By Cheryl Bailey

On May 18, 2025, Dr. Walter Greason of Macalester College presented a session entitled "Five Years Later–Anti-Racism and Global Protest Against Police Violence." Dr. Greason is the DeWitt Professor of History at Macalester College. It was a hybrid program with in-person attendance and a Zoom webcast.

Highlights

• Racial uprisings are not rare in the U.S., but more have been perpetrated by whites, and kept nearly invisible to the public and in standard history teaching.
• We must be knowledgeable about and vigilant against the future (and current) use of AI in surveillance. ALL our devices, including cars and household appliances, can watch and report our interests and searches.
• Historical research in Urban Studies was popularized at the University of Chicago, with eventual emphasis on the coasts, going to high population areas. Dr. Greason favors the rural and less populated towns as a starting point to avoid missing critical historical perspective.
• Progress is not linear, despite what some historians might imply.

League member Janiece Kirton interviewed Walter Greason, Ph.D., about the last five years the world has spent learning, reflecting, and reacting to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Officer Derrick Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, and citizens surrounding the officer, including EMTs, begged him to let off as Floyd repeated that he could not breathe. The MPD reported the next day that Floyd died “while resisting arrest from a medical incident during police interaction.” The world knew differently, thanks to the videography of 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, who won a special journalist award by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Despite the COVID pandemic, millions of citizens around the world marched, arm in arm, and demanded justice for George Floyd.

During the global unrest that followed, Dr. Greason recalled a class he once taught on all the race riots and uprisings in American History. There are so many incidents of white citizens attacking blacks, burning black neighborhoods, homes, and businesses, and lynching, that his students couldn’t stand the intensity of the horrors. Some left classes early, and some even vomited at the atrocities. Whites made postcards out of lynching scenes, and kept body parts of their victims. We learned again that history taught can omit trends and events, and Dr. Greason learned he must divide the course into more tolerable segments.

His scholarship on AI, which he stressed is clearly a part of our everyday lives, with the caveat that the surveillance state already exists, and has the potential to be weaponized against multiple communities. Macalester College makes it a priority to protect students and faculty from this, and he urges students and viewers to turn cameras off, be mindful of all “smart” appliances, and to assume that companies and perhaps governments are interested in all our data.

Dr. Greason studies consent agreements, such as the one made by the Justice Department and the Minneapolis Police Department. Dr. Greason feels one reason Minnesota is in a good position relative to other states is the strong legal leadership of Attorney General Keith Ellison. He has lived all over the U.S., and feels somewhat optimistic that Minnesota’s leaders try to advocate for the rule of law and racial justice. Is there still work to be done? Of course. But Dr. Greason appreciates organizations like the League which persevere in the cause of liberty and justice for all.

(NB, this Zoom session was not recorded, so unfortunately there will not be a YouTube entry).

Next event: Annual Meeting Monday, June 9th at the Minnesota Humanities Center.

Starting in the fall, we will be holding in-person programs at the George Latimer Central Library in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. in the Otto Bremer Room. Street parking is free downtown (on Sundays), the building is historic and opens at 1pm, and it’s a wonderful chance to see friends and learn together.

Current dates are: September 21st, October 19th, and November 16th. Topics TBD.

by Pamela Mercier

       

The newly established ad hoc Advocacy Task Force met on May 8. This group currently consists of members from four different leagues.

Our goal is to develop effective LWV actions that defend democracy against recent actions proposed and taken by Congress and the Executive branch of the Federal government.

In alignment with policy positions stated by LWVUS and LWVMN, we are creating resources to be shared through LWVMN with all local leagues. Defending Medicaid funding from possible cuts is one of our highest current priorities.

By Pamela Mercier

The Voter Service Committee (VSC) is offering or has offered three opportunities for voter registration in May 2025.

The first took place at Como High School. Mr. Eric Erickson, a Como High School social studies teacher, and five students worked with Chris Schneider, Voter Service Co-Chair, and two additional League volunteers to encourage seniors to register to vote during their lunch time.

Our protocol is to engage with students and offer them our business card. On the card they can access the QR code for voter registration at the Office of the Secretary of State's website. This procedure, guided by students and our volunteers, enabled about 160 students to begin the registration process.

On May 24, the VSC provided voter registration opportunities at one of the Clean Slate events facilitated by the Minnesota Attorney General's Office. At this event, people with criminal records can start processes leading to pardons and record expungements. 

