Civil Rights

The Historical Context Of Voting Rights

April 4, 2015 Bruce Hartford, www.crmvet.org Educate! Civil Rights, Elections, History, Voting

Abstract political debates aside, as a matter of practical politics those who are eligible to vote — and who actually DO vote — are members of "We the People." They are what we used to refer to as "full-citizens." They are the recognized stakeholders of our society. As a matter of practical politics, those who are barred from voting are not part of "We the People." When we were founded as a nation, a fierce political battle erupted over who would have the vote. In essence, it was a fight over who was included in "We the People." We have been fighting that political war ever since, and we continue to fight it to this day. The issue of who has the vote continues to be a fight because those who are well-served by the status-quo want to limit the voting power of those who they fear have good reason to be dissatisfied with the way things are.

Newsletter: Praise For The Radicals

March 22, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Civil Rights, Corporatization, fast track, Globalization, Martin Luther King Jr, Racism, Radicals, TPP

In his recent article, “The Dance of Liberals and Radicals”, the liberal Robert Kuttner writes, “No great social change in America has occurred without radicals, beginning with the struggle to end slavery. Causes that now seem mainstream began with radical, impolite and sometimes civil disobedient protest.” We at Popular Resistance share the view that there need to be people and groups who see the bigger picture, who fight for what is not on the table and who are willing to put their bodies on the line to make change. Those are the people we try to lift up in our daily coverage of the movement because they are rarely recognized and are usually lacking in resources. Yesterday we marched in Washington, DC for Spring Rising with our friends in the peace and Black Lives Matter movements.

LBJ And The Speech That Changed America

March 22, 2015 Julian E. Zelizer, www.theatlantic.com Resist! Civil Rights, Elections, Racism, Voting Rights

Fifty years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered one of the most powerful pieces of oratory in presidential history. Standing before Congress at 9 p.m. on March 15, just a few days after the shocking violence that civil-rights protesters confronted during the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Johnson called on members of both parties to pass a bill that ensured the federal government would take the steps that were necessary to protect voting rights. Delivering that speech was a courageous decision. When the grassroots civil-rights movement tried to force Johnson’s hand by creating unbearable pressure to send a voting-rights bill to Congress, the president might have ignored or stifled their dissent. Instead, he fully embraced their cause by connecting himself and his White House to the fate of this legislation. He didn’t equivocate.

New Civil Rights Advocates Defeated Old-Line Groups On Net Neutrality

March 19, 2015 AOSCRUGGS, www.alldigitocracy.org Resist! Civil Rights, FCC, Internet, Net Neutrality

The fight over federal regulation of the Internet should have been an easy victory for the big guys, especially when it came to marshaling the communities of color. Major telecom companies like Verizon and Comcast had the groups like the NAACP, the Multicultural Media and Telecom Council or MMTC and Urban League behind them. But the issue turned into a battle between David and Goliath when a coalition of smaller, online civil rights organizations took net neutrality to the virtual streets. By using social media aggressively and persuasively, the online civil rights groups helped convince the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify the Internet as a public utility that would be regulated under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.

The Mother Of Nonviolent Direct Action: Lucy Parsons

March 16, 2015 William Loren Katz, www.zinnedproject.org Educate! Anarchism, Civil Rights, Nonviolence, Women's Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

She called for the use of nonviolence that would have broad meaning for the world’s protest movements. She told delegates workers shouldn’t “strike and go out and starve, but to strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production.” A year later Mahatma Gandhi, speaking to fellow Indians at the Johannesburg Empire Theater, advocated nonviolence to fight colonialism, but he was still 25 years away from leading fellow Indians in nonviolent marches against India’s British rulers. Eventually Lucy Parsons’ principle traveled to the U.S. sit-down strikers of the 1930s, Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the antiwar movements that followed, and finally to today’s Arab Spring and the Occupy movements.

