Groups: Plots To Disenfranchise Voters Underway

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By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

A coalition of civil rights organizations are taking aim at political and legislative voter suppression efforts which, they say, create a recipe for massive disenfranchisement of minorities and youth in the 2012 election.

At a news conference Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the coalition led by Rainbow PUSH and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said it was seeking a meeting with the Justice Department to determine how it will address challenges to a fundamentally American right.

“It’s a strange setting for me, having been in Selma in 1965 fighting for the right to vote,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, noting that after the civil rights movement fought and won battles over challenges to voting on the basis of race, gender and poverty, the movement now finds itself fighting to stave off the reversal of those victories. CONTINUE....

JESSE JACKSON WANTS MORE 'BLACK-BROWN' UNITY: Civil rights leader calls for more dialogue between African Americans and Latinos.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Latino Immigration activists have announced the joint launch of a "black-brown coalition" to push for Immigration reform, school safety and other issues, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The announcement was made Saturday inside Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH headquarters on Chicago's South Side. The group used the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination to call for greater unity between the two communities and put aside racial tensions.

"How do you honor Dr. King's legacy 40 years later?" Jackson asked. "We go to schools together, we work in hospitals together, we vote together, we raise our youth together. So we must learn to live together."

The first order of business will come May 1, when activists will again take to the streets to call for legalizing the country's 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Organizers have been strategizing for weeks inside PUSH headquarters, which has a Latino chapter, to boost African-American interest in the march. Plans include radio interviews and announcements during church services and union meetings.

PUSH also recently launched Spanish classes.