In a moment when Black Americans’ voting rights seem under threat, state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Fla., finds herself aiming to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors and mentors. She takes inspiration from elder and fellow state Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Fla., who stood up to horrors while fighting for the right to vote during the Civil Rights Movement and, at 79, tells Nixon she’s tired of battling her Republican colleagues to maintain it.
“Who am I to sit around and to not answer the call,” Nixon, a Jacksonville native, told Salon in a video interview, underscoring Hinson’s adamance that they’re not going back to the time before the Civil Rights Act. “It cost me nothing to disrupt what was happening.”
