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Banneker's New Building Vol. 56, No. 46 • September 2 - 8, 2021
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D.C. Statehood a Priority, Civil Rights Leaders Say James Wright WI Staff Writer
5 Martin Luther King III, with his wife Andrea and daughter Yolanda march with Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. U.S. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX, 18th District), and U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-TX, 9th District) during the March on Washington for Voting Rights in Northwest on August 28. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)
Calls Increase for Virtual Options As District students continue to make their return to the classroom for the first time in more than a year, some parents are still expressing their apprehension about COVID-19 and what they perceive as the lack of safety protocols. One parent in particular said she’s ready to pull her two children out of public school and explore other educational options. “D.C. is trying to move too fast to normalcy,” Robbie
Recent March on Washington Exposes Partisan Efforts of Increased Voter Suppression
Woodland, a Southeast resident, told The Informer. Woodland, who lost five close friends and relatives to COVID this year, recounted attending a backto-school event at Excel Academy Public School and seeing children running around without masks. She also said that, despite the principal’s assurances about safety, teachers often took off their masks to speak with parents. With her younger daughter starting kindergarten at Excel, and her
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Arndrea and Martin Luther King III Talk Voting Rights and Abolishing Filibuster
District Schools Fully Reopen with Mixed Reactions Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Reporter
Civil rights leaders joined about 70 D.C. statehood activists at Freedom Plaza in Northwest on Aug. 28 to insist making the District the 51st state is a priority for the national voting rights movement. “The District of Columbia has been robbed for over 200 years,” the Rev. William J. Barber III, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival, said. “The people of the District of Columbia don’t have full voting rights as other Americans do. The attack on the District is not just a racial attack because D.C. is known as ‘Chocolate City’ but it is also an attack on our democracy.” Barber served as one of nearly a dozen speakers at the rally sponsored by
the Douglass Commonwealth Coalition calling on the U.S. Senate to end or suspend the filibuster and take up the Washington, D.C. Admission Act of 2021. The Douglass Commonwealth Coalition operates as an umbrella for former and present members of the District’s congressional delegation --both voting and non-voting--pushing for D.C. statehood. Barber’s remarks, along with statements by NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, addressed concerns by D.C. statehood activists that the speakers and leaders of the March on for Voting Rights would not address the District’s lack of full congressional representation despite having to pay federal taxes and being
Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer In 1963, more than 250,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., for jobs and freedom with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the way. Nearly 60 years later, Dr. King’s oldest son, Martin Luther King III, helped lead a massive march on the nation’s capital. This time the objective focused on voting rights. “John Lewis told us that the most powerful nonviolent tool we have is voting rights,” said King on Saturday, Aug. 5 Martin Luther King III. (Official photo)
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