Voting Rights Issues - 5/2/2022

Conversation Overview

In 2021, 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting.  This alarming trend has continued in 2022, with at least 13 voter restriction bills currently making their way through state legislatures.  What is behind these attacks on democracy and what can be done to address them?

Hosted by AULA Graduate student Clarence R. Williams, this conversation with accomplished attorney and scholar Professor Sonia R. Jarvis, J.D. will explore the history and current issues around voting rights issues and race.

Professor Sonia R. Jarvis is an accomplished attorney and scholar whose research and teaching have focused on race, politics, and the media.  Her legal practice focuses on civil rights, civil liberties, minority businesses and counseling nonprofit organizations. She served as a law clerk for renowned Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. when he was the US District Court Judge for the Middle District of Alabama and also when he was elevated to become a US Circuit Court Judge for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Jarvis has written several book chapters and papers and is currently focused on voter suppression in a book she is co-authoring entitled "States of Confusion: How New Voter ID Requirements Fail Democracy and What to Do About It" (under contract with NYU Press).  An active member of several professional associations and academic organizations, she has served in a variety of administrative positions, including most notably as the Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation, Inc., and Managing Director of the Center for National Policy Review Clinic formerly based at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.

A frequent commentator on public and political issues, Professor Jarvis has testified before Congress and has been interviewed by almost every major media outlet in the country, such as National Public Radio, the Washington Post, PBS News Hour, and CNN. Prior to joining Baruch College, CUNY, she served as a Senior Consultant for the President’s Initiative on Race in the Clinton White House tasked with drafting its final report and has been invited to teach at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, Georgetown University’s Law Center, and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Professor Jarvis has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on race and politics, public policy, intergroup dialogue, communications and media analysis, law and public policy, and women's rights while bringing a wealth of practical and theoretical knowledge to the courses she teaches at Baruch. She first joined Baruch’s Marxe School of Public & International Affairs in 2004 as the Lillian & Nathan Ackerman Visiting Distinguished Associate Professor of Equality and Justice in America and was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Center for Equality, Pluralism and Policy in 2007.  Professor Jarvis graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science with Honors and Distinction, and a B.A. in Psychology, followed by a J.D. from Yale University Law School. She was recently acknowledged by Stanford University as its first African American Female Varsity Athlete in university history when she served as Captain of the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team.

Southern fried from toe to head, Clarence R. Williams has traveled a journey that has taken him from the White House to the celluloid gates of Hollywood . A celebrated publicist, Williams has worked on Broadway, in television and film. His cultural influence allowed him to co-design the first African-American pavilion at the world’s fair. Clarence’s love of the arts was rewarded when he became Commissioner of arts and humanities for the city of Washington DC.

Currently, Williams is committed to his new found passion for eradicating health disparities among minority populations. As a committed community stakeholder, Williams serves on a Community academic Council, collaborating with Charles Drew University, USC, UCLA and Healthy African American Families, Inc. This partnership supports the concept of patient centered research in the areas of cancer, stroke, depression, HIV-AIDS and Aging. A little known fact about Clarence: He named a Sorority, while working at Howard University, D.I.V.A.S. Inc., which is now enjoying its 35th Anniversary. Patti LaBelle calls him “Mr. Fix It.” He is currently a graduate student in the department of Urban Sustainability at Antioch University.