Voting Rights Summer: Over 200 Arrested For Demanding Voting Rights On Moral Monday

by

Prominent civil rights leaders, the Revs. Jesse L. Jackson and Bishop William J. Barber II, were among about 200 people arrested outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday while protesting for Congress to end the filibuster, protect voting rights and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Washington Post reports, Jesse Jackson among voting rights protesters arrested in D.C.:

As Capitol Police arrested protesters on the 100 block of Constitution Avenue NE near the Senate Office Buildings, people continued to chant, dance and raise their fists. A Capitol Police spokesperson said 204 people were arrested for crowding the street.

For some perspective: American citizens exercising their First Amendment constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition government at the Senate office building in a peaceful non-violent protest for the fundamental right to vote were arrested for “crowding the street,” while white nationalist MAGA/QAnon seditious insurrectionists summoned to Washington by Donald Trump to engage in a coup d’etat violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, but were allowed to walk away free.  That’s white privilege for you.

After 6 months, only 600 insurrectionists out of thousands  have since been identified from video and social media posts and charged with mostly misdemeanor crimes. 599 people have been charged in the Capitol insurrection so far. This searchable table shows them all. The National Guard should have set up a cordon round the Capitol and herded every MAGA/QAnon insurrectionist in Washington that day onto buses for arrest and processing, and to spend at least a night in jail.

Protesters were demanding lawmakers expand and protect the Voting Rights Act by Friday, August 6, the 56th anniversary of the legislation. They also called on Congress to pass the For the People Act, which would override many voting restrictions in new Republican state laws, but has stalled in the Senate; to eliminate the 60-vote-threshold filibuster; to enact a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage; and for “fair and respectful treatment” of immigrants.

On Sunday night, Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis — co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign — also joined Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) outside the Capitol to protest the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium.

The movement is part of a series of weekly “Moral Monday” protests across the country launched in July and organized by the new Poor People’s Campaign, the resurgence of a movement organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. before his death in 1968. Monday’s protest comes two weeks after the group rallied outside the Supreme Court and on the heels of a four-day march from Georgetown, Tex., to Austin.

More than 100 state legislators from more than 20 states also converged in Washington on Monday to urge the Senate and President Biden to support voting rights legislation and are scheduled to rally outside the Capitol on Tuesday.

The event on Monday began with a rally outside Union Station with speakers including Jackson, Barber — a North Carolina preacher — and Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law.

“Black and Brown people are the base of the party. We’re not the bottom. We’re the foundation,” Jackson said to the crowd as a call-and-response. “If we lose, they lose. If we lose, democracy loses. If we lose, Democrats lose. If we lose, the nation loses.”

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams adds, Hundreds Arrested in DC Demanding Voting Rights, End to Poverty, and Death of Filibuster:

Leaders of the national Poor People’s Campaign and Rev. Jesse Jackson were among hundreds of people arrested in Washington, D.C. during a direct action Monday led by clergy and low-wage workers from across the country.

Participants in the action chanted “Which side are you on?” and “What do we want? End the filibuster! When do we want it? Now!”

Campaign co-chair Rev. Dr. William Barber II said the action was directed at lawmakers including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who are denying Democrats the simple majority necessary to abolish the filibuster and advance key legislation without the GOP.

“Which side are you on?” asked Barber. “Get on the justice side! Get on the freedom side! Get on the side of voting rights and economic justice! This is your moment.”

The campaign has five specific demands for Congress, with a deadline of August 6, the 56th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the last day before the Senate’s planned recess:

      • Restoration of the full Voting Rights Act;
      • Passage of the For the People’s Act;
      • An end to the filibuster;
      • An increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour; and
      • Fair and respectful treatment of the nation’s 11 million immigrants.

“We are witnessing a political insurrection to achieve what domestic terrorists failed to do on January 6,” said Barber and fellow co-chair Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, referencing the right-wing attack on the U.S. Capitol. “We are demanding an end to the filibuster to protect democracy and enactment of policies that the vast majority of Americans support.”

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, lawmakers in 49 states have introduced over 400 voter suppression bills this year—and at least 30 measures across 18 states have passed.

Citing some of those figures, Barber and Theoharis said that “we see the connection between this attack on voting rights and all of the other issues that impact the 140 million poor and low-income people in this country.”

The campaign, which has targeted U.S. senators with a national call-in dayand other direct actions in recent weeks, vows to protest at state capitals “if their demands aren’t met, beginning with ending the racist and retrogressive filibuster so the government can govern.”

Theoharis said she was “proud” to be arrested with Barber and Jackson, while Barber tweeted that “even at 79 years old, Rev. Jesse Jackson is a general in this nonviolent moral army for justice, truth, and love. I’m honored to stand again with him in these D.C. streets to protest the filibuster and for voting rights and economic justice.”

