In many ways, there are few things as powerful and as important as a people, as a nation that is steeped in its history. – Lonnie G. Bunch III, Director, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Dr. Julianne Malveaux Says “Help me Somebody” See Page 29 •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 7 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 47, No. 19 Feb. 23 - Feb. 29, 2012
President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall. President Obama said the museum’s location represents the place “where lives were once traded, where people marched for jobs and freedom, and where pillars of democracy were often built by black hands…..” /Photo by Shevry Lassiter (See more on page 32.)
Sharpton, CBC Join Forces on Voter Suppression By Lauren Victoria Burke Special to The Washington Informer
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n an effort to spur activism and create a political tipping point on the issue, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are joining forces with National Action Network President
Rev. Al Sharpton, against voter suppression. Rev. Sharpton will lead a march from Selma, Ala. tracing the historic steps of Dr. Martin Luther King. He will be joined by several members of the CBC. The march will begin on Sunday, March 4 in Selma, Ala. and end on March 9 in Montgomery.
One goal is to recreate three historic voting rights marches held in 1965. As a result of those efforts, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965. “We will stay in the same encampments that Dr. King and the marchers stayed at in 1965,”
Sharpton said. Alabama’s immigration laws will also be a focus of the effort. “We’ve made a lot of progress in this country but we are going backwards when people — based on what they look like — become suspects,” Sharpton said referring to Alabama’s immigration laws.
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“In this day and age, when states like my own are now promulgating voter ID laws that actually suppress and discourage folks from voting, something needs to be done,” said Freshman CBC Rep. Terri Sewell (DAla.).
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