protections, the same tactics devastating communities in the South — diluting votes, redrawing districts, quietly shifting power away from marginalized communities — can take root here. Many in our communities do not yet fully grasp what is at stake. This is why we are calling the push for a Rhode Island Voting Rights Act what it is: Code Red for Democracy.

Passing this legislation is not symbolic or performative. It is a necessary safeguard at a moment when voting rights are disappearing at the federal level, and states are scrambling to fill the void — or exploit it. Every marginalized community in Rhode Island deserves a guaranteed say in its government. Those rights must be protected. And since the federal government has abandoned that responsibility, Rhode Island must step up.

History has taught us, repeatedly and painfully, that democracy is not self-sustaining. It survives only when people are willing to defend it — in courtrooms, in the streets, and yes, in state houses. The responsibility now falls to Rhode Island’s elected leaders and our community to call on them to be inclusive of all protections and pass all 10 amendments with it.

“We join coalition partners in calling for the immediate passage of the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act and its ten amendments,” said Angie Bannerman Ankoma, President of the Providence Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. “In this moment of national uncertainty around voting protections, Rhode Island must lead with courage and affirm that every community deserves fair representation and a protected voice in our democracy.”

Join all of us in calling on Speaker of the House Chris Blazejewski and Senate President Val Lawson to not waste time or make trades that sacrifice the ten amendments and pass this bill before the end of June.

This state must decide whether it will stand on the side of democracy or remain indifferent to the voices of Black Americans throughout Rhode Island. Passing the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act is not optional — it is a moral obligation. It is urgent. It is overdue. It is code red. And for those of us whose grandparents marched so we would never have to — it is personal.

• Shahidah Ali, Political Action Committee Chair, RI Coalition of Black Women

• Angie Bannerman Ankoma, President, Providence Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated

• Jocelyn Foye, Executive Director, The Womxn Project

• Susan M. Pires, Connection and Social Action Committee Chair, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Theta Psi Omega Chapter

Share