August 1, 2011
NAACP President Says Voting Rights Under Assault Because of Racism Against Obama
By Hazel Trice Edney
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The day after NAACP Chair Roslyn Brock warned against “forces of regression” trying to roll back civil rights, NAACP President Ben Jealous came with a second warning – that voting rights is the most viable weapon against enemies of justice and they are under attack because of the first Black presidency.
“If we are going to stop and turn back the assault on our rights, we must be crystal clear that there is nothing more important to be fighting for than restoring, expanding and protecting our voting rights,” Jealous told the audience of thousands in his home town of Los Angeles during the NAACP annual conference last week.
He announced that this fall, a major push by the NAACP, the National Urban League and Black media will aim to register thousands of new voters.
TV ONE, Radio One, BET, American Urban Radio Networks, Tom Joyner, Bev. Smith, and Michael Baisden were among those on a list that Jealous said will “encourage everyone in our communities to both register to vote and to educate ourselves about how to avoid the new pitfalls and traps that have been put in place to get us from voting.”
Jealous, Brock and other civil rights leaders have cited new major attacks on voting rights that could deter some from even going to the polls. Moreover, Jealous pointed out that the key reason for the new level of attacks is to stop Black political power.
“Our voting rights are under attack because we had a great break through—the election of a Black president,” Jealous said. “It was followed by a great backlash—represented by not all, but definitely by the worst and most racist elements in the Tea Party. And now we are reaping what those seeds of hate have sewn—the greatest rollback of voter access and voting rights since 1896.”
Jealous explained the specifics of the attacks:
“In the state of North Carolina alone we have beaten back attempts to limit early voting, bar Pre-18 registration, and eliminate same day registration,” he said.
However, among the biggest strategies are voter identification cards.
“In 47 states, Voter ID bills have been introduced. We and our allies have beaten them back in more than a dozen states, but they are now law in 30 states,” he said. “These bills, which have been compared to poll taxes, are a viciously effective way to disqualify voters. In Wisconsin alone, fully half of Black adults and half of Latino adults are ineligible to vote right now because they do not have a current state-issued ID. Simply put, people who are too poor to own a car, tend not to have a driver’s license. Thus, it will have a similar impact on students and financially struggling people of all colors.”
Other attacks include Georgia and Arizona’s passage of laws that require every voter registration form to have attached to it a copy of the individual’s driver’s license, birth certificate, or passport and ex-felon disenfranchisement in Florida, where the Republican Gov. Rick Scott is requiring a five to seven year mandatory waiting period before a formerly incarcerated person’s voting rights can be restored.
“While Voter ID and registration ID are like Jim Crow, ex-felon voting bans literally are Jim Crow,” Jealous said. “Indeed, they are among the first Jim Crow statutes ever created and yet they are still alive and well today.”
Encouraging the delegates to rise up and fight, Jealous told the Biblical story of the warrior Gideon who encouraged only 300 men to fight against a million Midianites - and won because of their faith in God.
“And when we rise up like Gideon, our 102-year legacy of turning bold dreams into big victories has taught us that it will never be a question of if we win the battle, but when we win the war, so join me today,” he concluded. “Rise up from California to New York. Rise up from Michigan to South Carolina. Rise up from Washington State to Mississippi. From Alaska to Florida, Rise up until Justice Rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream!”