{news} Fw: Voting Rights Act Renewal

[Justine McCabe]

Voting Rights Act Renewal
Connecticut Voting Rights Coalition
Working Together to Protect Our Democratic Right to Vote


June 30, 2005


Dear Sisters & Brothers:

We are inviting you to a Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 127,  Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street, New Haven.

This is not only to mark the event, but to rally for the defense of its enforcement provisions that will sunset January 1, 2007.  There are calls to do away with those clauses preventing 16 designated States from changing election laws or redistricting without review by the Department of Justice or Federal Court to prevent gerrymandering eliminating minority representation; language other than English requirements and Federal investigation of voting complaints.

WE MUST COME TOGETHER TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY!

We have not forgotten the lynchings, the killings, the dogs, the demonstrations, petitions and marches.  Just 40 years ago, after hundreds of years, the right to vote for everyone was finally written into legislation.  Now after the elections of 2000 and 2004, still fresh in our minds, we cannot allow an assault on the Voting Rights Act!  This is not isolated from all the issues:  jobs, housing, the environment, civil rights and social security.  It is cut from the same cloth, all threads in the coat of democratic rights.

We are a coalition that has come together to work to make sure our Congressional delegation, all seven, vote to protect democracy.  We are encouraging other organizations and the community at large to join us in our efforts to ensure that our right to vote is not taken away.

Attached is more information on the Voting Rights Act.  For more information, please call Roger Vann of the ACLU of CT at (860) 247-9823, ext. 219.  Or log on to www.aclu.org/votingrightsact.

We need you!  We urge your attendance!

CT AFL-CIO State Council
Community Organized for Responsible Development (CORD)
American Civil Liberties Union of CT
CT Center for a New Economy
Democracy Works
Amistad Committee, Inc.
Greater New Haven Peace Council
City of New Haven Peace Commission
Descendants of the 29th Colored Infantry Regiment
UNITE-HERE Locals 34-35
Greater New Haven Labor Council
New Haven People's Center
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists CT Chapter (CBTU)
A. Philip Randolph Institute CT Chapter (APRI)
Labor Council of Latin American Advancement CT Chapter (LCLAA)
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)
Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
Pride @ Work
CT Communist Party

Labor Donated


Bloody Sunday: "Wrong, Deadly Wrong"
On a cold day in early March 1965, more than 500 peaceful demonstrators set off from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. They marched to protest the continued disfranchisement of blacks in the South and the murder of a young unarmed black man, shot by police while trying to protect his mother and grandfather from being beaten by state troopers after a civil rights meeting.

As the marchers began to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, they were assaulted by a phalanx of state and local police in riot gear. The peaceful demonstrators were beaten with billy clubs and sprayed with tear gas in full view of national television cameras. The brutality sparked national outrage, and marked a turning point in the American civil rights movement. President Lyndon Johnson called the attack "wrong, deadly wrong."

Five months after this "Bloody Sunday," a united Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has become one of the most successful civil rights laws in America's history.

Forty Years of Progress
In the 40 years since its passage, the Voting Rights Act has guaranteed millions of minority voters a chance to have their voices heard and their votes counted. The number of black elected officials has increased from just 300 nationwide in 1964 to more than 9,100 today, and the poll taxes, literacy tests and other discriminatory barriers that once closed the ballot box to blacks and other minorities have been dismantled.

The act also opened the political process for many of the
nearly 5,000 Latinos who now hold public office, including more than 250 who serve at the state or federal level.

The 2007 Reauthorization
The 1965 law was never meant as a quick fix. Recognizing that many states, counties and cities continued to erect barriers to minority political participation, no fewer than four presidents - Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush
-- supported the expansion of key parts of the law.


Notably, each time the law has been renewed by Congress, a Republican president has ratified the bill. On signing the 1982 extension, which passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 389 to 24, President Reagan called the right to vote the "crown-jewel" of American liberties.

In 2007, however, three crucial sections of the Voting Rights Act will expire unless Congress votes to renew them. These include:

· A requirement that states with a documented history of
discriminatory voting practices submit planned changes
in their election laws or procedures to federal officials or
judges for preclearance. A bipartisan Congressional report in 1982 warned that without this section, discrimination would reappear "overnight."

· Provisions that guarantee access to bilingual election
materials for some Native Americans who have limited English proficiency and new citizens trying to learn the language.

· The authority to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections.

A Continuing Need
The expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act remain
essential to ensure fairness in our political process and equal opportunity for minorities in American politics. Although great strides have been made in reducing discrimination, the ideal of "one person, one vote," is still just that - an ideal.

In South Dakota, for example, a recent court decision detailed two decades of systematic voting rights abuses against Native Americans. In the South, every redistricting plan submitted by Louisiana legislators for federal preclearance has been rejected by both Democratic and Republican attorneys general.
In places like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, voters with limited English proficiency continue to face resistance, unfair practices and poll workers who don't follow the law.

At a time when America has staked so much of its international reputation on the need to spread democracy around the world, we must ensure its vitality here at home.
 





FREEDOM IS WHY WE'RE HERE
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20050711/934de437/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: %CVRC LTR-6_ 1.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 127 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20050711/934de437/attachment.doc>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CVRC LTR-6_ 1.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 38912 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20050711/934de437/attachment-0001.doc>