NAACP Joins Fight Against Philly Voter ID Law
Today, a challenge to a voter ID law in Pennsylvania was brought before the PA Supreme Court Justices.
Meanwhile, the NAACP and local community activists held a rally across the street in opposition to the law.
“In his remarks at the rally, Kevin. R. Johnson, the pastor at Bright Hope Baptist Church, asked, “The question is really why did you have to change the law? Did you change the law because you knew that people lack photo ID in poor black and brown communities?”
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous called the law “not a Republican thing or a Democratic thing” but “an extremist thing,” adding, “Turning the tide, we have won in Texas and we have even won in the Republican states of Michigan and Virginia, but we find ourselves here challenging the law again.” Other speakers linked what they said was a threat to democracy to the work of African-American civil rights heroes Medgar Evers, Harry T. Moore and the four little girls of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing.”
For more information on the potentially disastrous impact of the recent spate of Voter ID Laws, check out the Black Youth Project’s latest memo, “The Impact of New Photo Identification Requirements on Young People of Color.”
Over 700,000 minority voters could be disenfranchised by these laws.
Is there time to get rid of these laws before election day?
Are you registered to vote?
Sound off below!