The Shellof Vitus

  Mural celebrates history of Ruston’s East End community — Nancy Bergeron Leader photos by Nancy Bergeron Mural artist Vitus Shell, holding scissors, Ruston Alderwoman Angela Mayfield, and artist Drék Davis, joined by residents of the Greenwood neighborhood and members of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council, cut a ribbon Thursday for the “On the Shoulders of Giants” mural at the Greenwood community center. The Grambling State University concert choir performs during a reception celebrating the mural that’s part of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council’s Lift Every Voice Initiative. Below, mural artists Vitus Shell and Drék Davis stand in front of their work. Ruston’s newest mural grew out of national tragedy. Now the bright colors on the big blue building on Cornell Avenue stand as what the North Central Louisiana Arts Council hopes is a successful part of its vow to listen and learn from experiences of Black members of the local community. In the wake of the deaths of Geo...

  By SOPHIA HALL COOPERTOWN – As this election cycle ends, it has become clearer that the fight for the right to vote did not end with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Claims of fraud, polling place closures and gerrymandering are rampant. Access to voting continues to depend on who we are, how we look and where we live. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v Holder that it was no longer necessary for states and local governments with a history of voter suppression to submit changes in their election laws for review; other outstanding Supreme Court cases threaten to erode voting rights even further. While New York itself has recently passed laws to protect the right to vote, de facto barriers, growing political animosity, and a feeling that one’s vote will not count continue to threaten voting in the state, clearly evidenced by the drop in voter turnout in this recent election cycle. When confronted by the truth that is the vulnerability of the vote, particularly for peo...