Since last year, 15 states have passed new voting laws that critics say
suppress the votes of the poor, students and people of color. This is
the topic of a major speech set for today by NAACP head Benjamin Jealous before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The NAACP
wants a U.N. delegation of experts to monitor the impact of voter
identification laws, as well new restrictions on same-day registration,
early voting, Sunday voting, and making it harder to run a voting
registration drive. Its outreach to the United Nations has been compared
to the group’s efforts in the 1940s and 1950s when it sought
international support in its fight for civil rights and against
lynching. Its visit to the United Nations also comes days after the
group joined with thousands of people in Alabama to retrace the historic
1965 civil rights march in Selma. In what became known as "Bloody
Sunday" on March 7, 1965, police attacked demonstrators at Selma’s
Edmund Pettus Bridge as they tried to march for voting rights. Outrage
over the crackdown led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.Video
Source: Democracy Now!
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