Selma-to-Washington DC Caravan Leads Call to Restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act

March 3, 2014 - PRLog -- The Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorating, the 49th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965, kicks off a yearlong voter education and registration campaign to restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was signed into law as a direct result of the civil rights actions in Selma and surrounding counties nearly 50 years ago.

A regional association of 40 organizations and activists across the South who are fighting for voting rights formed the Saving OurSelves (S.O.S.) Movement for Justice and Democracy. Its members organized the Marching to the 50th: 50 Cities/ 50 Cars/ 50 Voters At A Time campaign that begins on Monday, March 10 with “The Caravan for Democracy: From the State Capitols to the Nation’s Capitol ” following culminating activities on Sunday, March 9 after the annual pilgrimage across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

S.O.S. organizers and activists say there is nothing to celebrate if the unequivocal right to vote, without voter suppression tactics, is not fully restored, in honor of those who were jailed, beaten, tear-gassed and killed to win voting rights for all citizens. The Marching to the 50th's two-fold campaign includes: 1.) bringing attention to increased voter suppression that resulted from the Supreme Court's 2013 dismantling of the Voting Rights Act; and 2.) organizing participation in a massive voter registration effort that will result in at least one million new voters nationwide by March 2015, the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches.

The Caravan for Democracy will stop for rallies at state capitols in Montgomery AL, Atlanta GA, Columbia SC, Raleigh NC and Richmond VA. Participants can join the caravan from these cities along the way, as well as those who travel from other cities and states, to converge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 12, at the U.S. Supreme Court and then march to the U.S. Capitol.  The march will culminate in a rally that protests the Supreme Court’s adverse decision on voting rights and urges Congress to fully restore the Voting Rights Act.

The D.C. rally marks the beginning of Marching to the 50th's yearlong voter registration drives across the country. Organizations and individuals committed to social justice in every city and state are asked to participate by registering at least 50 voters each in order to reach the one-million-new-voters goal by March 2015.

When the S.O.S. caravan stops for a rally in Raleigh, NC, Rev. William Barber II is expected to speak. Rev. Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, has led thousands of people in protest on Mondays at his state's capitol. The multiracial, multi-issue "Moral Monday Movement" has rallied against North Carolina's draconian voter ID law and other extreme reforms of ultra-conservative policies that are undermining public education and blocking the expansion of Medicaid, among other issues. Hundreds have been arrested in acts of civil disobedience.

Rev. Barber will lead a workshop about the Moral Monday Movement during the 49th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma.

THE CAMPAIGN

S.O.S. is asking organizations and groups in cities and states across the country to adopt the "Marching to the 50th: 50 Cities/ 50 Cars /50 Voters At A Time" campaign as part of their local drives to educate and register new voters by 2014. The task of registering more than one million new voters seems daunting, but the work is easy when many shoulders carry the load.

Get Involved

Any organization, company, group or institution can form a team (or teams) in their city. Teams should have at least 5 members but can be as large as needed. Each team should successfully register at least 50 new voters. (50 teams in 50 cities/states registering 50 voters, who also help register at least 10 friends = 1,250,000 NEW VOTERS!)

Join the Caravan

S.O.S. asks each team to send at least one car representing voters from their city/state to join the motorcade. Marching to the 50th's partner groups are organizing rallies at each stop: Montgomery, AL; Atlanta, GA; Columbia, SC; Raleigh NC; and Richmond, VA. Some of these states have passed some of the worst voter suppression laws since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. Teams can join the caravan at these stops or meet the caravan in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 12, for the national rally.

Organize Voter Registration Drives in Your City

S.O.S. urges each team to check with your local Board of Registrars to learn the local laws for voter registration and securing proper IDs where necessary. Each team can register as many voters as they can to reach our goal of ONE MILLION NEW VOTERS by or before 2015.

Win A Prize

To promote “friendly competition,” teams that successfully register the most new voters will be awarded Freedom Medals of Honor during the 50th Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, March 2015.


For more details about the campaign, visit http://sosmovement.net/marching-to-the-50th/, or text "selmajubilee" to 72727.

Get more information about the Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma and related events at http://selmajubilee.com, or contact Connie Tucker, admin@bridgecrossingjubilee.org.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

For media interviews, contact Vickii Howell at 205.566.3131 or email vickii@avantmediacom.com.

ABOUT S.O.S.
Saving OurSelves (S.O.S.) is a network of 40+ organizations that organized in response to efforts that roll back civil rights reforms, block immigration reform, and other political and social efforts that threaten democracy and fair treatment under the law for the people in Alabama, the South and across the nation. S.O.S. is a grassroots movement of people waging campaigns to restore and maintain unfettered voting rights, which must be secured in order to protect labor, women, immigration, health and other vital rights that are essential to a just, democratic nation.