The Leadership Conference Applauds Voter Participation in Mississippi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON – Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement:

“The people of Mississippi made history, especially Black Mississippians who turned out to vote in record-breaking numbers. They turned out not despite the threats to their voting rights but because of them. They knew that voting rights were on the ballot. They knew they had to demand every vote be counted. They knew they would have to once again face threats to cast a ballot. They didn’t just make history. They made a strong statement about democracy, the demand to have power at the polls, and the right be counted and included.

“This is a victory for the multi-racial democracy that Black Mississippians have been fighting for across hundreds of years and with little investment or attention. That ends today.

“What does not end is the fight to make real the voting rights Mississippians have been fighting for. Lawmakers still threaten to gerrymander electoral maps that make it harder for Black voters to elect politicians who will be accountable to them. Voter suppression is still a lived reality for Black voters in Mississippi, all over the South, and across this country.

“The significance of the first Black Mississippian to be sent to the U.S. Senate since Blanche Bruce in 1875, despite the fact that the population of Mississippi is over one third Black, is overwhelming. This is the state in which its first NAACP field officer Medgar Evers, a war veteran, was murdered for demanding voting rights. Where James Chaney along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered for registering Black voters, and where 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered for looking at a white woman. This is the state where Fannie Lou Hamer and an unstoppable group of Black Mississippians challenged the Democratic National Convention to seat Black delegates in place of the segregationists who were violating their constitutional rights. The dastardly denial of voting rights protections from an ideological majority of the Supreme Court and other despicable current day threats to our right to vote — voter roll purges, proof-of-citizenship schemes, anti-voter laws, and more — only bolstered the resolve of Black Mississippians. They showed up to assert their rights and their power, not only in their own name, but in the name of democracy for every citizen.

“We are grateful for the time and dedication of Mississippi poll workers who made sure every vote was counted in this election. We also owe a debt of gratitude to local civil rights organizers and leaders and our member organizations — the NAACP, LDF, ACLU, Black Voters Matter, and the countless others who volunteered and supported. There are too many to count.

“Mississippi voters reminded all of their leaders of a fundamental truth: voters choose their leaders, and politicians are in office to serve, not to rule. Voters demanded that all of our rights be protected and respected. We must work together to usher in a Third Reconstruction that builds a more perfect and unbreakable union with the power, the civil rights protections, and opportunities that transform our lives.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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