The VSC was also there to encourage voter registration. We interacted with about 25 participants. Some of them began the voter registration process on their phones and others filled out paper registration forms. It was a chance for the League to be visible in the community and to help people with criminal records to become voting citizens. A new Minnesota statute allows persons with felony convictions who are no longer incarcerated to register to vote even if they still have parole obligations and other additional conditions to be met after their release. According to the Secretary of State's office, there are as many as 50,000 Minnesotans now eligible to register to vote through this statute. 

On May 30 the VSC will be present at the Cap and Gown event for seniors at Washington Technology Magnet High School. This is our third year engaging with seniors to help them register to vote. This has been a very successful occasion for the League since many students take this chance to sign up to vote. Washington has been a responsive, engaged partner with the League, and we are grateful for this meaningful relationship.

Dominic Erdozain’s One Nation Under Guns argues that America’s gun culture misrepresents the Second Amendment. He writes that the Founding Fathers did not intend to guarantee an individual right to bear arms. He states that the modern distortion of this history, along with a combination of nationalism and racism, poses a threat to democracy. The book traces the evolution of attitudes toward firearms and explains the myths about gun ownership and the Second Amendment. These ideas have shaped the nation’s approach to gun control and contributed to its high rates of gun violence. Erdozain calls for a reevaluation of history to understand the true intent behind the Second Amendment and to create a more responsible approach to gun policy.

Our group talked about how in the past, white supremacy played a crucial role in promoting guns, by using them to enforce slavery. Black people were not allowed to own guns. Later on, Barry Goldwater and President Reagan promoted the Western "cowboy" myth. In 1968, the Gun Control Act was signed into law by President Johnson. The Supreme Court has weighed in a few times on the right to own and carry guns. U.S. cities are currently ten to twenty times more dangerous than cities in Europe. Only one percent of the U.S. population are members of the NRA.

The group felt that we need common sense gun laws. Only regulated militias should have guns. We need to find a different way of speaking about guns and regulations. We can undo the Second Amendment. We don’t sell cigarettes to children anymore, so it is possible to not sell guns for use by children. Parents are being held responsible for the actions of their children with guns.

For more information, see Historian Dominic Erdozain discusses new book, U.S. gun culture, Second Amendment at book event - The Brown Daily Herald.

The Morning Book Club's next book is Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill. We will meet on June 11th, at 10:00 am at the Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Parkway.

Most of us felt that Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow was well written and an easy read. The focus is on the appeal and history of fascism, isolationism, and white nationalism in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Maddow states directly that the appeal of fascism is cruelty to breed fear.

There were strong connections between political actors in the U.S. and Nazi Germany. For example, Henry Ford wrote a fascist book that Hitler made use of. There was a willingness to let Germany take over mid-Europe and Fascist cells in the U.S. were arming themselves. While people like Leon Lew exposed Nazis, the FBI was only interested in communists, not fascists. Hitler used racism and religious bigotry to divide Americans. German propaganda was sent by congressmen using their franking privilege, meaning there was no cost. And fascist speeches ended up in the congressional record and were printed and sent out for free.

We could not help discussing how all of this feels familiar today. Where are our Eric Severieds who will powerfully expose the violent militias and fascist propagandists, who will show the public how the focus on immigrants and the border is distracting us from the rights that are being closed down for us all?

By Claudia Dieter

We know some members have had difficulty with the new membership portal system, so here are a just a couple of things to know about navigating it:

Edits or Updates to your personal information: If your profile needs to be updated (change of address, phone number, etc.), you can do that yourself with these steps:

• From the LWVSP website, click on “Join Now” at the top of the page.o    This will take you to the “Become a Member” page.
• Scroll down to the “Join/Renew” button and click on it.
• This will transfer you to the LWVUS site that houses the membership portal
• • You can also go there by copying this direct link into your browser: portal.lwv.org.
• Once you have logged in with your email address and the confirmation code that will be sent to you, the next page will contain your information. 
• • To edit the information, click on your name, which will be in the upper right of the page.
  • From the drop-down menu, select “My Profile.”
  • Select “Edit Profile” and make the changes. 
  • When finished, click “Save” and then log out.

Donations: Donations to LWVSP can be made through the membership portal, but only when renewing or joining. 

If you choose to make a donation at any other time, it must be made directly to the League that you want to receive the donation (LWVUS, LWVMN, LWVSP, or another League), as it has been in the past.

LWVSP's Voter Services Committee met at the Highland Park Library in St. Paul on April 13, 2025.  Seventeen members attended.

We were joined by Melanie Hazelip, the Outreach Director for the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office. She presented briefly on statewide data from Minnesota on the 2024 election. For example, in 2024, about 62% of Minnesota 18-29 year olds cast a ballot. This is similar to data from 2020, which shows Minnesota leading the nation in youth voter turnout. Minnesota ranked second only to Wisconsin in overall voter turnout.

