Photo: YouTube\Twitter
(National) – A cross-movement coalition of Black-led, multiracial organizations that delivered the White House to President Biden launched Keep It 100, a national day of action and campaign for voting rights.
During the event, the nation’s leading Black-led organizations laid out why President Biden and Democrats must pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the future of our democracy, as Republicans have introduced 300 bills in 40 states to undermine and threaten the voting rights of Black, Brown, Indegenous people of color.
The massive grassroots coalition made up of Fair Fight Action, The Movement for Black Lives’ Electoral Justice Project, The Frontline, Black Voters Matter Fund, NAACP, and The New Georgia Project Action pledged to host actions, teach-ins, and more to demand the Biden administration protect access to voting, the right to protest, and ensure through bold policymaking that no one else dies from racialized violence over the next 100 days of the Biden administration.
“In his joint address to Congress on Wednesday, President Biden acknowledged that white supremacy is terrorism. But those are just words to us while our communities are still suffering and our people are still dying, said Tiffany Flowers, campaign director of The Frontline. “All of the comparisons to the New Deal only serve as a stark reminder of our exclusion from its benefits. We can’t vote. We can’t protest. We can’t breathe.”
“Young Black people came out in record numbers in 2020. In 2021, Republicans across the country introduced over 360 anti-voting bills in 47 plus state legislatures,” Hillary Holley, national organizing director for Fair Fight Action, commented. “We need everyone–from protestors in the streets, elected officials, and business leaders–to take ACTION. We must pass the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the next 100 days to protect our freedom to vote so we can have the freedom to live.”
Jamecia Gray, director of political partnership for the Movement for Black Lives’ Electoral Justice Project added, “Lawmakers advancing these anti-protest, anti-voter bills want us to stay home, to know our place and allow the status quo to continue. Politicians like Ron DeSantis are bold when it comes to advancing their agenda. We’re asking our elected representatives to fight for us, for our freedom to vote and for our voice to be a part of the conversation about the future of our communities. The only way forward is federal protection for our first amendment right to free speech and the right to elect leaders we choose.”
Wanda Mosley, national field director for Black Voters Matter Fund joined the availability to highlight BVM’s efforts to hold corporations accountable to their diversity and inclusion “initiatives” stating, “We will continue to call out companies to join the cause for justice and equality. Their lack of action ignores their company messaging of diversity and inclusion. If you are not standing up for Black voters, you are choosing to stand for injustice and that is unacceptable.”
Dominik Whitehead, Vice President of campaigns for the NAACP, concluded the program but outlined the urgent need for federal action on voting rights,” There are deeper systemic issues that make it crystal clear that the work is not over. We often hear this acknowledged, but we need more than that. We need action. That is why it is imperative that Congress take action to protect the future of democracy by passing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — two bills that put the power back in the hands of the people.”
Young people of color, Black, Brown, API, Indigenious, LGBTQ, and frontline workers showed up in record numbers to elect President Biden all while working tirelessly through a roaring pandemic, navigating an economic downturn that awarded Wall Street executives millions while pushing workers out of the labor market disproportionately, and taking to the streets to protest police violence.
Keep it 100 is an accountability campaign to ensure the Biden Administration and the Senate passes and signs into law the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act over the administration’s next 100 days in office.
For more information www.keepit100.us
