Democratic lawmakers drafted civil-rights legislation that would challenge Jim Crow laws in the South while leaving de facto segregation in the North intact. When NBC News asked the civil-rights organizer Bayard Rustin why many African American communities rioted the summer after the bill passed, he said, “People have to understand that although the civil-rights bill was good and something for which I worked arduously, there was nothing in it that had any effect whatsoever on the three major problems Negroes face in the North: housing, jobs, and integrated schools…the civil-rights bill, because of this failure, has caused an even deeper frustration in the North.” Today’s protest movements against second-class citizenship in Baltimore, Ferguson, Oakland, and elsewhere are in part a legacy of the unresolved failures of civil-rights legislation.
Category: Equal Rights (Page 5 of 6)
By Ann Telnaes
The North Carolina legislature passes and Gov. Pat McCrory signs a bill which require transgender people to use bathrooms according to the sex on their birth certificates rather than what they identify with.
A first-of-its-kind gathering in our nation’s capital is putting We the People back in charge of OUR democracy.
Democracy Awakening — organized by Public Citizen, the NAACP, the Communications Workers of America, Greenpeace USA, People For the American Way, the Democracy Initiative and nearly 200 other allies — will bring thousands of Americans to Washington, D.C., from April 16-18 for a long weekend of workshops, trainings, rallies, music, advocacy and direct action in support of voting rights and money in politics reform.
Why?
The very essence of our democracy is in peril. We simply cannot wait any longer to:
- Overturn U.S. Supreme Court rulings like Citizens United that have allowed billionaires and Big Business to spend literally without limit in their attempt to take over our elections.
- Demand that Congress do its constitutional duty and commit to a fair and timely confirmation process for the next Supreme Court justice.
- Fully restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that was gutted by the Supreme Court’s recent Shelby County decision, enabling states to reinstitute discriminatory Jim Crow-era laws.
Buses, vans and trains are being organized in cities up and down the East Coast to help you get to Democracy Awakening.
Check out the Democracy Awakening website and RSVP to receive more information.
Be there in our nation’s capital when democracy awakens!
Onward,
Courtney Fuller
Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People Campaign
In the U.S. today, women make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man — with African-American women only earning 64 cents and Latinas a measly 55.
Plus, a woman’s right to choose is threatened by extreme lawmakers who have introduced more than 100 abortion restrictions in 2015 alone.
![LyndonJohnson_signs_Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965[1]](https://mlegrd0d2dsc.i.optimole.com/cb:6jfX.43614/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://madisondems.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/lyndonjohnson_signs_voting_rights_act_of_19651.jpg?w=604)
Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and other measures that had prevented African-Americans from voting. After its passage, Congress amended the act four times to increase its scope.
But in 2013, a Supreme Court decision blocked the act’s enforcement provision, which opened the door for states to pass new voting restrictions. Journalist Ari Berman says that many of the new restrictions discriminate against poor people, young people and people of color.
Block The Vote: A Journalist Discusses Voting Rights And Restrictions
Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and other measures that had prevented African-Americans from voting. After its passage, Congress amended the act four times to increase its scope. But in 2013, a Supreme Court decision blocked the act’s enforcement provision, which opened the door for states to pass new voting restrictions.
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