Texans March On Capitol To Protect Voting Rights - Will Washington Listen? Beto, Rev. Barber
The Guardian, Aug. 2, 2021. Beto O’Rourke and the Rev William Barber among speakers in Austin as fight to protect ballot access goes on. - Ed.
People participate in a rally to support voting rights at the Texas sate capitol in Austin. When a legion of Texans descended on their state capitol on Saturday morning, the signs they carried conveyed raw terror about the erosion of their democracy. Slogans included “Protect Voting Rights”, “End the Filibuster” and “Say No to Jim Crow”. Some had just concluded a days-long, 27-mile march from Georgetown to Austin, praying with their feet in a desperate attempt to safeguard access to the vote.
For hours, they withstood blistering heat to rally round a casket – a poetic nod to lawmakers in states across the country they say are trying to bury voting rights. “When you look out here today and see the thousands, and you look at the diversity in this crowd, this is the America they are afraid of,” cried the Rev Dr William J Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.
The high-stakes protest mirrored a historic march in 1965, when voting rights advocates risked their lives in Selma, AL, before the Voting Rights Act was secured. More than half a century later, a new generation of activists hope to protect and expand on those victories. “When you get out there & you leave the comfort of your home, & in this case you put on your walking shoes & you cover 30 miles in the middle of the Texas summer in central Texas- you’re saying something through that sacrifice & through that struggle,” former US rep. & presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said.
Lawmakers introduced more than 400 restrictive voting bills in 49 states during the 2021 legislative cycle but Texas has emerged as a key battleground in a voting rights war that will ultimately shape the American electorate. Its Republican leaders remain hell bent on passing laws that advocates warn will make it even harder to vote. So far, such efforts have been thwarted by a tidal wave of opposition...
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/02/texans-march-state-capitol-voting-rights-washington-biden-beto-castro
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