The Greene County Democrat

Category: General News

  • Newswire: UN chief joins Rwandese to denounce ‘deliberate, systematic’ use of genocide

    Poster on genocide in Rwanda

    Apr. 11, 2022 (GIN) – Speaking by video on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world community to choose humanity over hatred; compassion over cruelty; courage over complacency and reconciliation over rage.
     
    If anyone missed the underlying message, the U.N. chief had quietly linked the horror of the genocide of one million Rwandans to the “sickening violence” now taking place in the Ukraine. While we honor the memory of those who died, he said poignantly, “we must reflect on our failures as an international community.”
     
    As the Secretary-General spoke, Rwandan President Paul Kagame on April 7 laid a wreath at a memorial site in the capital, Kigali, where more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed. The ceremony marked the beginning of a week of somber events.
     
    “Imagine people being hunted down day and night for who they are,” the President said. “Also imagine if those of us who were carrying arms, if we had allowed ourselves to pursue those who were killing our people indiscriminately.”
     
    “First of all, we would be right to do so. But we didn’t. We spared them. Some of them are still living today, in their homes, villages. Others are in government and business.”
     
    The Secretary-General drew attention to the principle of Responsibility to Protect; his Call to Action, which puts human rights at the heart of the organization. “I have placed the agenda of prevention at the center of our work”.
     
    Yet, he added, “much more could have – and should have – been done. A generation after the events, the stain of shame endures.”
     
    “Rwanda today stands as a powerful testament of the human spirit’s ability to heal even the deepest wounds and emerge from the darkest depths to rebuild a stronger society”, he continued. After having suffered “unspeakable gender-based violence”, women in Rwanda now hold 60 percent of parliamentary seats.
     
    And Rwanda is the fourth largest UN peacekeeping contributor, which Mr. Guterres said was helping to spare others, “the pain they themselves have known.”
     
    Meanwhile, Ukraine is in flames; old and new conflicts are festering in the Middle East, Africa and beyond – while the Security Council is agreeing “mostly to disagree”.
     
    While looking back with remorse, the Secretary-General urged everyone to look ahead “with resolve” and commit to “be ever vigilant” and never forget.
     
    “Let us pay meaningful tribute to the Rwandans who perished by building a future of dignity, tolerance, and human rights for all,” he concluded.
     
    “We always have a choice,” he said, “and perpetrators can no longer assume impunity.”
     

  • Newswire: HBCU Climate Change Conference could spark needed conversations

    Student demonstrators for climate change

    By ddooleyhbcu, NewsOne

     

    The HBCU Community will come together for the 8th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference next week. 
    The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in collaboration will host the event in collaboration with Texas Southern University on April 13 – 16, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
    The goal of the conference is to unite HBCU faculty, students, researchers, climate professionals and environmental justice, and coastal community residents affected by detrimental weather caused by or related to climate change. The conference will work to help eliminate the gap between theory and the day-to-day realities of climate change. Issues such as climate justice, adaptation, community resilience, global climate problems, and other major climate change topics like transportation, energy sources, carbon emissions, and more will be discussed at the event as well. 
    Also, the conference will work to incorporate local high school students into the activities of the conference. These teenagers who are looking to attend College will have the opportunity to learn more about how climate science is an integral part of their lives. The activities will offer an introductory glimpse into the realities of climate change for these young students through computer-simulated games and other forms of engaging learning tools. 
    The conference was originally postponed until the Spring of 2022 due to the surge in the COVID19 Omicron Variant. But now the HBCU community will have an opportunity to come together to discuss and hopefully find some practical solutions to a very important issue. 
    In May of 2021, Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, spoke to theGrio about the importance of inclusion for HBCUs and becoming actively involved in the discussion on climate change. 
    “My first venture out in this COVID environment was to Howard University … it was to announce a $17 million opportunity at DOE [Department of Energy] offering to support college internships and research projects and opportunities and to bolster investment in underrepresented use in minority-serving institutions,” said Granholm. 
    “If you don’t have diverse researchers at the table, your research product, whatever it is, is going to not be as effective,” Granholm continued. “So, for example, when we have all this face recognition software out there, all this artificial intelligence, well, they’re the way MIS identifies African-American faces, especially in law enforcement. If you have more people of color who are on the teams doing the development of that software and that technology, then you will not have that problem.” 
    The conference will likely continue to serve as a vital step in helping to get more diversity in the conversations around climate change. 
    “We have to have diverse participation in the design of these products and the research of them,” stated Granholm. “And that’s why we need to increase the diversity in our laboratories, but of our stem, our science, technology, engineering, and math workforce.”

