The St. Louis Public Library will celebrate Black History Month with featured speaker Rev. Jesse Jackson, who will speak twice – 1:15-2:45 p.m. and 3:10-4:40 p.m. – on Sunday, February 18 at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St.
FOX 2’s Kim Hudson will interview Rev. Jackson about his life as a civil rights pioneer and his thoughts on the work yet to be done for equality in America.
Rev. Jackson has been called the “conscience of the nation” and “the great unifier.” He challenges Americans to establish just and humane priorities and is known for bringing people together across lines of race, class, gender, and belief.
A hallmark of his work has been his commitment to youth – inspiring hope and challenging young people to award themselves with academic excellence and to stay drug-free—and the American labor movement – working with unions to organize workers and mediate labor disputes. A renowned orator, Rev. Jackson has received numerous honors for his work in human and civil rights and for nonviolent social change.
In his most recent column for The St. Louis American, in September 2016, Jackson wrote about legal challenges to Republican voter disenfranchisement efforts targeted at blacks.
“A panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently rebuked the North Carolina legislature for acting with ‘discriminatory intent’ in passing restrictions on the right to vote that ‘target African Americans with almost surgical precision.’ Reinforced by similar rulings in the appellate court in Texas and a district court in Wisconsin, the decision was a victory for our democracy and our Constitution,” Jackson wrote.
“The voting impediments were passed by North Carolina in 2013 in the wake of the U.S. Supreme decision in Shelby v. Holder, which struck down the central provision of the Voting Rights Act: the requirement that areas with a history of discrimination gain prior approval from the Justice Department before changing voting regulations.
“Chief Justice John Roberts, the activist Republican judge, argued that since we now live in a ‘post-racial society,’ requiring prior approval for voting law changes was no longer justified. The flood of legislation that followed – all erecting barriers to make voting harder for African Americans in particular – proved the chief justice’s fantasy was a lie.
“In North Carolina, the legislature acted immediately after the Supreme Court decision came down. Its motivation, the Fourth Circuit panel found, was clear. African-American turnout had surged in 2008 and 2012 (with Barack Obama at the head of the Democratic ticket), nearing parity with the turnout of white voters for the first time. Obama had taken the state in 2008 and lost it closely in 2012. But in 2010, conservative Republicans had taken control of the legislature and the statehouse.
“The new majority acted aggressively to fend off the threat posed by growing African-American turnout. As Judge Diana Motz, writing for the unanimous panel, summarized, the legislators ‘requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.’
“The three-judge panel in Richmond, Virginia, unanimously concluded that the law was racially discriminatory, overturning a requirement that voters show photo identification to vote and restoring same-day voter registration, a week of early voting, pre-registration for teenagers and out-of-precinct voting.”
Rev. Jackson’s appearance in St. Louis is made possible by the support of U.S. Bank and the St. Louis Public Library Foundation.
Each engagement is free and open to the public, but reservations are required at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3201803. Tickets should be presented at the door in paper or electronic form.
