Civil & Human Rights

Ignorance of History

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By Tom Prezelski

Re-blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

In retrospect, inducting Martin Luther King Jr. into the Pantheon of
American Heroes may have been a mistake and a disservice to what he
fought for.

Back during the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the
big arguments here in Arizona was about the Martin Luther King Holiday.
It was debated on the floor of the legislature, was an issue in
political campaigns, and prompted marches and public demonstrations
across the state. Everybody in public life, even Alice Cooper, was asked
their opinion about the issue.

Opposition to the holiday was an
article of faith on the right. Their argument was that King was a
radical left winger, perhaps even a socialist, and a figure this
controversial was not the sort of person who should be honored with a
holiday.

The response of holiday supporters was to say that this
was laughable bunk. King was no radical, they said, just a very nice man
who wanted everyone to hold hands and sing, or something like that.

Republicans who want to restore the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It's a start. GOP’s Sensenbrenner vows to repair Voting Rights Act:

Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is a longtime advocate of the Voting Rights Act. As chair of the House Judiciary Committee when the law was reviewed in 2006,
the Wisconsin legislator oversaw extensive deliberations which
ultimately affirmed the VRA’s continuing necessity–and resulted in a
25-year reauthorization.

So when the Supreme Court effectively gutted
the VRA in June by voiding the requirement for certain states to get federal “preclearance” before changing their voting laws, Sensenbrenner was displeased.

“Voter discrimination still exists,” he wrote in a June op-ed for USA Today, “and our progress toward equality should not be mistaken for a victory.”

* * *

“The first thing we have to do is take the monkey wrench that the court
threw in it, out of the Voting Rights Act, and then use that monkey
wrench to be able to fix it so that it is alive, well, constitutional
and impervious to another challenge that will be filed by the usual
suspects,” Sensenbrenner said Monday at an RNC event held to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.

Video below the fold.

AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this last year, AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC, and They're baaack! Tea-Publican lawsuits against the AIRC.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports today, 3-judge panel to hear 2nd redistricting challenge:

Three federal judges have been appointed to hear a constitutional challenge to the state’s redistricting commission process.

The Republican-controlled Legislature led by Senate President Andy
Biggs and House Speaker Andy Tobin filed suit in federal court in June
2012.

They argued that the U.S. Constitution gives state Legislatures the
right to regulate congressional elections and that voter-approved
Proposition 106 in 2000 took that power away. The law created the
Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission to draw district maps.

The three judges were appointed Monday by Alex Kozinsky, chief judge
of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are Senior Circuit Judge
Mary Schroeder and District Judges Paul Rosenblatt and Murray Snow.

Rep. John Lewis at National Action Network 50th Anniversary March on Washington

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Almost fifty years from the day of his original address at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Civil Rights Movement icon Representative John Lewis,
the last surviving speaker of the March, once again called out from
before the Lincoln Memorial for equality and voting rights. John Lewis At March On Washington: ‘I’m Not Going To Stand By And Let The Supreme Court Take The Right To Vote Away’:

“When I stood here 50 years ago, I said one man, one vote is the
African cry. It is ours, too. it must be ours,” he began, before
connecting the demands of 1963 to today’s struggles. “Almost 50 years
ago, I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the
right to vote. I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take
the right to vote away from us!”

LEWIS: You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You have to stand up, speak up, speak out and get in the way. Make some noise. The
vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It’s the most powerful
non-violent tool we have in a democratic society and we’ve got to use
it. Back in 1963 we didn’t have a cellular telephone, iPad,
iPod, but we used what we had to bring about a non-violent revolution.
And I said to all of the young people, you must get out there and push
and pull and make America what America should be for all of us. We must
say to the Congress, ‘Fix the Voting Rights Act.’