As African-American leaders, advocates, and people of faith, we condemn HB 793/SB 836. Sponsored by Majority Leader William Lamberth and Senator Bo Watson, the bill will deny undocumented children access to a public education. The legislation is unconstitutional (illegal) as determined in the Plyler v. Doe (1982) case. It is a modern form of racial segregation, or Jim Crow as it was referred to years ago, that clearly targets Latino immigrant families.
HB 793/SB 836 does more than punish undocumented children. It effectively de-certifies the citizenship rights of documented and second-generation children from mixed-status families (composed of documented and undocumented persons). It has a chilling effect. Children from mixed-status families, who are documented and have citizenship, will be discouraged from attending school due to intimidation and fear of retribution.
For most of U.S. history, African Americans were denied access to a public education or forced to attend schools that had limited resources. In some cases, as African Americans traveled from state-to-state, especially during the years of slavery, they were required to show their papers to demonstrate their legal status.
There is also a troubled history of citizenship de-certification that bolstered the racial caste system in Tennessee. Jim Crow laws and anti-civil rights court decisions imposed a badge of servitude on African Americans and denied us/them equal protection and due process. Some African Americans were denied a birth certificate due to their social status or limited resources. Gloria Sweet-Love, President of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, recently stated in the Tennessean:
I understand the struggle of having to prove your right to exist, to participate, to belong. I was raised in rural Tennessee during the 1950s, a time when registering the birth of a Black girl was not a priority. As a result, I spent my early years undocumented, despite being a citizen. Without a birth certificate, I had no proof of being born in the state I called home.
HB 793/SB 836 borrows from a racial caste system that was uniquely applied to Blacks during the Jim Crow era and updates it for the twenty-first century to deny undocumented children access to a public education. As African Americans, we must be the conscience of Tennessee and condemn HB 793/SB 836. As people of good will, we believe in a common humanity regardless of one’s citizenship status. As Tennesseans, a state where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his last speech, we belong as he stated to “an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
HB 793/SB 836 is a racial segregationist bill that will do great harm to many families. The bill will receive a final vote next week. The fierce urgency of now is upon us. We ask all Tennesseans to call their lawmakers and tell them to vote No on HB 793/SB 836. We call upon Governor Bill Lee to veto the bill if it is passed into law.
Sincerely,
