O'Rourke, protesters begin nearly 30-mile Texas voting march
Source: AP
By PAUL J. WEBER
GEORGETOWN, Texas (AP) — As Rebecca Flores set out on a nearly 30-mile voting rights march to the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, she recalled another long distance: the drive her parents made from the outskirts of town in the 1950s to cast their ballot, after paying a $3 poll tax.
“They just want to keep us in our place,” said Flores, 78, an activist from San Antonio. “And I am frankly, I’m sick of it. That’s why I’m here.”
As far as protests go over tighter voting laws, the march in Texas that began with more than 100 people shuffling out of a suburban Austin church parking lot before dawn is not the largest. Organizers said they limited the size over COVID-19 precautions, and asked participants to show proof of vaccination.
But it was laden with symbolism and political purpose amid a GOP push to enact restrictions following former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Black church leaders and Democrats set off down the road on the three-day demonstration making comparisons to the civil rights era and the landmark Alabama voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. The new movement is an extension of that fight, they say.
A group of people make a stop at Good Hope Church in Round Rock, Texas, Wednesday, July 28, 2021 during a march from Georgetown, Texas to the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin. Church leaders and former Democratic congressman Beto O'Rourke are leading the nearly 30-mile voting rights march in Texas. The walk began with nearly 100 participants in suburban Austin and will is scheduled to end this weekend at the state Capitol. The march is the latest effort by Democrats to keep up the pressure over voting rights at a time when the prospects of action from Congress is fading. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-texas-voting-religion-race-and-ethnicity-7485f231f02dd51f51ce80a0e368aefe
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