Protect Dr. King’s Dream Act

Protect Dr. King’s Dream Act

• by Care2 Causes Editors
• February 25, 2013
• 6:00 pm

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By Greg Palast, author, “Billionaires and Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps”

Jim Crow is alive and well — and he has mounted a new attack on the law Martin Luther King dreamed of: the Voting Rights Act.

On February 27, the Supreme Court will hear a suit brought by Shelby County, Alabama, which challenges the right of the Department of Justice to review changes in voting procedure. Example: Attempts to cut the number of early voting days, to expunge “illegal alien” voters without any evidence, refusing Spanish-language ballots, have been blocked by the Department of Justice and Courts because they have stopped Black and Hispanic citizens casting ballots.

Sixteen states are subject to this “pre-clearance” law, every one with a history of Jim Crow rules such as “literacy” tests — Blacks had to recite the Constitution, Whites “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Dixie moans it’s been picked on unfairly, but the “pre-clearance” states, chosen by an arithmetic formula, include all or parts of the “Confederate states” of California, Arizona, Alaska and New York.

All those above the Mason-Dixon line are on the civil-rights hot-water roster because of a history of hostility to Hispanic citizens.  In 2006, for example, the Republican Secretary of State of California rejected 42% of voter registration forms because the names were “unusual” and difficult to type into records!  The names, like Chávez and Muhammad, were only “unusual” for Republicans.

New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg is happy to pre-clear his city’s changes with the Justice Department and has told that to the Court.  But once again, as Dr. King said in his Dream speech, in Alabama, the “Governor has his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification” — to nullify the 15^th Amendment’s right to vote and to interpose himself between federal law and the enforcement of this basic American right.

And the Southland?  In 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris purged tens of thousands of African-Americans from voter rolls, labeling them “felons” when their only crime was VWB:  Voting While Black.  All — every one — were innocent.  And again, in 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott targeted 180,000 voters, mostly Latinos, as illegal “alien” voters.  The Governor, when challenged by the Justice Department, cut the “alien” list to 198 but in the end, could only produce evidence against one.

If it were not for Section 5, the pre-clearance law, the purges, gerrymandering and other racially bent trickery rampant in Florida, Arizona (with its profiling and harassment of Hispanic voters) and Alaska with its bias against Native Americans would be so much worse.  Without review — and the threat of review — Americans would once again lose the rights that the Constitution promises, won with the blood of our Fathers.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the Jim Crow and José Crow tactics that create long lines of voters of color in Ohio and other states.

Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan signed massive expansions of the Voting Rights Act, tripling its reach.  It is time to extend the laws protections again — to Ohio, to Wisconsin, to everyone.

When every American is protected by the Voting Rights Act review of voting changes, then all of us may be secure that our votes will not be nullified by politicians abusing the voting system to seize office through tactics racist in effect, if not intent.

A half century ago this year, Dr. Martin Luther King shared his dream with America.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

King’s dream is the American Dream — which no Court should take away.  It is a mighty stream which must touch all citizens in every state.

Without “pre-clearance,” the Voting Rights Act is an empty promise — with purged, blocked and intimidated voters having to protest after an election to the very officials elected by the very thievery that put them in office.

Therefore, if this Supreme Court removed “pre-clearance” Section 5 on the grounds that does not apply to every state, then the solution is simple and just: every American deserves a review by Justice of laws which tell us who can vote — and who can’t.

As King admonished us, we must not be satisfied when we see Black folk, a half century after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, stand in line for six hours to vote whether in Miami or in Cleveland.

We petition the Court and Congress to let freedom ring.

Related Stories:

Slavery Finally Outlawed: A Lesson on Race from Mississippi

Let Others Do Your Voter Suppression Dirty Work, Supreme Court Tells Republicans

5 States That Will Be Hammered By the Sequester

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/protect-dr-kings-dream-act.html#ixzz2MFDX00zO

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Here For A Season by BJ Neblett: Black Wall by BJ Neblett:              Black Wall   A peaceful march ‘I have a dream’ In Washington DC What does it mean? Hope for the future A nati...

