People march in downtown Phoenix to protest the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. (Photo by Phillip Jackson/News21)

PHOENIX – Throughout the year, Black Lives Matter supporters and activists have held protests across the country partly to call on elected leaders to address issues of police brutality and inequality against African-Americans.

In Phoenix, protesters have held rallies, blocked streets and requested changes from the police department.

On July 8, about 1,000 people protested near city hall in downtown after the shootings of two black men – Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in a suburban area of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Despite the attention from the Black Lives Matter movement, exit polls during the primary indicated voting among young African-Americans hasn’t surged, according to The Washington Post.

One Phoenix protester said voting may not be enough any more.

“To be honest, I don’t think that vote stuff is going to do it this hour,” Yasin Muhammad, 24, said during the Phoenix protest. “A Hillary Clinton won’t do it for you. A Donald Trump won’t do it for you. No representative will do it for you.

“They are not going to do what we can do for ourselves. So there’s not voting here, the vote is dead. They killed the vote.”

Others at the protest said they want to draw attention to the movement.

“I’m here because I just want to stand for the peaceful movement to get people more aware of Black Lives Matter and the shootings that are happening that aren’t getting the correct justice,” said Jazmin Cobb, a protester from Phoenix. “I feel like this affects the voters because it shows that this is a real issue, so whoever the next president is, (he or she) definitely has to take it a lot more serious.”

After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, the conversation about underrepresentation in police departments and on local council members in predominantly black communities became a national issue. The shooting of Freddie Gray in Baltimore also led to similar conversations about the relationship and trust between local government and residents in that city.

“It depends on the community, whether or not there is a trust or distrust of government,” said Gilda A. Daniels, a professor of law at University of Baltimore and former deputy chief in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S Department of Justice. “When you had the mayor of Baltimore call the people during the uprising ‘thugs,’ that doesn’t help your trust of government.”

When voting in elections, a Pew Research Center study indicated that 43 percent of blacks surveyed believe they are treated less fairly than whites, while only 20 percent of whites responded that there is a mistreatment of blacks.

One Phoenix protester said there’s power in numbers.

“Our entire community out there needs to see what’s going on, see that we are uniting and to see that every person can make a difference,” said Amanda Mays, 40. “A lot of people think that their vote doesn’t count, and they’ll just stay home and see what the masses are going to do. Getting together shows that every person does count.”

Another Pew Research report indicated that 61 percent of the Americans surveyed said the country needs to continue to make changes for equality between blacks and whites, and 30 percent said America has made those changes.

After Sunday’s shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge, one public voice for the Black Lives Movement said the movement began as a call to end violence, and he said that call remains, according to The New York Times.

The official Black Lives Matter organization put out this tweet on Sunday:

“We hope the #BatonRouge community finds solace, healing, and safety in one another.

— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) July 17, 2016

The report, released in June by the Leadership Conference Education Fund,  highlights what it calls voter suppression activities since the Shelby County v. Holder ruling three years ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision ended requirements in the Voting Rights Act that had forced several states and jurisdictions to get preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before enacting certain voting regulations.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. While saying the Voting Rights Act was initially “enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting,” he went on to say that times have changed and “history did not end in 1965.”

The coalition’s report examines activities in states once covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and that are competitive in 2016 contests.

The report, “Warning Signs: The Potential Impact of Shelby County v. Holder on the 2016 General Election,” highlights five states: North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Arizona and Georgia.   

“Voters who were once protected by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act have been subjected to racial discrimination at every juncture of the electoral process,” according to the report.

The report described North Carolina as “one of the nation’s leaders in suppressing voters, passing a wide-ranging omnibus voter suppression law in the aftermath of Shelby, alongside a host of local polling place closures in black neighborhoods, redistricting efforts and other local changes.”

The ACLU and Southern Coalition for Social Justice sued North Carolina, saying that the law affects persons of color disproportionately.

“It’s going to take more to motivate black voters,” said Brenda Howerton, Durham County’s vice chairwoman. “It’s not just East Durham, it’s all over. It’s the country. We need to be out there ready to vote, taking people to the polls and making sure that everyone votes.”

Durham, North Carolina, has a 40 percent black population, and areas like East Durham have a high concentration of black residents.

Before the Shelby County ruling, 40 counties in North Carolina “fell under section 5 preclearance,” according to the report.

“If the community rallies around certain neighborhoods, they can help change things,” said Pat Mcghee, 64, a longtime Durham resident. “I used to work in this neighborhood years ago, and I know sometimes there may be some disparities. Our old neighborhood is dying, (there’s) not a lot of growth there anymore.”

The report also says that Virginia has enacted “restrictive voter ID law,  restrictions on community-based registration drives and overly aggressive purges of immigrant voters.” It went on to say the changes could “make the difference” in a state where polling had shown presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton were tied.

Civil rights groups and black lawmakers have fought against new voter laws, redistricting plans and changes to precinct locations across the country.

Alabama is one of the 19 states with photo identification laws, while 14 others accept other forms of identification.

“The problem with that picture ID is that it is a subterfuge to keep the voting down,” said Mo Erkins, the Barbour County, Alabama, NAACP president. “Prior to that (ID law), all someone needed was their light bill or garbage bill to show up and vote. What we are doing is trying to educate.”

Georgia has made efforts to make voting “harder by introducing cuts to early voting, closing polling places, and, in at least two cases, moving the early voting locations into police stations,” according to the report. It also claims that Georgia is “currently involved in battles over alleged purges of African-American voters from voter rolls and attempts to impose proof of citizenship requirements similar to those in Arizona.”

The Leadership Conference Education Fund collaborated with the American Civil Liberties Union, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Brennan Center for Justice and other groups to produce the report.