  • Newswire : Alabama plan advances to alter name of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

    Large crowd crosses bridge in Selma at 57th anniversary
    of ‘Bloody Sunday on March 6, 2022;
    A state trooper swings a club at John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as police break up a voting rights march in Selma, Ala., on March 7, 1965. AP

    By Associated Press
    Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would alter the name of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who were beaten on the bridge as they marched for civil rights in 1965.
    The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name to the “Edmund W. Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge.” However, the lettering on the famous bridge would remain unaltered. The name “Foot Soldiers” would be on a separate sign that would include a silhouette of the marchers.
    The bill, dubbed the “Healing History Act,” now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives with three meeting days remaining in the legislative session.
    The bridge in 1940 was named after Pettus, a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader. However, 25 years later it became an enduring symbol of the civil rights movement after marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on the bridge in 1965. The melee became known as Bloody Sunday and helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
    “Not a single letter would be touched. It would stay intact in its historical context. And at the same time… honor the history that is there and the history that came out of it,” said state Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, a Democrat from Selma. Sanders-Fortier is running to be the Democratic candidate for Governor of Alabama in the May 24 primary.
    Through the years some have proposed changing the name of the bridge, including a push to name it for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who grew up in Troy, Alabama. The Georgia congressman was one of the demonstrators beaten on the bridge in 1965.
    A state trooper swings a club at John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as police break up a voting rights march in Selma, Ala., on March 7, 1965. AP
    Sanders-Fortier said many who marched for civil rights in her community do not want the bridge name changed entirely because of what the bridge has come to represent.
    State Sen. Gerald Allen, the author of a state law forbidding the removal and renaming of longstanding monuments and memorials, voted against the name alteration. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, was approved as some cities began taking down Confederate monuments and emblems.
    Allen said the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge is famous across the world.
    “If you add to it, you change it,” Allen said.
    The bill also would steer funds to provide for the commissioning and protection of new monuments and the preservation of sites that have significance to Alabama history.
    Sanders-Fortier said it is important to honor all of the state’s history and “to heal from our past so we can move forward as a state.”
    “Many of the events in our state’s history have been traumatizing, been traumatizing to African-American folk to Indigenous folk to white folk,” she said, adding that healing means considering the “hurt of each group.”

     

  • Newswire : Obama’s White House visit stirs laughter, memories and new health care proposal

    Obama with Biden and Harris

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    With the style, grace, and humor that personified his two terms in office, former President Barack Obama returned to the White House to help celebrate the Affordable Care Act and help announce plans to strengthen his signature law which many refer to as Obamacare.
“It’s good to be back at the White House,” Obama declared, much to the delight of an overflow crowd of reporters and onlookers in the East Room.
With President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris standing alongside him, Obama referred to the current commander-in-chief as “Vice President Biden.”
That brought laughter from all, including Biden, who would later jokingly declare, “My name is Joe Biden, and I’m Barack Obama’s vice president.”
Of course, Biden served as vice president under Obama from 2008 to 2017.
Donald Trump took the reigns from January 2017 to January 2021.
“It feels like the good old days – being here with you brings back so many good memories,” Biden declared.
It marked the first time Obama had visited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since leaving office.
“I confess, I heard some changes have been made by the current president since I was last here,” Obama remarked. “Apparently, Secret Service agents have to wear Aviator glasses now. The Navy mess has been replaced by a Baskin-Robbins. And there’s a cat running around, which I guarantee Beau and Sunny would have been very unhappy about,” he continued, in reference to the president’s dogs.

    Turning serious, Obama reflected on celebrating 12 years of the Affordable Care Act. “It’s an example of why you run for office in the first place,” Obama asserted.
“We’re not supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power. We’re supposed to do this because it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.”
Biden said the Affordable Care Act had been called a lot of things.
“But Obamacare is the most fitting,” he declared.
The President vowed to expand access to health care by proposing a change to Obamacare that would allow more eligibility for premium tax credits. “Once today’s proposed rule is finalized, starting next year, working families in America will get the help they need to afford full family coverage,” Biden said.
“With this change, it’s estimated that 200,000 presently uninsured Americans are going to gain coverage. Nearly one million Americans will see their coverage become more affordable.”
Under the President’s plan, families would receive tax credits if the cost of their coverage exceeds more than 10 percent of their incomes.
The U.S. Treasury Department said the change would allow 200,000 uninsured individuals to gain coverage while more than 1 million others would realize lower premium payments.
“Thanks to the landmark American Rescue Plan, ACA premiums are at an all-time low, while enrollment is at an all-time high,” the administration said in a Fact Sheet.
“Four out of five Americans can find quality coverage for under $10 a month, and families are saving an average of $2,400 on their annual premiums — $200 in savings every month back to families.”
    
The Fact Sheet continued:
“The Administration has lowered costs and increased enrollment to a record high of 14.5 million Americans—including nearly 6 million who newly gained coverage.
“With the addition of Missouri and Oklahoma, two states that expanded Medicaid last year, nearly 19 million low-income Americans are enrolled in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion coverage, adding up to a record nearly 80 million children, pregnant women, seniors, people with disabilities, and other low-income Americans covered by Medicaid.”
The administration said it’s seeking to fix the “family glitch” in the ACA law.
“Under the ACA, people who do not have access to ‘affordable’ health insurance through their jobs may qualify for a premium tax credit to purchase affordable, high-quality coverage on the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces,” administration officials stated.
“Current regulations define employer-based health insurance as ‘affordable’ if the coverage solely for the employee, and not for family members, is affordable, making family members ineligible for a premium tax credit even though they need it to afford high-quality coverage through the Marketplace.”
The officials added that for family members of an employee offered health coverage through an employer, the cost of that family coverage can sometimes be prohibitive and make health insurance out of reach.
The “family glitch” affects about 5 million people and has made it impossible for many families to use the premium tax credit to purchase an affordable, high-quality Marketplace plan, officials stated.
Biden’s proposal reportedly would require some time before taking effect. Thus the goal is for it to begin in January.
Administration officials said more than 14.5 million people purchased ACA marketplace plans this winter.
That number included 6 million who purchased health insurance for the first time.

