3-30-05, 9:44 am

Petition Drive Launched to Keep Voting Rights Act

From NNPA

BALTIMORE (NNPA) -- Representatives from several national organizations announced the goal of collecting 1 million signatures in a petition drive to encourage Congressional reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

At a press conference convened in the nation's capital, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow Push Coalition, discussed the petition as one of several strategies to ensure the reauthorization of the Act. ''There will be three critical parts of the Voting Rights Act to expire in 2007 unless reauthorized by Congress,'' said Jackson. ''We must be ever vigilant to protect our right to vote and not be swayed by media campaigns highlighting events that divert our attention [from] our mission.''

Jackson was joined by, among others: Major L. Jemison, president, Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc.; Barbara R. Arnwine, executive director, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; Laura W. Murphy, legislative director, American Civil Liberties Union; Stephanie Jones of the National Urban League; Richard Womack, AFL-CIO; T.J. Michaels, Service Employees International Union; Brenda Girton-Mitchell, National Council of Churches; Julie Fernandes, senior policy analyst, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Olga Vivies, vice president, National Organization for Women; Merwyn Scott, government relations, National Education Association; and Tanya M. Clay, deputy director, People For the American Way.

''The coming together of these major civil and justice organizations shows we are not being passive on this issue. This is a great moment. The result will be preservation of the Voting Rights Act,'' said Jemison.

Jemison is leader of one of the four major Baptist denominations that came together in a joint meeting in January to signal to the nation their common cause and launch a call for action. Commitment to ensuring the 1965 Voting Rights Act was overwhelmingly accepted by the meeting's 14,000 participants.

Under the current Voting Rights Act provisions, Section 2 prohibits practices that deny or abridge the right to vote. It allows the attorney general or private plaintiffs to challenge discriminatory practices in areas of the country not covered by Section 5 of the act. Additionally, it is the only statutory recourse to challenge discriminatory voting practices that were enacted in ''covered'' (Section 5) jurisdictions prior to 1965.

Section 5 is an administrative or court procedure barring practices that have the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote. Section 5 has limited geographical coverage and does not cover practices in these ''covered'' areas that were enacted prior to November 1, 1964.

Under Section 203 of the act, a community of one of the four covered language minority groups will qualify for bilingual voting assistance if more than five percent of the voting-age citizen population in a jurisdiction belong to a single-language minority community and have limited English proficiency. A community also qualifies where more than 10,000 voting-age citizens in a jurisdiction belong to a single-language minority community and are limited English proficient, and the illiteracy rate of the citizens in the language minority group is higher than the national illiteracy rate.

Attendees at the press conference made a call to defenders of civil and human rights. ''Unless we want to go back to the old days when we were not allowed to vote because of our gender, race, culture and spoken language, this law must stay intact,'' said Murphy.

Not only does the coalition plan to kick off the petition drive through the media, network interviews and college campuses, other plans have been set. They are organizing a massive march and rally on August 6 in Atlanta, Ga., to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the VRA and mobilize for its extension.

The coalition plans to engage students at the college level to become more vigilant about protecting their civil and human rights now and for the future.

''We were elated at the activism among college students and other youth groups in the 40th anniversary commemorating [the] March on Selma, Ala. We intend to develop that same spirit among our youth to engage them in this most vital process to ensure that our voting rights are protected,'' said Clay. Others agreed.

''We have launched a nationwide campaign to educate the general public, policymakers and the media on the importance of the Voting Rights Act to help them understand its current resonance, why it is meaningful today and why it is important that we preserve it in the future,'' said Fernandes.

''We hope to activate the people on and off campuses. We want to engage fraternities, sororities, HBCUs, people at the beauty salons and barbershops in this effort,'' said Fernandes.