On Juneteenth, or June 19th, members of the “Freedom Ride for Voting Rights” campaign will assemble in Jackson to launch a week-long bus journey to raise awareness for voting rights bills currently being debated in congress.
In 1961, Freedom Riders traveled from Washington D.C. across the south protesting segregated bus terminals. Cliff Albright is the Co-Founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. He says they are organizing the event to protest voting barriers.
“But also connecting it to not only do we need state level change, but we need federal change," says Albrigh. "We can not fool ourselves and think that fighting this voter suppression can only be done on a state by state basis. It’s got to be done at the federal level. That was the entire purpose of the voting rights act to begin with in 1965.”
During this year's three-month legislative session, no measures to expand voting in Mississippi passed out of committee. However, sveral other states this year passed legilslation limiting voters access to the polls. Vanessa Gonzalez is with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She says restrictive state voting laws can prevent minorities from having adequate representation.
Gonzalez says “This is not just about one single issue, this is about immigration reform, this is about violence against women, this is about disability rights, workers rights, climate change, LGBTQIA+ equality. It’s all on the line if we can not get our voting systems to be just.”
The voting rights bus tour will make stops in several cities, including Birmingham and Atlanta, and will end in Washington D.C. on June 26.