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When Jim Crow Drank Coke

When Jim Crow Drank Coke

Keith Negley

By GRACE ELIZABETH HALE

The New York Times

Published: January 28, 2013 193 Comments

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

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• In N.A.A.C.P., Industry Gets Ally Against Soda Ban (January 24, 2013)

• Times Topic: Coca-Cola Company

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THE opposition by the New York State chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s restrictions on sugary soda caught many Americans by surprise. But it shouldn’t: though the organization argues it is standing up for consumer choice and minority business owners, who it claims would be hurt, this is also a favor for a stalwart ally — Coca-Cola alone has given generously to support N.A.A.C.P. initiatives over the years.

This is more than a story of mutual back-scratching, though. It is the latest episode in the long and often fractious history of soft drinks, prohibition laws and race.

While it is widely known that John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invented Coke as a kind of patent medicine, it was in fact his second drink. His first, an 1884 invention called French Wine Coca, was a copy of a popular French wine that contained cocaine. But in November 1885, just as the product began to sell, Atlanta outlawed alcohol sales.

Across the nation, support for prohibition was often tied to the desire by native whites to control European Catholics, American Indians, Asian-Americans and, especially in the South, African-Americans. It gave police officers an excuse to arrest African-Americans on the pretext of intoxication.

Pemberton went to work on a “temperance drink” with the same “medicinal” effects, and he introduced Coca-Cola in 1886. At the time, the soda fountains of Atlanta pharmacies had become fashionable gathering places for middle-class whites as an alternative to bars. Mixed with soda water, the drink quickly caught on as an “intellectual beverage” among well-off whites.

Eliminating alcohol granted only a temporary reprieve. Though Asa G. Candler, who had taken over the business, kept the formula secret, an Atlanta paper revealed in 1891 what many consumers — who called the soda “dope” — already knew: Coca-Cola contained cocaine.

Candler began marketing the drink as “refreshing” rather than medicinal, and managed to survive the controversy. But concerns exploded again after the company pioneered its distinctive glass bottles in 1899, which moved Coke out of the segregated spaces of the soda fountain. Anyone with a nickel, black or white, could now drink the cocaine-infused beverage. Middle-class whites worried that soft drinks were contributing to what they saw as exploding cocaine use among African-Americans. Southern newspapers reported that “negro cocaine fiends” were raping white women, the police powerless to stop them. By 1903, Candler had bowed to white fears (and a wave of anti-narcotics legislation), removing the cocaine and adding more sugar and caffeine.

Coke’s recipe wasn’t the only thing influenced by white supremacy: through the 1920s and ’30s, it studiously ignored the African-American market. Promotional material appeared in segregated locations that served both races, but rarely in those that catered to African-Americans alone.

Meanwhile Pepsi, the country’s second largest soft drink company, had tried to fight Coke by selling its sweeter product in a larger bottle for the same price. Still behind in 1940, Pepsi’s liberal chief executive, Walter S. Mack, tried a new approach: he hired a team of 12 African-American men to create a “negro markets” department.

By the late 1940s, black sales representatives worked the Southern Black Belt and Northern black urban areas, black fashion models appeared in Pepsi ads in black publications, and special point-of-purchase displays appeared in stores patronized by African-Americans. The company hired Duke Ellington as a spokesman. Some employees even circulated racist public statements by Robert W. Woodruff, Coke’s president.

The campaign was so successful that many Americans began using a racial epithet to describe Pepsi. By 1950, fearing a backlash by white consumers, Pepsi had killed the program, but the image of Coke and Pepsi as “white” and “black” drinks lingered.

Not long after, perhaps seeing the business error of its ways, Coke quietly began to market to African-Americans. Eventually, part of Coke’s strategy was to support African-American organizations, forming the basis of its relationship with the N.A.A.C.P.

The historical weight of that relationship came to the surface after a 1999 discrimination case brought by black Coke employees, which created bad press for the company around the world. In 2000, Coke agreed to a settlement for $156 million and made a $50 million donation to the Coca-Cola Foundation to support community programs.

