As a child growing up in Georgia in the 1960s, JoJo Varlack-Hicks watched the evening news in tears, asking a question no child should have to ask: why are people beaten, hosed, and attacked by dogs simply for trying to vote? Decades later, when Georgia purged residents from its voter rolls for the "offense" of not voting, she realized the question had never gone away — only the tactics had changed.

The Power of the Black Vote is part history lesson, part plain-language explainer, and part call to action. It traces the government tactics used to block the Black vote from the beginning — fraud, violence, literacy tests, poll taxes, white primaries — straight through to their modern descendants: strict voter-ID laws, gerrymandering, mass incarceration, polling-place closures, voter-roll purges, and attacks on mail-in voting. Along the way, it explains why the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had to be passed at all — and what happened when the Supreme Court weakened those protections.

But this book is about more than suppression. It connects the ballot to the issues that shape Black communities every day — education, health care, and policing — and makes the case that every election matters, especially the local ones most people skip. It closes with a practical call to action: how to register, how to check your status, how to research what's on your ballot, and how to make sure your vote counts.

Written in a warm, candid, often funny voice — with discussion questions woven throughout — this is a quick, accessible read for incoming college freshmen, first-time voters, book clubs, classrooms, and anyone who has ever wondered whether their vote really matters. (Spoiler: it does. That's why they keep trying to take it.)

"Certain to educate, motivate, and energize... and encourage those fighting to secure that right to continue the fight!" — Gregory Homer, Professor, Fort Valley State University

"Every American who loves their democratic freedoms should read this book... written in an easily understood manner and accessible to all." — Carolyn Quick Tillery, Esquire, author of The African-American Heritage Cookbook series