News
Urban League: Voting Laws
Threaten Equality Gains
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National
Urban League is calling on African-Ameri-
cans to get out and vote come election time
as a means of countering state laws the
group says threaten education and econom-
ic gains made by blacks.
Borrowing from the Occupy Wall Street
movement, the 101-year-old civil rights
group made “Occupy the Vote” the theme
for its annual State of Black America report
released Wednesday at Howard University.
The report evaluates African-Americans’
progress toward equality, and this year’s
version “Occupy the Vote to Employ, Edu-
cate & Empower” also measures white and
Morial’s call for an
“Occupy the Vote”
movement comes as
civil rights leaders
commemorated the
1965 “Bloody Sunday”
violence that erupted
around voting rights
protests in Selma, Ala.
Latino equality.
The campaign will include, among other
things, a website dedicated to monitoring
voter laws and providing information on
voting requirements. The league also hopes
to conduct get-out-the-vote bus tours, said
CEO Marc Morial.
A concern, Morial said, is that some state
laws could widen the equality gap between
white and black Americans by discouraging
political participation of African-Ameri-
cans. He says their votes are needed to
ensure continued support of programs that
have helped close the equality gap.
“I refuse to operate from a standpoint of,
‘Woe is me,’” said Morial, a former mayor
of New Orleans. “We have to tell people we
are not going to let these laws stop us.”
According to the report, improvements in
health and education among blacks have
made up for losses in civic engagement,
economics and social justice.
“The bottom line is that the recession has
caused slippage of progress in the status
economically of African-Americans and
when we talk about these issues, we are try-
ing to ensure that any recovery that’s being
articulated and designed is a recovery that
includes everyone, that it is not just a recov-
ery for some,” Morial said.
But concerns abound among civil rights
and minority leaders that new state photo ID
and other laws will widen the gap between
blacks and whites. Several states have
implemented laws that narrow the list of
acceptable forms of identification needed to
vote. Some states have restricted who can
register new voters, or they have eliminated
early voting days such as Sundays before
elections, which are popular among black
churches.
Supporters of the laws have said they will
curb voter fraud, but the NAACP has said
they are a concerted effort to suppress the
vote of minorities, students and the elderly.
Some states are offering to provide free IDs,
in cases where cost of getting an ID is an
issue; but civil rights groups say the laws
still will deter legitimate voters, such as
Bettye Jones, 76, of Wisconsin.
Jones has been registered to vote in Ohio
since 1956. But she moved to Wisconsin,
which requires voters to show Wisconsin
Department of Transportation-issued dri-
ver’s licenses or state IDs. To get one of
those she has to show a birth certificate, as
required by federal law. However, Jones
was born at home and doesn’t have a birth
certificate.
“They know there was an era where black
people, colored people, Negro people, their
records were not cared about,” said Debra
Crawford, Jones’ daughter.
Jones is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the
Advancement Project and others challeng-
PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF PORTLAND
By Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press
Champion
The White House has chosen André Ashley, sports management supervisor
for Portland Parks & Recreation as a “Let’s Move! Champion of Change.”
Ashley, a 10-year parks employee, will be recognized at the “Champion of
Change,” event March 22 at the White House.
The awards honor “leaders who are doing great work to increase access
to physical activity for youth in their community.”
“Anytime a field, court, or gym is in play in Portland, André and his team
are behind it in some way,” says parks zone manager Doug Brenner.
Ashley has worked with NIKE, to bring sports resources and opportunities to
Portland’s youth.
Commissioner Nick Fish says he’s proud of Ashley’s work. “André tirelessly
provides the programs, partnerships, and places that keep athletes of all
ages at play in Portland,” he said. “His leadership guarantees that Portland
Parks & Recreation offers many ways to stay active and healthy.”
ing Wisconsin’s law as discriminatory.
Morial’s call for an “Occupy the Vote”
movement comes as civil rights leaders
commemorated the 1965 “Bloody Sunday”
violence that erupted around voting rights
protests in Selma, Ala. Protesters were beat-
en and gassed, and some died. Civil rights
activists have been using this year’s
anniversary events to condemn the new
state voting laws.
Black Americans have built a strong
record at the voting booth - the 2008 turnout
of 65.2 percent of black eligible voters near-
ly matched the 66.1 percent turnout of white
eligible voters. Although turnout and regis-
tration slipped in 2010, 1.1 million more
black Americans showed up to vote two
years ago than in 2006, according to Pew
Hispanic Center’s research.
Rather than the new ID requirements,
other steps can be taken to address fraud,
errors and other problems in the voting sys-
tem, the National Urban League said in its
report. Registering people to vote when
they turn 18 in the same way young men are
required to register for the draft or the way
taxpayers are automatically enrolled to start
paying taxes are two suggestions made in
the league’s report by the Rev. Lennox
Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Cau-
cus, which works to get young people active
in elections.
GET NOTICED
IN
THE SKANNER
Call Today
for
Advertising
Rates
503-285-5555
March 7, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 7