The Dark Side Of Selma The Mainstream Media Ignored

March 12, 2015 Alice Ollstein, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Civil Rights, History, Media, Selma

When nearly 100,000 people descended on Selma last week to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack on voting rights protesters known as Bloody Sunday, they encountered a city that looked nothing like the quaint but divided communitydepicted in the recent Hollywood film. On the outskirts of town, clusters of mobile homes and crumbling shotgun houses sit along unpaved roads. The majority of downtown businesses near the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge — save for several fast food chains and payday lenders — stand vacant, their windows boarded up or broken. Most of the city’s public housing projects, built in the early 1950s, are in serious need of repair. With more than 36 percent of residents and 60 percent of children living in poverty, Dallas County is the poorest in the state of Alabama, making it one of the poorest in the country.

Meet One Of The New Civil Rights Leaders

March 9, 2015 Phillip Agnew and Michelle Chen, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Civil Rights, Dream Defenders, History, Racial Justice, Youth

I’m excited because it seems people are waking up—people from low- and middle-income communities, people who have typically been in the margins, who weren’t part of organizations. When we first started mobilizing in 2012, I could have never imagined things would have happened this quickly. On the other hand, this really is something that, if you look back at history, was easy to predict. You have police who do not come from the community and have a culture of contempt for black and brown people, especially when they’re young and poor. You have communities with no say in the way their lives are lived, no educational opportunities, no jobs that will make ends meet. And you have rampant and growing explosions between police and the people that they’re supposed to protect. This is a recipe for disaster. This is 1967. This is 1968, when cities around the country, including Chicago, Newark, Detroit, Oakland and Watts, began to explode.

Black Lives Matter Protesters Interrupt Obama In Selma

March 8, 2015 Alice Ollstein, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Civil Rights, Racism

SELMA, ALABAMA — On Saturday, President Obama spoke at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the 50th anniversary of the attack on voting rights protesters known as Bloody Sunday. “Our march is not yet finished, but we are getting closer,” he said. ” If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done – the American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.” As he spoke, a group of protesters wearing shirts with airbrushed portraits of those killed by police started banging on drums and chanted, “Ferguson is here. We want change!” and “This is what democracy looks like.” Obama did not pause his speech or acknowledge the interruption. But some older people in the crowd became angry, shouting at the young protesters: “Your vote is your voice! Get registered!”

Newsletter: At A Critical Juncture, Rise Up!

March 7, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Civil Rights, climate crisis, Corporatism, fast track, police brutality, Racism, TPP

We are at a critical juncture in world history. We live in a globalized world. That is the reality. But at present, it is a world that is increasingly dominated by multi-national corporations and big finance capital that controls national policies. The result of this system is exploitation of people and the planet and the use of the security state to oppress those who resist or to gather resources. William Dalrymple reminds us of the serious consequences that can result from such an arrangement in his article about the East India Company. It is up to us to rise together and fight back, to resist the expansion of corporate power and to build new systems that are more democratic, just and sustainable. We are with you in this struggle. People power, applied strategically, can succeed.

We Must Honor The Legacy Of Selma Foot Soldiers

March 7, 2015 Deborah J. Vagins, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Civil Rights, Congress, Law, Selma

In an important moment of bipartisanship, Congress unanimously passed a bill this month that honors the thousands of people who marched for voting rights 50 years ago in Selma, Alabama, with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor. This legislation was co-sponsored by 149 Republicans and 227 Democrats. On March 7, 1965 at the foot of the Edmund Pettis Bridge, they suffered beatings and the fear of death to peacefully protest for a national voting rights law. Ultimately, they prevailed and that law -- the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- changed the face of America and combated ongoing discrimination to the present day. Unfortunately, in 2013, the Supreme Court crippled one of the most effective protections of that act in its Shelby County v. Holder decision by rendering ineffective the requirement that certain jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination get pre-approval for voting changes.