Along with people in wheelchairs and walkers, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the advocacy group Indivisible, were among those arrested Monday.

Note: WUSA9 clarifies:

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (GA- D), was one of the demonstrators at the protest.
Video posted to Twitter showed an officer leading Sen. Warnock away, but the video was later deleted.

Warnock’s office says the senator was not arrested.

Warnock, who is also a reverend in Georgia, was one of many pastors and reverends in attendance at the demonstration.

Senator Warnock is one of the senators negotiating a revised voting rights bill.

Levin tweeted that “everybody but the cops are wearing masks” and highlighted the participation of relatives of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965.

Luci Baines Johnson, one of the late president’s daughters, reportedly told the crowd that “today we are in crisis” and called for the passage of the For the People Act as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

The demonstration came as more than 100 state lawmakers from across the country converged on D.C. to join Texas Democrats who fled Austin to block voter suppression legislation. Echoing recent demands from advocacy groups, the legislators are calling on the Senate to delay their scheduled summer recess to pass the House-approved For the People Act.

Laura Clawson at Daily Kos writes, ‘#RecessCanWait but our democracy can’t,’ state legislators say as they head to Washington, D.C.:

The Texas state legislators who left the state to stop Republicans from passing a racially targeted voter suppression bill went to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress to pass voting rights legislation. Now they have company: More than 100 state legislators are joining the Texas Democrats on Capitol Hill to lobby for the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Legislators are coming from more than 20 states, including other Republican-controlled ones where voter suppression laws are a significant threat. In particular, they’re targeting Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, whose support for voting rights legislation—and reforming the filibuster to allow it to pass, since there are not 10 Republicans who will back voting rights—is crucial.

“I really want to make sure they understand what we’re going through in Florida. If we don’t get this Congress to act, and the Biden administration to put pressure on voting rights, then I’m very worried about the ability of everyday Floridians to have their voices heard in the election process,” Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani told The Washington Post, calling for “a federal firewall from these state voter suppression activities.”

”Early flight to DC because #RecessCanWait but our democracy can’t,” Minnesota state Rep. Emma Greenman tweeted. “With the wave of voter suppression & election subversion efforts sweeping the states, I’m joining fellow legislators from across the US in DC to demand Congress pass #ForThePeopleAct & #restoretheVRA now.”

”We made, I think, a really valiant effort to try to stop these really awful bills at the legislative level here in Arizona and in Texas and in Georgia,” Arizona state Rep. Daniel Hernandez told CNN. “Now that we weren’t able to stop these bills at the legislative level in our different states, lawmakers across the country are flying to DC because there is nothing more important than protecting people’s right to vote.”

So far, Manchin and Sinema aren’t taking action. They support voting rights, they claim. Just not enough to find a way around Republican obstruction—obstruction intended to maintain the Republican structural advantages that Republican-controlled state legislatures are busily writing into law. The Brennan Center for Justice has tracked 30 laws in 18 states enacted this year to make it more difficult to vote, many of them targeting voting by mail in particular.

Democracy demands better. And no, Congress should not go on recess until important business is dealt with.

Finally, some white lawmakers are taking to the streets today. The Washington Post reports, Democratic lawmakers rally in D.C. to demand the passage of voting rights legislation:

Democratic lawmakers, including more than 100 state legislators, are rallying Tuesday outside the U.S. Capitol to urge the Senate to delay summer recess until passing the For the People Act, a sweeping elections and ethics bill to expand and protect voting rights.

WASHINGTON, DC – AUG 3: Senator Amy Klobuchar(D-MN) addresses a crowd gathered August 3, 2021, to urge the passing of the for the people act before Congress recesses for the summer.
(Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

[T]he rally was organized by the Declaration for American Democracy, a coalition of activist and advocacy groups supporting the For the People Act, and is taking place near the Robert Taft Memorial.

Speakers at the event included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chairwoman on of the Senate committee overseeing election issues, and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), the bill’s lead authors in the Senate and House.

Jana Morgan, the coalition’s director, said in a statement that the time to pass this legislation is “quickly diminishing.”

“It is critical that this legislation is enacted before the 2022 midterm elections and before partisan maps that would disenfranchise voters for the next decade, especially voters of color, are drawn,” Morgan said. “We call on Sen. [Charles] Schumer to delay Senate recess until the bill is sent to the president’s desk.”

The For the People Act has stalled in the 50-50 Senate because of the filibuster, which has prevented Democrats from pushing this legislation through without Republican support. Activists have been turning up pressure on Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), two Democratic lawmakers opposed to ending the filibuster.

Congressional Democrats and activists have increased their calls to protect voting rights and challenge new and proposed state voting restrictions.

[S]tate legislators and activists are also scheduled to march from the National Museum of African American History and Culture to Lafayette Square on Wednesday to demand President Biden increases his pressure on senators to protect voting rights.