“Biden backs moving MLB All-Star game out of Georgia over new voting law, which he called Jim Crow on steroids,”reportedBusiness Insider last week. The aging president’s remarks may have struck some as tone-deaf, given that many professional baseball players have struggled with performance-enhancing substance abuse in recent decades. In his first White House press conference, Biden similarly described broader Republican efforts to strengthen election integrity as making “Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp fired back, claiming there is “nothing Jim Crow” about the law, while MSNBC outlined the new changes:
Georgia Public Broadcastingclarified the criminalizing of distributing food and water to voters – the law only prohibits non-poll workers from doing so. The law will probably seem like common sense to most Georgians, especially after widespread reports of [redacted], including video footage of suitcases full of [redacted] being [redacted] in their state last year.
For comparison, here is an overview of the actual Jim Crow voting laws, as well as illegal voting suppression techniques, employed by segregationists before 1965:
After reviewing the history, fact checkers at Quite Frankly have ruled Biden’s claim “false” - for now. It is unknown at this time if the Georgia Legislature plans to further fortify future elections by requiring proof of vaccination at polling stations. Doing so would likely prohibit tens of thousands of free-thinking Georgia voters of color from making their voices heard.
