SC rally marks MLK day with voting rights message

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120116/D9SA98N82.html

By JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Thousands commemorating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday outside South Carolina's capitol heard a message that wouldn't have been out of place during the halcyon days of the civil rights movement a half-century ago: the need to protect all citizens' right to vote.

A similar tone was struck at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached from 1960 until his death. There and in South Carolina, speakers condemned the voter identification laws they said are meant to suppress black voter turnout.

For most of 13 years in South Carolina, the attention at the NAACP's annual rally has been on the Confederate flag that still waves outside the Statehouse. But on Monday, the civil rights group shifted the focus to laws requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast ballots, which the group and many other critics say is especially discriminatory toward African-Americans and the poor.

South Carolina's new law was rejected last month by the U.S. Justice Department, but Gov. Nikki Haley vowed to fight the federal government in court. At least a half-dozen other states passed similar voter ID laws in 2011.


Hundreds of people take part in a march and rally at the Statehouse, Monday Jan. 16, 2012 in Columbia, S.C. Hundreds of people rallied Monday outside the South Carolina capitol to honor the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and protest the state's voter identification law. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)


FULL story at link.

[jpak]

1. Kick

and notice the Stars 'n Bars still proudly wave in SC...

yup