[1]Cori Bush

John,

Last week, Cori wrote an op-ed about the Jim Crow filibuster and the work
ahead of us to save Black lives.

We’re sharing it below in case you haven’t read it yet so you can
understand why the stakes are so high to abolish the filibuster and
finally pass the transformative policies our communities need.



[ [link removed] ]We hope that after you’re done reading, you’ll chip
in $5 or anything you can to help raise the resources our
movement critically needs to transform the way we do politics.

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[ [link removed] ][IMG]Missouri’s 1st Congressional District U.S. Rep. Cori Bush Jan 20,
2022

On Monday, we honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It
was not a celebration; it was an acknowledgement of the work that Black
history makers in St. Louis have done and continue to do to advance his
vision for racial justice. Above all else, it was a reminder of how much
work we have left to do.

In the last year alone, Republicans filed more than 440 bills in 49
states, including in Missouri, to chip away at our voting rights, impose
harsher voter ID requirements, limit the number of drop boxes for mail-in
ballots, and make it easier for people to be purged from voter rolls.

The intention and consequence of these bills is to suppress, subvert, and
disenfranchise Black voters. For Republicans, the prospect of building
Black political power in our country is so dangerous they have used every
tool at their disposal to systemically deny Black voters from exercising
our most fundamental right. 

The U.S. Senate is attempting to pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis
Act. Democrats are leading yet another effort to safeguard our democracy.
But even in the face of history repeating itself, and Black folks yet
again losing access to the ballot, every congressional Republican and two
Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, refuse to act. In the
face of the ignorance and cruelty of these Senators, let us remember the
words of Dr. King’s 1957 “Give Us the Ballot” address.

“We call for a liberalism from the North, which will be thoroughly
committed to the ideal of racial justice and will not be deterred by the
propaganda and subtle words of those who say, ‘Slow up for a while; you’re
pushing too fast.’”

Manchin and Sinema are telling us to slow up, while our communities can’t
take time off to vote without being scrutinized by employers because
Election Day is not a national holiday.

They’re telling us to slow up, while communities like St. Louis with a
majority of Black voters still face disproportionately long wait times at
the polls.

They’re telling us to slow up, while Black folks in this country continue
to show up to the ballot box only to find our names purged from the voter
roll.

They’re telling us to slow up, while Black political power in our country
is being gerrymandered away through surgically drawn maps that slice up
our communities and rob us of our voices.

They’re telling us to slow up, while they deny us our voting rights in
favor of the Jim Crow era filibuster.

Let’s make plain what the filibuster really is. It is an arbitrary Senate
rule that is a relic of Jim Crow. For 100 years, this arbitrary rule has
been wielded against our community to stall civil rights legislation.

So, for us, it’s simple. When exceptions to the filibuster are made to
raise the debt limit and to push through Trump’s Supreme Court nominees,
we refuse to believe that you can’t make the exception so that Black and
brown folks, folks with disabilities, folks with criminal records, and so
many more of us can have our right to vote protected. 

Still to this day, they tell us to slow up while our children live in
poverty. 

Slow up, while parents can’t afford childcare to be able to go to work. 

Slow up, while underpaid teachers spend their own money to provide
students with the basic needs our government fails to provide. 

But while they say slow up, we say catch up because we feel that fierce
urgency Dr. King spoke of.

Catch up, because we are not going to stop pushing to secure our right to
vote, no matter how many times they deny us.

Catch up, because if we do not defend this right to vote, Republicans will
keep working to block the teaching of truth about American history in our
schools. Let’s be clear, Black history is American history.

Catch up because we need to end redlining, need reparations, and need
universal healthcare. We still need to end police brutality, end our
incarceration crisis, amend the 13th amendment, and end modern day slavery
through the criminal justice system.

We still need to eliminate the racial and gender wealth gaps, end to
environmental injustice, and create safe housing for every single member
of our community who is unhoused or housing insecure. 

When they say slow up, we say catch up.

While we push them to catch up, St. Louis will not let up. We came here to
Congress to save lives, and that’s what we’re going to do.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush represents Missouri’s 1st Congressional District

 


 


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Cori Bush for Congress, 75 North Oaks Plaza, St. Louis, MO 63121