It took time, but the new tack worked: today the racial line between the soda companies, even in the South, is a dim memory, and the soft-drink industry is on good terms with one of its largest demographic markets: African-Americans.

Of course, the New York State N.A.A.C.P. may have a legitimate complaint against the soda restriction as a threat to minority business. And it may be fair to see the proposal, as some observers have intimated, as an instance of middle-class whites trying to control the behavior of working-class minorities — just as they did under Prohibition. But to understand the real story behind this unexpected alliance, we first have to understand its tangled history.

Grace Elizabeth Hale, a professor of history and American studies at the University of Virginia, is the author, most recently, of “A Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in Love With Rebellion in Postwar America.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on January 29, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: When Jim Crow Drank Coke.

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Civil Rights Heroes Ignored

AlterNet

The Confederacy Making a Comeback in the South? KKK Grand Wizard Glorified

As Southern whites sink into economic despair, more and more are retreating into a fictional past.

January 28, 2013  |  

On a windy afternoon a few days ago I went to a depressed section of North Memphis to visit an old clapboard house that was once owned by a German immigrant named Jacob Burkle. Oral history—and oral history is all anyone has in this case since no written documents survive—holds that Burkle used his house as a stop on the underground railroad for escaped slaves in the decade before the Civil War. The house is now a small museum called  Slave Haven. It has artifacts such as leg irons, iron collars and broadsheets advertising the sale of men, women and children. In the gray floor of the porch there is a trapdoor that leads to a long crawl space and a jagged hole in a brick cellar wall where fugitives could have pushed themselves down into the basement. Escaped slaves were purportedly guided by Burkle at night down a tunnel or trench toward the nearby Mississippi River and turned over to sympathetic river traders who took them north to Cairo, Ill., and on to freedom in Canada.

Burkle and his descendants had good reason to avoid written records and to keep their activities secret. Memphis, on the eve of the Civil War, was one of the biggest slave markets in the South. After the war the city was an epicenter for Ku Klux Klan terror that included lynching, the nighttime burning of black churches and schools and the killing of black leaders and their white supporters, atrocities that continued into the 20th century. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. If word had gotten out that Burkle used his home to help slaves escape, the structure would almost certainly have been burned and Burkle or his descendants, at the very least, driven out of the city. The story of Burkle’s aid to slaves fleeing bondage became public knowledge only a couple of decades ago.

The modest public profile of the Burkle house stands in stunning contrast with the monument in the center of Memphis to native son Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest, who is buried in Forrest Park under a statue of himself in his Confederate general’s uniform and mounted on a horse, is one of the most odious figures in American history. A moody, barely literate, violent man—he was not averse to shooting his own troops if he deemed them to be cowards—he became a millionaire before the war as a slave trader. As a Confederate general he was noted for moronic aphorisms such as “War means fighting and fighting means killing.” He was, even by the accounts of those who served under him, a butcher. He led a  massacre at Fort Pillow in Henning, Tenn., of some 300 black Union troops—who had surrendered and put down their weapons—as well as women and children who had sheltered in the fort. Forrest was, after the war, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He used his skills as a former cavalry commander to lead armed night raids to terrorize blacks.

Forrest, like many other white racists of the antebellum South, is enjoying a disquieting renaissance. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the West Tennessee Historical Commission last summer put up a 1,000-pound granite marker at the entrance to the park that read “Forrest Park.” The city, saying the groups had not obtained a permit, removed it with a crane. A dispute over the park name, now raging in the Memphis City Council, exposes the deep divide in Memphis and throughout much of the South between those who laud the Confederacy and those who detest it, a split that runs like a wide fault down racial lines.

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Among Blacks, Pride Is Mixed With Expectations for Obama

Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times

The Rev. Greggory L. Brown, with his Lutheran congregation in Oakland, Calif., says he prays for President Obama each week.

By SUSAN SAULNY

The New York Times

Published: January 20, 2013

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The Rev. Greggory L. Brown, a 59-year-old pastor of a small Lutheran church, committed himself to ministry and a life pursuing social justice on April 4, 1968 — the day the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain by an assassin’s bullet.

