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2026, Voting Rights Unit Headquarters



Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Red dots began appearing all over the screen. “Boston? Baltimore? Philadelphia? In 1832, and 1829, and 1789- and--" Miss Barbara looked at the screen, shocked. “What is going on!?”

****

2026, Hope and Imani's House

12-year-old Hope was petting her dog and giving him treats for being such a good doggo. “You guys have been quiet.” Their mother said, suspiciously but approvingly, as she picked up their plates from dinner.

“Do you know who James Forten was?” 8-year-old Imani asked. Hope looked at her sharply. She thought they had an agreement. Her little sister wasn’t to tell her mother that she time traveled to protect history in a secret kid-run agency. In return, Imani could keep coming on missions.

“Hmm…He sounds familiar- let’s look him up.” Their Mom said. Hope breathed a sigh of relief. Her clueless mother never wasted a moment to teach them things. “Oh, look, James Forten will march all 15 of his White employees to the polling booth, getting them to vote for the candidate he would like, Samuel Breck. Now I wonder who that was.” 

Hope shook her head- her mother was always getting distracted. Suddenly, Hope’s magnifying glass in her pocket buzzed. “Oh- we’ve got to go wash our hands! We’ll be right back!” Her Mom could’ve sworn they already washed their hands- in fact, didn’t they just eat dinner?

Before she could say anything, Hope had already pulled an equally confused looking Imani away, with Prince following behind.

Hope began washing her hands, and got Imani to wash her hands. “We don’t actually wanna’ lie- so we gotta’ really wash our hands. We need to go- we’ve got another mission! Are you ready?” Hope asked her sister as a shimmering magnifying glass portal opened in front of them.

***

2026, Voting Rights Unit Headquarters

“Hope- did you get the alert too?” Hope’s History Detective Partner, 12-year-old Abraham, asked. Hope nodded. “It seems urgent!”

“I’m glad you two – or all of you- came so quickly!” Miss Barbara said as soon as they got to her office. Miss Barbara was 19 years old and gave out the missions. She was surprised to see Imani – but even though they time travelled, there was no time! “The Twister has done something! They really are trying to mess up 2026, America’s 250^th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence- and the 100^th Anniversary of Black History Month. Look at all these anomalies- all these things that aren’t right and need to be investigated. The Twister sure does like to twist time- but The Twister is not this powerful. There must be one thing that has changed to cause AAALLL of this!” Miss Barbara waved her hands in front of the screen filled with red dots. “Go get your gadgets and gear up, History Detectives. History is counting on you.”

Miss Barbara saluted at the team as they walked away. They walked to a large library. It had many books.

Abraham began researching, swiping at his magnifying glass - which Imani now knew was like a tablet, and maybe a time machine. He even would ask for books- and they would just float down to him?? “1777 and 1788, Prince Hall. 1831-1833, Maria Stewart. 1841 – 1847, Frederick Douglass. James Forten in 1799, 1800, 1813, and the 1830’s. James’ son-in-law Robert Purvis between 1831 and the 1840’s. The American Anti-Slavery Society between 1836 and 1844. David Walker in 1829. Women’s Anti-Slavery Societies between 1834 through the 1840’s, in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Richard Allen in 1799 and 1800.” He said different names and dates, and books floated down to him, opening to certain pages. He would lean in and show Hope some of the pages. Then he finally said, “Guess what their common denominator is?” He looked up.

“Don’t bring math into this!” Hope exclaimed. “What does everyone you mentioned have in common?”

“These are all Black activists who wrote petitions to Congress or their states during these time periods.” Abraham answered.

“All of them?” Imani asked. “Why so many potatoes? And why did they have to write on potatoes?”

“Not potatoes, Imani, Petitions. A Petition – not a potato- is when a group of individuals all decide to reach out to their government with a problem they want solved. It’s like, if Mother were making us clean our rooms, but we felt it was unfair- so we wrote up a letter and both signed it.” Hope explained, trying to be patient, but also amused and befuddled at how her little sister heard the word “potatoes” from petitions.

“Hmm….So if they have petitions in common- what else is true?” Abraham wondered. “I don’t think the Twister took away paper? – or maybe potatoes.” He joked with Imani.

