Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of the Voting Rights Act.
Dr. King’s Dream Act is under attack. On Wednesday February 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the law’s requirement that states with a history of Jim Crow voting rules let the Justice Department review new voting procedures. This is the only effective method, today as in 1965, to ensure that every American citizen will not lose their vote because of race or language.
America’s heart breaks when we see, a half century after King’s Dream speech, African-Americans in Florida standing for six hours to cast their ballot. America’s heart breaks when we hear of Latino citizens in Arizona blocked at the polling station door by ID laws and intimidation because of the color of their skin or the language spoken in their homes.
Therefore,
ONE, we respectfully ask the Supreme Court to protect and affirm this “pre-clearance” clause of the Voting Right Act. Without it, the law cannot be enforced.
TWO, we demand that, no matter the Court’s decision, Congress extend the “pre-clearance” to every state in America, from Ohio to Wisconsin, to ensure that Dr. King’s Dream Act protects every American citizen’s right to vote.
Signed…
– Greg Palast, author, Billionaires & Ballots: How to Steal An Election in 9 Easy Steps.
– Dr. Bernard Lafayette – co-founder SNCC, freedom rider, MLK appointee to SCLC, Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962.
– Dr. Charles Steele – Chairman of SCLC.
To sign the petition click here.
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As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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