Bay Area Organizes Voting Rights Demonstration
Jul 3, 2013
Posted in Equal Rights/Equity
By Post Staff
The Restore Section 5 Movement held its founding meeting last week in San Francisco after the Supreme Court killed the “pre-screening” provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The next East Bay organizing meeting of the group will be held Tuesday, July 9 at 6 p.m. at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th St. in downtown Oakland.
All activist, civic and political leaders are invited to attend and participate in this East Bay organizing meeting to seek the support of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, LGBT, labor, student and senior communities to plan a major “in-the-streets” protest in San Francisco on Aug. 3.
“We’re just starting. We are reaching out to people so they will know what is happening and will get involved,” said Aileen Hernandez, a founding member of the National Organization of Women (Now).
“ It is our hope that our demonstration will inspire other cities throughout the country to take similar actions,” said Wil Ussery, a founder of the new group.
At the national level, organizations and coalitions are talking about how to respond legally to what they consider the Supreme Court’s overreach in terms of power, said Joanna Cuevas Ingram of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, based in San Francisco.
“We know that discrimination exists in every state. We should consider whether all states should be covered (by the Voting Rights Act),” she said, noting that national information is available at http://restorevotingrights.org/.
Among those who are co-sponsoring new Bay Area organization are Wilfred T. Ussery, former president of BART in 1985 and 1996 and former national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and chair of the Direct Action Committee of the San Francisco United Freedom Movement, which in the late 1960s planned and conducted the historic Auto-Row demonstrations in San Francisco in which more than 1,000 persons were arrested.
Other co-sponsors include Carl L. Williams, Esq., president of the San Francisco African American Democratic Club; Frederick E. Jordan, president and chairman and Dr. Caesar A. Churchwell, of the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce; Perry L. Lang, executive director, BCA Rafiki Wellness, who along with partner, Kenneth Monteiro, were grand marshals of the Pride Parade in San Francisco, Cedric Jackson, president, San Francisco Black Leadership Forum; Jesse Brooks, co-chair Bay Area Regional African American HIV/AIDS State of Emergency Coalition; Frankie and Maxwell, Gillette; Mae Threadgill, retired educator; Zoraina James, a faith-based community organizer; and Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post News Group.
For more information, call (415) 931-9465 or go on the web to: restoreSection5movement.org