Black voices, vision critical to a reimagined America

As debates continue over how to reclaim rights many believe have been eroded in recent years, Black Voters Matter (BVM) is asking a different question.

Instead of focusing solely on resisting harmful policies, the national voting rights organization is inviting people to imagine what kind of nation they actually want to build.

Through its Declaration of a New Nation initiative, BVM is hosting town hall conversations across the South, asking Black people and other historically marginalized communities to envision a reconstructed U.S. Constitution centered on Black humanity and the dignity of all people. The series launched on Juneteenth at Galveston’s historic Reedy Chapel AME Church, with additional conversations planned throughout the South.

Attorney April England-Albright, BVM’s legal director and chief of staff, says the effort is rooted in history.

Beyond resistance

“Like many organizations, we organize to resist bad things that are happening,” England-Albright said. “But what we often don’t think about as a community is, what is it that we want? What’s the vision of the country that we live in?”

She points to the hundreds of Colored Conventions of the 19th century, where formerly enslaved Africans gathered to imagine a different America. Those conversations helped shape the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

“Those amendments were never meant to be our ceiling,” she said. “They were meant to be the floor.”

England-Albright believes today’s political climate demands a similarly expansive vision.

“The first revolutionary act of any movement is imagination,” she said. “Our people need to understand how revolutionary that is.”

Thinking like founders

England-Albright argues that Americans often misunderstand Black freedom movements.

“In Reconstruction, the abolitionist movement and the Civil Rights Movement, our ancestors were thinking like founders of a new country,” she said. “They weren’t reformists.”

Rather than simply repairing existing systems, she believes those movements fundamentally reimagined America, especially after the landmark Dred Scott decision made it clear that Black people were not considered citizens.

“Those folks, the abolitionists, the reconstructionists, the civil rights folks, were making America become something it was not. They were thinking like founders of a new country,” shared England-Albright.

Today, she says, communities should once again ask foundational questions.

“What rights do we want in this nation? Is the Constitution as written sufficient to enshrine our protections, or will we always be on the hamster wheel cycle of the benevolence of white people?” she asked. “That has to stop. We’ve got to start thinking about this country differently.”

A Constitution centered on people

At the Galveston gathering, participants were encouraged to imagine themselves as architects of a new nation.

England-Albright said one principle emerged repeatedly: Care.

“The founding principle would be that everybody belongs and everyone should be cared for,” she said, shunning the labels of capitalism, communism, and socialism. “This is a care economy.”

That shift, she argues, would require more than policy changes. It would require rewriting constitutional priorities.

“Why do people’s fundamental rights appear as an afterthought?” she asked. “Why not begin with the rights of the people? People should be more important than property.”

Participants also questioned whether rights such as education, healthcare, environmental protection, privacy, and stronger separation of church and state should receive explicit constitutional protection.

Others challenged longstanding political institutions.

“People stood up and asked, ‘Do we have to have the Electoral College?'” England-Albright recalled. “Some even asked, ‘Do we need the Senate?'”

Building power, not just protest

England-Albright hopes the initiative changes how people think about civic participation.

“If people don’t just see elections as stopping something, but see elections as building something, then voting becomes a tool for liberation, not just resistance,” she said.

She believes Texas occupies a pivotal place in that work.

“Nothing should happen in Texas without Black and Brown people saying so,” she said. “Texas is the answer… Texas will be the beacon for what the rest of the southern states will do.

“We hope that excites Harris County, which is the Blackest county by concentration in the country. That’s one of the things we hope comes out of this immediately.”

Long term, she envisions a modern version of the Colored Conventions that could eventually inspire constitutional amendments expanding rights for future generations.

Many visions, shared principles

While England-Albright emphasizes constitutional imagination, other community leaders offered their own visions of a more perfect union.

Business leader Allyson Ward Neal sees Black woman-led entrepreneurship as evidence that nation-building is already underway.

“With our corporate knowledge, we are recreating our own legacy in America, one institution at a time,” she said. “The new nation is already here; one where Black women have finally built the tables where they will sit at the head of it.

Community leader Deric Muhammad argued that reparations, including land ownership and greater self-governance, should be part of any new constitutional framework that honors Black humanity.

Former Houston City Council member Carroll Robinson proposed constitutional protections for reparations, equal education funding, universal healthcare, universal basic income, voting rights that cannot be revoked, and an end to the school-to-prison pipeline.

Tamani Mwandani, founder of Black Gold Nation, emphasized institutional power.

“Power resides in institutions, not individuals,” he said. “Power is never given, but always taken.”

His vision includes Black-controlled municipalities, revenue-generating institutions, safe communities, and leadership development designed to sustain political, economic, and cultural power across generations.

Though their proposals differ, they share a common thread: moving beyond simply defending existing rights toward intentionally designing systems that expand human dignity.

Action steps: Helping build a more perfect union

• Learn more about Black Voters Matter’s Declaration of a New Nation initiative and participate in future conversations, and connect with a local BVM representative by visiting www.BlackVotersMatterFund.org.
• Join local civic organizations engaging communities in constitutional, voting, and governance discussions.
• Attend city council, school board, and county meetings where local governing structures are shaped.
• Study the Constitution, including the amendment process, to better understand how structural change occurs.
• Register, vote, and encourage others to see elections as opportunities to build—not merely defend—the future.
• Support Black-led institutions, businesses, and organizations working to strengthen community power.