Why Malcolm X Should Be Recognized In Selma This Weekend

March 6, 2015 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Educate! Civil Rights, History, Malcolm X, Media, Racial Justice

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) came and went on Feb. 21 of this year. And just as in other years when the date of Malcolm’s assassination came around, his name trended for a few hours and then the stifling silence rolled back in, erasing his name from the social media landscape almost as quickly as it had re-emerged. This year the occasion didn’t go completely unacknowledged, and some would even say that Malcolm was recognized in all the ways that mattered. There was massive coverage of the occasion right here at The Root, as well as other sites geared to black audiences. There was a CNN special that gave us a glimpse into the last moments of Malcolm’s life via the people closest to him that day. And the Shabazz Center organized a spectacular program in his honor—with a diversity in the ethnic, racial, religious and cultural DNA of the crowd in attendance that was a powerful reflection of the man himself.

Selma: Experienced As A Child, Remembered As An Adult

March 6, 2015 Sophia Bracy Harris, www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org Educate! Civil Rights, Economic Justice, History, Racial Justice

It was New Year’s Day, January 1, 1966. My older sister, several of my younger siblings, a cousin and I had attended the annual Elmore County Emancipation Proclamation Celebration (the observance of Abraham Lincoln’s signing the proclamation freeing Blacks from slavery). The guest speaker for this occasion was a Birmingham civil rights preacher, Rev. Jesse Douglas, whose powerful message and melodious voice singing, “I told Jesus that it would be all right, if he changed my name,” had the audience on its feet for most of his sermon. Little did I know that he was preparing us for the most traumatic experience of our lives, which would take place in less than four hours. We went home, excitedly sharing with our parents the experience of the evening with this wonderful civil rights preacher.

Cops Attack Unity Rally — Against Police Brutality

March 4, 2015 Betsy Piette, www.workers.org Educate! Civil Rights, New Jersey (NJ), police brutality, Police the Police

A peaceful protest against police brutality outside the Cumberland County courthouse here on Feb. 28 was disrupted by an orchestrated police provocation that resulted in two people being arrested. The rally was cut short after police converged on the gathering, confronting demonstrators and pushing them out of the street, even though organizers had a permit. Demonstrators reported seeing police armed with M16s. The demonstration, initiated by the Salem County-based civil rights group National Awareness Alliance, was held to unite families from New Jersey and Philadelphia who have been demanding justice for loved ones killed or injured by police. Starting at the intersection where police killed Jerame Reid, 36, of Bridgeton on Dec. 30, 2014, it was the fifth event demanding justice for Reid since his death.

Rev. Pinkney Denied Appeal Bond

March 4, 2015 Abayomi Azikiwe, www.spyghana.com Resist! Civil Rights, Faith, Mass Incarceration, Racial Justice

Pinkney was convicted by an all-white jury in November and he was sentenced to 30-120 months in prison on Dec. 15. He is currently housed at Marquette Correctional Facility, a 10-12 hour drive from his home in Benton Township. He was indicted after a group of residents collected enough signatures of registered voters seeking to recall Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower. Dissatisfaction with Hightower stemmed from the poor economic conditions in the majority African American city where unemployment and poverty are widespread. Benton Harbor is a city of approximately 10,000 people in southwest Michigan. Nearly 90 percent of the population is African American yet across the bridge in St. Joseph, the seat of the county, the city is nearly all-white and far more affluent.

103 Year Old Civil Rights Icon, Lessons From The Movement

February 25, 2015 Sasha Bronner, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Civil Rights, History, Law, Racial Justice

Amelia Boynton Robinson was nearly beaten to death in 1965 during the first march in Selma, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King Jr. She was 53 years old at the time. A graphic photo of Boynton Robinson, severely beaten and collapsed, spread around the world and became an iconic image of the civil rights era. Boynton Robinson survived the brutality and chaos of the time and is alive today to talk about it, at 103 years old. One of the nation's oldest civil rights activists, she remains an essential figure of the movement. She was one of the first people to urge King to travel to Selma in the first place, and was also the first woman and first African-American to ever run for Congress in Alabama. “Thank god I learned that color makes no difference,” Boynton Robinson said Friday at a private luncheon at the Soho House in West Hollywood, California. “My parents [were] an example for what they wanted their children to be.”

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