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Commentary, Articles and Essays by Rev. Jesse Jackson

Enshrine voting right in the Constitution

By Commentaries/Opinions, Rev Jesse Jackson

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On this day, 48 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, announcing, “This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, as individuals, control over their own destinies.” With Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks at his side, he pledged that the act would be enforced. No longer would anyone be excluded from exercising the right to vote because of the color of his or her skin. This February, in his fourth State of the Union address, a newly re-elected President Obama earned fierce applause when he declared: …

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‘Returned’ Citizen Helps Others Register to Vote

By News & Current Affairs

During the hot afternoon of Saturday, July 20, Courtney Stewart, founder and chairman of the volunteer organization Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, knocked on doors and walked the streets of Southwest’s Greenleaf and James Creek neighborhoods, in search of reentering citizens to register as voters. Additional volunteers registered people at the King Greenleaf Recreation Center at 201 N Street in Southwest.

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Commentary, Articles and Essays by Dr. Ron Daniels

Boycott Florida: A Test of Our Collective Dignity, Self-Respect and Will

By Commentaries/Opinions, Vantage Point Articles

In my most recent article, I asserted that Economic Sanctions/Boycott Florida is an idea whose time has come. The iconic Chaka Khan has added her name to the list of celebrities joining Stevie Wonder in refusing to perform in Florida until the “Stand Your Ground Law” is changed.  This is great news, but I also am convinced that it will be the conscious decision of millions of ordinary Black folks that will ultimately determine the success of the Boycott Florida Campaign. In a real sense, this effort is a test of our collective sense of dignity, self-respect and will as Black people.

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Commentary, Articles and Essays by Rev. Jesse Jackson

Obama should lead fight to revive Voting Rights Act

By Commentaries/Opinions, Rev Jesse Jackson

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President Barack Obama should lead a forceful drive to revive the Voting Rights Act, which was effectively disemboweled by the Supreme Court’s decision last week. All celebrate the 1965 Act as the most consequential civil rights legislation of the past century. Its passage was central to the building of the New South, opening the way to attracting foreign investment in auto factories, creating CNN, hosting the Super Bowl, even electing presidents. One afflicted with a poisoned heart is often blind to its effects. The South learned only after the civil rights legislation that segregation was blighting its own potential. In …

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The Battlelines are Drawn: Rightwing Neo-Secession or a Third Reconstruction

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Bob Wing*

The heartless combination of the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the House Republicans flatly shunning the immigration bill and the Trayvon Martin outrage should be a wake up call about the grave dangers posed by the far right and may give rise to a renewed motion among African Americans that could give much needed new impetus and political focus to the progressive movement.

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The Plight of California’s Prisoners: Hunger Strike, Sterilization and Valley Fever

By Commentaries/Opinions, War on the “War on Drugs” Posts

By Jean Trounstine

It’s been two years since Governor Jerry Brown was court ordered to fix California’s ailing prisons and the situation is still life-threatening and possibly illegal.

It’s been all over the papers and many bloggers are tackling the horrendous conditions in California. A prison system that in 2011 was ordered by the Supreme Court to figure out what to do with 30,000 people who because of the system’s overcrowding were suffering “cruel and unusual punishment.”

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