Voting rights
Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights lawsThe decision to challenge state officials marks an aggressive effort to continue policing voting rights issues and follows a ruling by the court last month that invalidated a critical part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The justices threw out a part of the act that determined which states with a history of discrimination had to be granted Justice Department or court approval before making voting law changes.
In the coming weeks, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to announce that the Justice Department is using other sections of the Voting Rights Act to bring lawsuits or take other legal action to prevent states from implementing certain laws, including requirements to present certain kinds of identification in order to vote. The department is also expected to try to force certain states to get approval, or “pre-clearance,” before they can change their election laws.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-to-challenge-states-voting-rights-laws/2013/07/25/c26740b2-f49b-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
HUGE: AG Holder will bring a lawsuit against Texas for its voter suppression law & discriminatory redistricting plan. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-to-challenge-states-voting-rights-laws/2013/07/25/c26740b2-f49b-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html …
http://t.co/7peZkDiYkf
10:13 AM - 25 Jul 2013
Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws
The move is part of an attempt to blunt the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
Post Politics @postpolitics
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
AG Holder and the DOJ will bring lawsuits/legal action against states trying to implement voter suppression laws. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-to-challenge-states-voting-rights-laws/2013/07/25/c26740b2-f49b-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html …
10:09 AM - 25 Jul 2013
Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws
The move is part of an attempt to blunt the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
Post Politics @postpolitics
http://theobamadiary.com/
This is posted at The Barack Obama Group
= new reply since forum marked as read
I saw that.. thanks for posting it here, she!
BOG
First African-Americans at UA Share their Experiences
A look at the Panel Discussion on the Early Days of UA's Desegregation
Autherine Lucy Foster, Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood are three brave individuals who took a stand for change at a crucial time in the history of UA. Their courageous strides in 1956 and 1963 marked the beginning of UA's steady progress toward the inclusive and diverse campus we celebrate today.
Mrs. Foster, Mr. Hood and a family member of the late Vivian Malone Jones participated in a panel discussion about UA's early movement toward desegregation. Moderating the event was Dr. E. Culpepper Clark, former dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences and author of the book The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation's Last Stand at The University of Alabama.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs019/1102213308111/archive/1103936530484.html
More of the history and activism of the Holder family:
Sharon Malone, Eric Holder’s wife, to appear in PBS special ‘Slavery by Another Name’
By Annie Groer - 02/10/2012
Going with the 4 paragraph limit:
...Henry Malone's real crime, of course, was being black in the Deep South between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II. Over that time, a shocking 800,000 African Americans were run through corrupt courts that jailed a majority of them on false or flimsy charges, imposed sky-high fines they could not pay and then leased them into forced labor.
By the late 1800s, tens of thousands of vulnerable freed blacks were made to work in white-owned coal mines, turpentine camps, steel mills, road gangs and farms, explains Douglas Blackmon, co-producer of the film, which is based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of this little-known part of American history.
“The number of people arrested never had anything to do with how much crime was being committed, but how much labor was needed,” Blackmon told me. The convicts, including a small percentage of black women, were underfed, overworked, tortured, sold or murdered with impunity, all in the name of replacing former slaves with the cheapest possible workers.
“It wasn't just that bad things were done to black people, but the level of highly synchronized brutality stripped them of all opportunity for 70 years,” he said...
Worth reading it all:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/sharon-malone-eric-holders-wife-on-her-uncles-post-emancipation-re-enslavement/2012/02/09/gIQA9DtY4Q_blog.html
'Still waters run deep.' I respect this man.
and for sharing it. However your post should be an OP for everyone to learn some of the story of her life.
You have given me information that I was unaware of. Please share it with the BOG so that many more can learn what a strong woman she is. Her history, her roots shaped the woman that she has become.
Holder told a local Girl Scout troop in attendance for the event to look around the room, pointing out women in leadership positions within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Drug Enforcement Administration. “This is your future, you can do anything,” said Holder.
In introducing his wife, Holder joked that she would probably agree that he is in touch with his feminine side. He also recounted the night he met Malone, who at the time was completing her medical residency. Up until that point Malone wasn’t sure if she’d stay in D.C., Holder said.
http://www.mainjustice.com/tag/sharon-malone/
What an amazing couple they are. Strong, generous and compassionate. Just like our first couple.
Make it an OP please~
by Valerie Jarrett - July 30, 2013
Yesterday, President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez met with civil rights leaders, and state and local elected officials at the White House to discuss how to safeguard every eligible American’s right to vote in light of the recent Supreme Court decision on Shelby County vs. Holder.
President Barack Obama meets with Civil Rights Leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, July 29, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
The Supreme Court’s decision invalidating one of the Voting Rights Act’s core provisions, upsets decades of well-established practices that help make sure voting is fair, especially in places where voting discrimination has been historically prevalent.
President Obama acknowledged that for nearly 50 years, the Voting Rights Act has helped secure the right to vote for millions of Americans, and expressed deep disappointment about the recent decision. He asked the leaders in the room for their ideas on how to strengthen voting rights, and also encouraged them to continue educating their communities on the Voting Rights Act, and how to exercise voting rights.
We’ve seen much progress towards guaranteeing every American the right to vote. But, as the Supreme Court recognized, voting discrimination still exists. And while the decision is a setback, it doesn’t represent the end of either our efforts to end voting discrimination, or our basic right to vote.
Since the decision, President Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls. The Voting Rights Act has been reauthorized repeatedly by wide bipartisan margins in Congress, and signed into law by Republican presidents. In addition, every single American should have an interest in ensuring that every eligible American is able to exercise his or her right to vote. So we remain hopeful that we will find a legislative solution to ensure a fair, and equal voting process.
Yesterday’s meeting was another step forward to protect the vote, and we will continue to do everything in our power to secure this most basic right for all Americans.
Yesterday’s participants included:
* Barbara Arnwine, President & Executive Director, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
* Napoleon Bracy, Alabama State Representative
* Roslyn Brock, Chairman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Board of Directors
* John Echohawk, Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund
* Margaret Fung, Executive Director, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
* Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
* Trey Martinez Fischer, Texas State Representative
* Marc Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League
* Mee Moua, President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice
* Janet Murguia, President & CEO, National Council of La Raza
* Laura Murphy, Director, American Civil Liberties Union
* Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta
* Thomas Saenz, President & General Counsel, The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
* Al Sharpton, President & Founder, National Action Network
* Calvin Smyre, Georgia State Representative
* Alan Williams, Florida State Representative
Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She oversees the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/07/30/securing-vote-all-americans
Printed in its entirety as Public Domain.
Most of us remember that ensuring voting rights were among the things Obama spoke of as goals for his second term, along with addressing climate change and raising the minimum wage.
The media has given scant or no coverage to the hardest working president since FDR. I appreciate his working for us very much.
Just as Wendy davis stood for the women of Texas, Barrack Obama stands for the people of this country every day!
"However the President is not seeking accolades. He is to busy doing the job for the people, by the people and for our Nation!" Yes! That is exactly what he is doing and I thank him for it from the bottom of my heart! 