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• Obama Sworn In for 2nd Term, This Time Quietly (January 21, 2013)

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And four years ago, like so many African-Americans around the country, he saw Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency as nothing short of a shocking validation of Dr. King’s vision of a more perfect union, where the content of character trumps the color of skin. “I was so excited when he was giving that first inauguration speech,” said Mr. Brown, of Oakland, Calif. “I could feel it in my bones.”

On Monday, when President Obama places his hand on Dr. King’s personal Bible to take a second, ceremonial oath of office, he will be symbolically linking himself to the civil rights hero. But Mr. Brown, along with other African-Americans interviewed recently, said their excitement would be laced with a new expectation, that Mr. Obama move to the forefront of his agenda the issues that Dr. King championed: civil rights and racial and economic equality.

In interviews with experts and black leaders, some, like Mr. Brown, say they have been disappointed by the slow pace of change for African-Americans, whose children, for instance, are still more likely to live in poverty than those of any other race.

“The hope for Obama’s presidency was that there would be more help for places like Oakland and other urban areas that need support, safety and jobs,” Mr. Brown said. “He made people feel like anything is possible.”

African-Americans remain overwhelmingly supportive of the president, as evidenced by their enthusiastic turnout on Election Day and for the inauguration festivities and Monday’s holiday celebrating Dr. King’s birthday. Thousands of black Americans have descended on Washington from across the nation for the many parties and observances and visits to the King memorial.

They have developed a protective stance toward Mr. Obama, acknowledging the limits of his power and the voraciousness of his critics. Many cite the power of representation, the visual message of a prosperous, cohesive black family being beamed around the country and the world, and the untold aspirations that vision inspires.

But African-Americans roundly reject the notion that Mr. Obama’s election has eased racial tensions or delivered the nation to a new post-racial reality.

“I think the great mass of black people have shown tremendous patience, discipline and understanding, recognizing the dilemma that he faces,” said Randall L. Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency.”

Still, Professor Kennedy said Mr. Obama had been “somewhat diffident” about issues that would be of special significance to African-Americans, like the disproportionate number of blacks in prison or urban poverty. Blacks understand, he added, that that perceived hesitation “was probably a virtual requirement” for him to be elected in the first place.

“Everyone agrees that you wish more was done the first term,” said Debra Lee, the chief executive of Black Entertainment Television. “But you look at politics and realize that the president can’t wave a wand and get things done by himself.”

“That’s one of the things we learned in the first term,” she added. “This is important and symbolic, but it’s not the end-all.”

As much as many people may have hoped that the impact of race would decline over time, one of the larger surveys on the issue, a poll by The Associated Press released in October, showed that racial attitudes had not improved in the four years since Mr. Obama took office.

It also suggested that prejudice had slightly increased. In a survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in April, a majority of Americans, some 61 percent, disagreed with the statement “Discrimination against blacks is rare today.”

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Reporting was contributed by Malia Wollan from Oakland, Calif.; Dan Frosch from Denver; Kim Severson and Robbie Brown from Atlanta; Ian Lovett from Los Angeles; and Karen Ann Culotta from Chicago.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 21, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Obama Takes Oath, Beginning 2nd Term: Among Blacks, Pride Is Mixed With Expectations for Obama.

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Seattle community celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Seattle Times

January 20, 2013 at 5:51 PM

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Seattle community celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted by Erika Schultz

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Nacole Patterson applauds during the "Share the Dream" celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. Pastor Patrinell Wright, the Total Experience Gospel Choir as well as Rev. Samuel Berry McKinney, of Mount Zion Baptist Church and colleague of King, headlined the event. Proceeds from "Share the Dream" benefited the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle & King County. "Especially during these times, it is important for the community to come together to celebrate our commonalities," Patterson said.

ERIKA SCHULTZ/ THE SEATTLE TIMES

Rev. Samuel Berry McKinney, third from left, Mount Zion Baptist Church pastor emeritus and colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr., listens to his introduction during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. McKinney served as the pastor of Mount Zion from 1958 until 1998, and was a prominent civil rights leader in Seattle. McKinney also attended college with King at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and eventually brought him to speak in Seattle during 1961, according to HistoryLink.org.

