Rep. Joyce Beatty

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson observed, “A man without a vote is a man without protection.” More than six decades after LBJ’s historic declaration, his words still ring true. That’s because it doesn’t take a Supreme Court justice to understand that the right to vote is the lynchpin to the many rights, liberties and freedoms we all hold so dear as Americans. Or does it? Because, the Supreme Court apparently disagrees with this basic constitutional principle.

FACT: African-Americans live on average 3.4 years less than white Americans. It is in no small part a result of higher rates of heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest, heart failure and stroke among African-Americans. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, did you know that 44 percent of black men and nearly 48 percent of black women have some sort of cardiovascular disease? Or, even more troubling, that heart disease for African-Americans is deadlier and develops earlier?

Last week, Raphael Bostic was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta—becoming the first African-American Federal Reserve Bank president. That’s right, in the Federal Reserve’s 104-year history, no African-American has led one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks until Bostic’s historic selection. I wholeheartedly congratulate Professor Bostic on his history-making appointment, and applaud the Atlanta Fed for making this long-overdue selection, but clearly more progress must be made.