Episode 170: Take Action on Voting Rights NOW!
L. Joy gives us important actions to take today, and throughout the year on Voting Rights. She reviews our lesson “No Constitutional Right To Vote” with guest Barbara Arnwine at the front of the class, giving us the historical context, and recent history, as to why we continue to fight to secure voting rights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in 1957, "So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others," and until voting rights are secured, we must continue to take action.
Review:
Episode 7: No Constitutional Right to Vote: https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode07
Episode 68: Who Will Be the Electorate: https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode68
Episode 147: Protect and Deliver Our Vote: https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode147
Homework:
Engage in a three pronged approach: 1. Continue advocacy on the Federal level 2. Continue advocacy on the State level 3. Educate our communities on what is happening. They cannot represent you if they do not hear from you:
Tell them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act & John Lewis Voting Rights Act
United States Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121
Find your Senators https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC
Find your Representative in Congress https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Find Your Governor: https://www.usa.gov/state-governor
Find Your State Representatives: https://www.congress.gov/state-legislature-websites
Find Your Mayor: https://www.usmayors.org/mayors/ (* representing cities with a population of 30,000 and larger)
County Executives: https://ce.naco.org/?find=true
Find My State or Local Election Office Website https://www.usa.gov/election-office
Extra Credit: Who is Septima Clark and what does she mean to #SundayCivics? Email L. Joy joy@sundaycivics.org and tell her.
Our Guest:
Barbara R. Arnwine, esq, president & founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Currently, she also serves as Co-Chair and Facilitator of the National Commission for Voter Justice, the Millennial Votes Matters Convenings and the Voting Rights Alliance. She was the head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from February, 1989 until June, 2015 and holds the honorific title of President Emeritus. She has served as the Charles Hamilton Chair for the North Carolina Central University School of Law from 2016-2017 and has also taught at Columbia University School of Law.
She also created the legendary Voting Rights “Map of Shame” in 2011, which exposed the new modern wave of voter suppression in the states. Her groundbreaking civil rights and human rights advocacy has been honored with many prestigious awards. She is the radio host of Igniting Change and is a regular presence in the national media, and is often quoted in the press. A graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law, she continues to champion civil rights and racial justice issues nationally and internationally in the areas of housing and lending, women’s rights, especially issues affecting intersectionality and African American women and girls, community development, employment, voting, education, policing restructuring, and environmental justice.