Melanie also talked with us about the SAVE Act. As some of you may know, this voter suppression act -- that is how the League sees it -- passed recently in the U.S. House of Representatives. It now goes to the Senate for a vote, but the timing is unclear at this moment. If passed into law, the SAVE Act would require all people who register to vote to present either a birth certificate or passport in person to register. This places an undue burden on many Americans, especially of lower income, who do not have access to these documents or the ability to replace them easily. Read the National League's response to passage of the SAVE Act by the House.

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's 5th Congressional District (Minneapolis) had this to say about the SAVE Act: “This voter suppression bill will disenfranchise millions of voters, especially married women.” Married women who change their names would no longer have a legal name matching their birth certificates, requiring them to obtain additional documentation. Furthermore, getting a passport is financially prohibitive and a document that many people may never need.

Registering in person could potentially disenfranchise some rural voters as well who might have to travel long distances to register. Similarly, seniors and many disabled folks, who use a mail-in registration process, might  be prevented from registering because of how distant registration places are from their homes. Watch a video of Minnesota Secretary of State Simon talking about the SAVE Act recently.

At our April 13 meeting, we also discussed potential voter registration activities developing this spring.

• At this point, we have one high school inviting us to register students at their Cap and Gown event.
  
• We are continuing to offer our services to all SPPS high schools .
• We are in touch with senior communities to find out what events - educational or voter registration - they might want us to provide this spring or summer.

There are only a few things on the ballot in Saint Paul this coming November, so our voter registration activities will reflect that fact this year. However, our committee will continue planning other ways to connect with schools, senior communities, and other venues during this time. 

If you would like more information, don't hesitate to reach out to Pamela Mercier and Chris Schnieders, Voter Services Committee Co-Chairs.

In Autocracy, Inc., Anne Applebaum argues that modern autocracies are forming a collaborative, transnational network united by a shared desire for wealth and power with no liability. These regimes, including Russia, China, and Iran, actively support each other through sharing propaganda techniques, trading surveillance technology and weapons, and laundering money across borders, often exploiting the vulnerabilities within democratic systems.

Applebaum reveals how this “Autocracy, Inc.” undermines democratic institutions and values globally, not through formal alliances, but through pragmatic, transactional relationships. She emphasizes the role of enablers within democracies – lawyers, lobbyists, and financial institutions – who support the wealth and influence of these autocratic powers. The book serves as a stark warning and a call for democratic nations to recognize this interconnected threat and to develop strategies to defend their values and institutions.

Our group talked about what is happening in our country that sounds so much like what Applebaum wrote about. For years, Russian oligarchs have owned U.S. properties purchased from Donald Trump. Billionaires are getting richer every day while the average American is just getting by. So many people believe in conspiracy theories and don’t have the ability to know if what they are hearing is true or false. Applebaum writes that some people are attracted to conspiracy theories. Billionaires have much more say in our government than ordinary citizens, with the power and the financial resources to influence elected officials. As a country, we are far too dependent on trade with China, Russia, and other autocracies. Any change will require international cooperation.

Applebaum also has a podcast on rising autocracy in the United States: Anne Applebaum Podcast: Autocracy in America

Morning book club meets at 10:00 a.m. at the Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Parkway, St. Paul.

Monday, April 28 ~ 2-4 PM ~ Rotunda, Minnesota State Capitol

A healthy democracy is fueled by healthy communities, and active participation from its citizens. As the MN Legislature considers where to direct state funding, this rally will bring together Minnesotans of all backgrounds to share our desire for healthy, strong, informed and civically active communities, where everyone belongs. We will hear from community members, advocates, and state leaders on important issues that are affecting families, learn how federal and state funding work together to support essential services, and take action with our elected officials.

Let’s stand up for a healthy democracy by supporting the health of our communities, our environment, and our next generation of leaders - and continue to build a strong legacy for ALL Minnesotans.

We’ll hear from speakers on a range of topics including:

• Access to Medicaid and Essential Services

• Access to Affordable Housing

• Access to Food

• Access to Clean Water & Air

• Access to Freedom of Speech & Civic Engagement

• Access to Voting Rights

RSVP at this link!

In March 23's Star Tribune, Michelle Witte, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, co-published an editorial entitled "Try as the Trump administration might, it can’t erase women." Click here for the gift link to read this important piece in full.

"Words like females, feminism, pregnant person, women and underrepresented — terms that describe the health and life experiences of women — are disappearing from federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control.

But we will not be erased."