This week’s episode of The CAP⋅impact Podcast features a meaty conversation about voting rights and elections with North Carolina Central University School of Law Professor Irving Joyner – who in addition to teaching is Legal Counsel for the North Carolina NAACP. In a conversation that covers gerrymandering, and lawsuits against voter ID laws, and election fraud I did not expect that a history lesson would be the part of the conversation would be most interesting and impactful thing we talked about.

But today’s conversation I think is truly about the importance of history and how it still influences voting rights in the present. North Carolina’s new voter ID law is a prime example of how. One of the requirements to obtain a driver’s license is to have a birth certificate. That might not be an issue for most folks, but for thousands of African Americans in North Carolina who born during the Jim Crow era, it is. That’s because Jim Crow laws prevented African Americans from giving birth in hospitals and which in turn prevented them from getting birth certificates. So, should this new voter ID law go into effect in North Carolina, thousands of African Americans will lose their voting rights because they had the misfortune of being born in the Jim Crow south.

That voter ID law is one example of Prof. Joyner’s ongoing work to protect voting rights. He was also involved in the process that led to a new election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District after an investigation confirmed election fraud occurred and has been involved in multiple lawsuits against gerrymandered state legislative and congressional district maps in North Carolina.

You can learn more about Professor Irving Joyner on his NCCU School of Law faculty page and you can find his published work here. As always, if you enjoyed today’s conversation please share it with a friend. Or, if you haven’t already, please subscribe to The CAP⋅impact Podcast on your preferred podcast listening app and leave us a positive review and 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts.