Choices have Consequences

Kevin Cole

When I turned eighteen years old, my grandfather stressed the importance of voting by taking me to a tree where African Americans were lynched by their neckties on their way to vote. The experience left a profound impression on my mind. – Kevin Cole

“Choices have Consequences” is a visual and conceptual reckoning with the brutal history of voter suppression in the United States. Kevin Cole’s works embody the ongoing struggle for Black enfranchisement, illustrating how systemic barriers have evolved from the lynching of Black men on their way to vote to contemporary forms of suppression like gerrymandering and voter intimidation.

The necktie—an emblem of both professional aspiration and violent oppression—recurs as a potent symbol in his practice. Cole’s Ballot Box Series contextualizes the absurd and humiliating literacy tests imposed on Black voters, resurfacing questions once used to deny them their constitutional rights. Meanwhile, The Dirty South literalizes the geography of gerrymandering, embedding dirt from each state into cutouts that map the dilution of Black political power.

Cole forces us to confront the painful, ongoing realities of voter suppression, challenging us to consider the moral cost of a democracy in which participation is not equally protected.