“That doesn’t sound right. Let’s go tell Miss Barbara what you found.” Hope said. Just then, she saw Prince chewing on a pen on the ground. “Prince – NO!” She pulled the pen from her dog’s mouth, scolding the pup. 

Image is not generated with AI. Image Source: First Amendment Rights - 5 Protected Freedoms - America's Future

Image is not generated with AI. Image Source: http://www.mrpmedia.tech/the-first-amendment.html

"After the passage of the First Amendment, they organized Black and White abolitionists to flood Congress with petitions against slavery, using the arguments of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Receiving so many petitions angered Congress, so even though it was directly against ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’ – the First Amendment, they placed a gag order on the matter of slavery and decided not to hear any petitions regarding it."

Image is not generated with AI. Image Source: https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-first-amendment-to-the-constitution-facts

“So now what?” Abraham asked. What had The Twister erased from history to cause so many things to be affected?

“Prince! Why are you chewing on a-” Hope stopped mid-sentence as took a pen from Prince’s mouth again. “Eureka! Could it be a pen? They didn’t have computers in the 1700’s and 1800’s. Could pens have been taken away strategically from all those people you mentioned?” Hope asked as she looked at the pen in her hand.

Miss Barbara considered this. She went back to the screen, zooming in on the various figures in time. “Well done, Detectives! Not to worry, now that we know what changed, we have the power to stop The Twister from erasing history- an important part of the First Amendment, actually, like people who oppose book banning just as those early activists opposed the gag order.” Miss Barbara went to work on a strange machine in the corner of her office. She looked through a box and then pulled out an old quill. “Ah ha!” She put it in the machine, and it whirred to life, making noise, and then the pen was gone. 

They all looked at the screen- Imani being sure to look too- and the red dots began disappearing. Instead, she saw the various people in history all now armed with a pen begin to write their petitions. 

By: Caitlyn Arnwine (formerly Caitlyn Cobb and her daughter, Hope Grace. This was written in 2026 with a complete source list at the bottom.



© 2026 Transformative Justice Coalition. All rights reserved.

© 2026 Caitlyn Arnwine and Hope Cobb. All rights reserved.

Feel free to publish on your social media outlets and teach these lessons, with credit given to the Transformative Justice Coalition. Please let us know if you do share the series so we can publicly recognize and thank you. Be sure to send any publications to carnwine@tjcoalition.org so we can repost!

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory and to use this series for school projects. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts or connections to this history.

Others can sign up for the daily articles at VotingRightsAlliance.org. 

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!

We hope you enjoy our #VRABlackHistory Series 2026

From the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance



Please note, if you'd like to opt out from only the upcoming daily Black History Month Voting Rights Alliance #VRABlackHistory series, please email carnwine@tjcoalition.org. Unsubscribing at the bottom of this email unsubscribes you to all Transformers, not just from this special February Series.

INTRODUCING: History Detectives

The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are continuing the annual tradition of our daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and will introduce all new original articles this year- with a twist.

The 2026 #VRABlackHistory Series will center around the United States’ 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It will also center around teaching kids the Black History voting rights advocacy that surrounds the United States Constitution and its amendments, as well as different forms of government, with a new children’s series: “History Detectives”. This will be a series parents, guardians, teachers, and siblings can read to the children in their lives, with a lesson guide which includes what each story will cover as well as a short fun quiz. 

The “History Detectives” Series follows three kids, Hope – aged 12-, Abraham – aged 12-, and Imani- aged 8-, as well as their dog Prince, as they work in a secret kid detective agency aimed at helping figures or events in history stay on track anytime there’s an anomaly caused by “The Twister”, a villain who twists time with the goal of impeding progress, like a tornado tearing through and erasing history.

The “History Detectives” article draft attached has not only been put through the Dale-Chall Readability Test, giving an average of a 4th through 6th grade reading level; but, has also been tested with children, and is made with input from the author's soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter to ensure it’s engaging for kids. And did you know the author is also pregnant, due in February?! That makes this series all the more timely!

But we didn't forget about the adults! Each of the “History Detectives: Voting Rights Unit” articles (aside from this prologue) will also be paired with a counterpart article for adults to read. The adult counterparts will filter out the children’s story, and dive deeper into the historical figures or events the “History Detectives” article covered.

In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

References