Dems channel 1960s Civil Rights Motion in new struggle in opposition to voter suppression

EXCLUSIVE: The Summer of Activism is underway with marches, protests and demonstrations similar to those of the 1960s as a blueprint to get Republicans to implement the For The People and John Lewis Voting Rights Acts.

Reverend Jesse Jacksonwho has Parkinson’s disease and the Reverend William Barber were arrested earlier this week in Phoenix, Arizona after refusing to leave the office of Democratic Senator Kyrsten cinema. The two were part of an arrest of 39 people demonstrating against their support for the filibuster who is held responsible for part of the delay in voting on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Photo: AP News / Getty Images)

On the hill, Senate Democrats are rushing over one of the summer’s issues, voting efforts weakened by two Supreme Court rulings, one in 2013 with Shelby V. Holders hollowing out the Civil Rights Act of 1965. and another just this month that weakened Section 2 of the historic law and increased the burden of proof of racial discrimination.

The topic has dominated meetings and conversations on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue since the beginning of the summer, but gained momentum when Democrats in Texas fled the state to block attempts to restrict access to the Lone Star state election. On Friday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee met to review Texan legislation that would change that state’s electoral laws, making it a more restrictive process.

Democratic Congressman Kweisi Mfume from Maryland, who is part of that committee, theGrio says he thanked the Texas Democratic lawmakers for their courage in standing firm against bigoted attempts to restrict all people’s suffrage without intimidation.

“The big lie and Jim Crow’s new electoral laws that we are opposed to are the ugly holdovers of the Donald Trump era. They have to be defeated, ”added Rep. Mfume.

U.S. MP Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)

In a written statement, President and CEO of NAACP Derrick Johnson said: “As the brave Texas officials declared before the House Oversight and Reform Committee today, the struggle to uphold the right to vote is a struggle to maintain American democracy.”

The story goes on

“We call on our nation’s leaders to seize this pressing moment and act together to ensure that all Americans have a voice in our future. In addition to a constitutional obligation, we also have a moral obligation to protect and defend the right of every American to participate freely and fairly in our democracy. The US Senate must act now to protect American democracy, ”added Johnson.

The lock in the Senate to get the Act for the people and the John Lewis Suffrage Act – two bills designed to restore teeth to the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and general voting integrity of the nation – should ultimately be the Republican minority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell.

The ongoing deadlocks on voting rights and the amendments to the Civil Rights Act have sparked an immediate response from activism.

“Summer of Activism” is underway with marches, protests and demonstrations similar to those of the 1960s as a blueprint to get Republicans to move to HR 1 and S.1.

Suffrage activists led by United States Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH) (C) and the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) hold a protest in the Hart Senate office building on July 15, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)

As the protests and the struggle for the right to vote are taking place across the country, theGrio was on site in Washington to document the protests and arrests in Congressional offices and on the streets in front of the United States Supreme Court.

During protests, three members of the US Congress, Rep. Joyce Beatty, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Hank Johnson, and more recently, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas.

“The importance of members of the Congressional Black Caucus engaging in civil disobedience and being arrested is to emphasize to the nation the importance of the right to vote as a lifeline for people of color, “Jackson Lee told theGio after her arrest.

“As a member of the Judiciary Committee that helped write the Voting Reauthorization while I served in the United States Congress, watching each successive reauthorization gain votes like 98 in the Senate, 400 plus in the House of Representatives had – numbers that reflect that the right to vote is a constitutional right and a birthright – how we got into today’s crisis is the toxicity of the former president and the toxic nature of the racial relationship. “

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 29: U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) (3rd L) speaks as Cora Masters Barry (L), wife of late DC Mayor Marion Barry, during a protest on Capitol Hill Jan. July is watching? , 2021 in Washington, DC (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Congressman Jackson Lee added, “I will continue to advocate civil disobedience, like many others, if necessary to steer Senate members in the right direction. And I will continue to work with members of the Senate to get it right, as we do in the House of Representatives. “

“Nobody ever said that the fight to protect our voting rights would be easy. We’re fighting Jim Crow 2.0, ”said Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. He underscored the urgency that many civil rights activists are pushing for the White House in what is described as today’s Jim Crow, supported by the filibuster.

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves to stop bills to suppress voters wherever colored voters, the elderly or people with disabilities are excluded from voting. Our democracy and our communities depend on it. The stakes couldn’t be higher, ”added Yearwood.

Since the beginning of 2021, 30 anti-election laws and counts have been passed. To address the attack on democracy, the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday Nancy Pelosi and NAACP leaders called on Georgia, Michigan and Ohio lawmakers to plan immediate federal measures to protect the right to vote.

Cora Masters Barry, the widow of the late DC Mayor Marion Barry, cried weeks ago in the Hart Senate office building when her colleagues were arrested for marching and singing peacefully in protest against the current voting rights situation in this country.

Ms. Barry lamented that she is upset to be back in this place after marching for the suffrage in the 1960s.

The public face of suffrage in the modern struggle for democracy has so far been that of blacks, but various coalition groups claim that the new restrictive laws affect all groups from disabled people to Latinx to Asians and white America.

“Every single person in this country is affected by the right to vote,” said the congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, a general agent for Delaware. “[Voting] is bound to everything that is at stake. “

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The civil rights movement of the 1960s following the Dems Canal in the new fight against voter suppression first appeared on TheGrio.