By: Charles Blatcher, II ,Chairman, National Coalition of Black Veteran OrganizationsRelease Date: May 11, 2026 – For re-print.
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a long-awaited ruling affecting the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Although the decision did not eliminate the Act, it significantly changes how plaintiffs can prove racial discrimination in voting. Black leaders, civil rights advocates, and fair-minded white officials have raised concerns about its impact. For Black veterans especially those who served in Vietnam and those serving today the ruling is a particular affront, because the promise of voting rights was often invoked to justify their service.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act was used to justify drafting a disproportionate number of Black young men during the Vietnam War. Although Black Americans were about 11% of the U.S. population and 13% of the armed forces, Black GIs faced higher combat exposure from 1965 to 1968 and accounted for 20% to 25% of combat deaths in Vietnam. That death rate remained higher than our share of the population through the war’s end in 1975. We paid a heavy price for the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In October 2025, the National Coalition of Black Veteran Organizations urged Black veterans to join a voter registration campaign. The campaign aims to increase participation in the 2026 midterm and 2028 elections by ensuring that every eligible voter in veterans’ households is registered and vote either on Election Day or by mail. The coalition joined by the Common Defense Veterans Organization in Atlanta, Georgia, whose participation strengthens the community’s shared civic purpose while honoring those who sacrificed on and off the battlefield for the right to vote.
The significance of the Black veteran vote is often missed in discussions of the broader Black electorate. An estimated 43 to 47 million people in the United States identify as Black, and about thirty-four million are eligible to vote. About 2.3 million are voting-age veterans 6.8% of eligible Black voters. We are urging each veteran to bring a spouse or family member to vote, effectively doubling that influence. Doing so would increase the effective share to about 13.6% of the eligible Black vote, a voting bloc large enough to command serious attention from elected officials and civil rights organizations.
We are calling on Black veterans to achieve 100% participation in voter registration and turnout. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, we can still be effective in the upcoming elections. Stand with us to honor the civil rights leaders who came before us by making our voices heard at the ballot box. REGISTER AND VOTE!
See the You Tube message at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vUuYS5aJKA
#### For information contact: cnmmmf@aol.com ####
Common Defense – Boots2Ballots Voters Registration Campaign @ 404-425-9919
