Historic Bond Ties African-Americans and Independents Together

The Historic Bond that Ties African-Americans and Independents Together
By Bob Friedman

Last week I joined Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network on the march from Selma to Montgomery. I am one of the 40% of Americans who are independent of both of the major parties. Back in the days of Ross Perot, the media called guys like me "angry white men."


Along the route, I spoke with many people and brought greetings from Dr. Lenora Fulani, the country’s leading African American independent with whom I’ve worked closely and from IndependentVoting.org, the country’s largest organization of independent voters of which I’m a part.

I have been an independent activist concerned with voters’ rights for many years. In Birmingham, as chair of the Petitioners Alliance, I helped lead the first citywide Initiative & Referendum movement. With Senator Hank Sanders, one of the sponsors of this historic march, I wrote legislation to open access to the Alabama ballot. And with Rep. Demetrius Newton, I designed legislation for proportional democratic selection of presidential electors. As independents, we fight for reforms that not only protect the right to vote. They increase the power of the vote.

For this march, I was proud to have fellow independents Mark Bodenhausen and Lorna Lindsey join me for the historic bridge crossing in Selma. Lorna had never been to a major demonstration before. We added our voices to the call for an end to voter ID laws that suppress the full participation of all our citizens. Independents have experienced disenfranchisement ourselves. We know that when partisan interests wave a flag about so-called voter fraud in an election year, you can pretty much count on the fact that they’re doing it for partisan reasons, not to protect our democracy.

Partisanship is destroying our democracy and making our government incapable of moving our country forward. I far from alone in this concern. Right now, our Congress has a 97% disapproval rating. Most Americans look at Congress and see how partisan its behavior is and feel angry that our government is not working for them.

We need to broaden participation in our democracy, not narrow it. We need to make sure that no American is turned away from the polls because they don’t have the right ID. And that means photo ID, State ID and political ID. In 26 states, independents are prevented from voting in primaries, not because they don’t have an ID, but because they don’t belong to a party! That’s just wrong.

There is an historic bond that ties African Americans and independents together. That bond is based on our shared belief that our democracy must work for everyone, not just the powerful, not just the parties—but for the people!

Bob Friedman
Birmingham, AL 
205-701-2799

Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network Celebrates MLK

NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK
Birthday salute to Dr. King at National Action   (By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews) There's not enough room here to recount all the speeches and comments, and there were some precious ones from Erica Ford on stopping the violence; from Dr. Lenora Fulani, who reminded listeners that "poverty is also violence"; and from City Comptroller John Liu, who announced that without King, "I wouldn't be standing here today," he said.

Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC: Cable News Wants More "Pop"

SHARPTON
Hiring Of Sharpton By MSNBC Follows Larger Trend (WNYC/NPR) That kind of hiring is somewhat of a trend, he says. Other examples include Eliot Spitzer at CNN and Fox News hiring Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. "I think what we're seeing increasingly is that cable news executives are looking for people who pop on screen and will get people to watch the shows," Deggans says.

Rev. Al Sharpton Honoring MLK with Jobs March on Washington Sat. Aug. 27

LAST WORD
Tourists, locals alike honored by King memorial (By BEN NUCKOLS, Bloomberg Businessweek) Hundreds of people slowly filed through the entrance to the 4-acre memorial site on a warm, sunny Monday morning in the nation's capital. Before reaching the sculpture, they passed through two pieces of granite carved to resemble the sides of a mountain. About 50 feet ahead stands the 30-foot-tall sculpture by Chinese artist Lei Yixin. King appears to emerge from a stone extracted from the mountain, facing southeast across the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial.


Rev. Al Sharpton To March For Jobs In D.C.

Written by NewsOne Staff on August 22, 2011 4:47 pm

Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network (NAN) will hold a mass march for jobs and justice on Saturday, August 27, 2011 in Washington, D.C.
The rally and march is expected to attract thousands of members of the civil rights community.
Martin Luther King III, Tom Joyner, CEO of the National Urban League Marc Morial, NAACP President Ben Jealous, and other notable figures are scheduled to lead the march and speak to attendees.
The march will begin on Constitution Ave NW and 17th Street NW at 1:30pm and progress to the King Memorial site on Ohio Drive, SW and West Basin Drive, SW.
According to a press release, NAN’s goal to emphasize what it was that gave Dr. King such an exalted place in American history.
NAN states:

It was his work for civil rights and labor rights that made him the historic figure he has become. It was near the grounds of his monument that he was planning a tent city for poor people when he was killed. NAN will use the occasion of August 27th to raise this unfinished business and challenge those that seek to undo what Dr. King tried to do for working people and labor in this country.

“There are relatively few moments in our lives that make history; The weekend of August 27th & 28th will be one for the history books as we not only commemorate the 48th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream Speech’, but also when the world bears witness to the unveiling of the national King Memorial,”  Rev. Sharpton shared in a statement released today.