ERIKA SCHULTZ/ THE SEATTLE TIMES

Third grade students from Martha Lake Elementary School listen to speakers after giving a presentation about Martin Luther King Jr. during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

C. Ivan Johnson sings during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. "MLK day is important to me because it's an opportunity to reflect and rejoice in how far we have come as a nation," he said. "We have come this far because of a man who was not afraid to speak out and fight for what was right, liberty and justice for all mankind. MLK Day represents unity, togetherness, community and faith. As 29-year-old, African-American man, I'm honored to live and promote the dream of this awesome man."

ERIKA SCHULTZ/ THE SEATTLE TIMES

Third grade students from Martha Lake Elementary School give a presentation about Martin Luther King Jr. during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Laylah Caty, 23 months, and her mother Alona Willson listen to speeches during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Rev. Samuel Berry McKinney speaks during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. McKinney served as the pastor of Mount Zion from 1958 until 1998, and was a prominent civil rights leader in Seattle. McKinney also attended college with King at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and eventually brought him to speak in Seattle during 1961, according to HistoryLink.org.

ERIKA SCHULTZ/ THE SEATTLE TIMES

Audience members applaud Ginger Goble-Van Diest after reading "I Have a Dream" during the "Share the Dream" celebration at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013.

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Peter Jabin, left, and Tim Dean sing along with the Total Experience Gospel Choir during the "Share the Dream" celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Seattle First Baptist Church Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. "It's because of him that I have the freedom to go any place without judgment or fear," Dean said. Dean recently had a kidney transplant.

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Free Speech People

		Come to an event to help mark Martin Luther King Day and the Citizens United anniversary. Dear Karen - This weekend is the 3rd anniversary of the infamous Citizens United decision.  Monday is also Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (as well as Inauguration Day). To mark the Citizens United anniversary and the Martin Luther King holiday, we’re teaming up with a broad coalition of civil rights and reform organizations to sponsor events throughout the country.     Click here to find and attend an event near you. Dr. King devoted his life to equality and justice for all people.  In his 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King said: “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” As we celebrate Dr. King’s life, we must also rededicate ourselves to the cause of democracy here in America.  That cause continues in the face of the Citizens United ruling -- a direct threat to the integrity of our elections – and in the face of voter suppression, as witnessed yet again in this past election.  Further, the Citizens United anniversary is an important opportunity to reflect on how far our movement has come, and to consider what we can do next to advance our cause. Below is a joint statement from the many organizations joining with us in sponsoring the events this weekend.     Please click here to find and attend an event near you. If you don’t see an event near you, you can also create your own, here. Thanks for all you do. Sincerely, - Peter P.S.: Here’s that statement: Money Out / Voters In Statement of Purpose In November, citizens in every state came together to cast their votes for President, Congress, and other state and local offices. The right to cast those votes – to elect leaders who represent us – is at the heart of our democratic system. But that right is in danger. Our system of fair and free elections is under attack on multiple fronts. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United opened the floodgates for special interest money and corporate influence in politics. At the same time, a rash of voter suppression laws in more than 30 states has threatened to make voting difficult, if not impossible, for millions of Americans. Throughout the history of our nation, powerful politicians and interest groups have tried to block eligible voters from casting a ballot. For much of the twentieth century, they used literacy tests or demanded poll taxes. Today they ask for photo voter ID, or create restrictive voter registration schemes. These laws, combined with the challenge posed by limitless corporate influence, strike at the very core of our democracy. Our nation’s history has been a journey towards true equality and the promise of a government of, by and for the people. Just as we have overcome many obstacles to achieve that promise, we are now committed to standing up against the pervasive, corrupting influence of an electoral system that auctions offices to the highest bidder and suppresses the vote of millions of Americans. No matter what happened on November 6th, these threats must continue to be addressed. Together with our allies across the political spectrum, we pledge to fight for the rights of all voters in our nation and to move that much closer to creating a more perfect union. The future of our democracy depends on it.
	PAID FOR AND AUTHORIZED BY FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE

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