  • GREENE COUNTY CHAPTER OF ADC ENDORSES CANDIDATES FOR THE MAY PRIMARIES

    Eutaw, Alabama- The Greene County Chapter of the Alabama Democratic Conference held their endorsement meeting on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. Members voted on candidates seeking endorsement from local districts. The meeting was conducted by the executive officers where Beverly Gordon is the local Chair. The following candidates were endorsed:

    Greene County Board of Education Dist. 1: Carol Zippert;

    Greene County Board of Education Dist. 2: Tameka King;

    Greene County Commission Dist. 1: Garria Spencer;

    Greene County Commission Dist. 4 Allen Turner;

    Greene County Commission Dist. 5 Marvin Childs

     Greene County Sheriff, Jimmie L. Benison.

  • COVID-19

    As of April 11, 2022, at 10:00 AM
    (According to Alabama Political Reporter)

    Alabama had 1,297,091 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
    (1,623) more than last week with 19,379 deaths (89) more
    than last week)

    Greene County had 1,869 confirmed cases, (1) more cases than last week), with 48 deaths

    Sumter Co. had 2,575 cases with 51 deaths

    Hale Co. had 4,714 cases with 105 deaths

    Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142; ages 5 and up.

     

     

  • Newswire: Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals allows Federation to intervene in lawsuit filed by white farmers to block USDA $4 billion debt relief program for BIPOC farmers

    East Point, GA — The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (“Federation”) is pleased to announce that on March 22, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously ruled to allow the Federation to intervene in the Miller v. Vilsack class action lawsuit currently pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

    The Miller vs. Vilsack case is a consolidated class action lawsuit by white farmers to stop the Secretary of Agriculture from implementing Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan which provided $4 billion of loan relief to “socially disadvantaged applicants” most of whom were Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color (BIPOC) farmers.

    The lower Court had denied the Federation’s Motion to Intervene. The Federation, represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, Public Counsel and Winston-Strawn LLP, appealed the decision and the Appellate panel of Judges agreed with the Federation’s right to intervene in the matter.

    Judges Southwick, Haynes, and Higginson wrote that the Federation’s interests are relevant to the case since any evidence of on-going or current race-based discrimination by USDA could be relevant to proving a “compelling governmental interest” in implementing the debt relief program. As a result, the lower Court’s denial of the Federation’s Motion to Intervene was overturned and returned to Judge O’Connor to allow the Federation to intervene as a party to the class action litigation.

    Executive Director Cornelius Blanding was encouraged by the Court’s ruling stating, “The USDA’s Administration, under Secretary Vilsack’s leadership, has consistently expressed a commitment to racial equity. Working together as co-defendants of the constitutionality of the debt relief program will strengthen our shared goal of seeing the program fully implemented as originally announced.”

    The case will be sent back to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas to allow the Federation to formally enter the litigation as co-defendants with the USDA.

    “This is a critical decision,” advised Dania Davy, Director of Land Retention and Advocacy, “For the first time since these lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan started to be filed, this Appellate Court was the first to seriously consider the devastating impact of the delayed implementation of the debt relief program on our member-farmers. By guaranteeing the Federation’s right to intervene, the Court ensured that the on-going, race-based discrimination our member-farmers continue to face can be entered as evidence in the litigation which will significantly strengthen the defense of this program’s constitutionality.”

    The Department of Justice, on behalf of Secretary Vilsack, has continued its defense of the debt relief program and filed its Motion for Summary Judgement asking the Judge to allow the program to be implemented without a lengthy trial.

    The Federation will not only continue to defend the Emergency Debt Relief for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers through this litigation, but will also continue to work with the USDA, the Federation’s legal counsel, partners, and coalitions to protect our member-farmers who should have received this debt relief last year from the looming threat of foreclosure and land loss.

  • ‘Water grab’ by profit seeking corporations starve African lands of vital resource, says report by Oakland Institute

    Cover page of Oakland Institute report

     


    Mar. 28, 2022 (GIN) – In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22, a blistering new study has emerged on the escalating climate crisis in Africa and the threat to water for millions of Africans.
     
    Large-scale agricultural plantations have been drying up African lands, according to the California-based Oakland Institute in its newly-published report released on the eve of the Forum Alternatif Mondial de ‘Eau (FAME 2022) in Dakar, Senegal. The report sounds the alarm on a corporate water grab and calls for urgent action.
     
    Researchers over the years have noted with concern the growing number of international investors profiteering from large-scale agricultural projects across Africa.  “Financial flows going into agriculture are growing more and more institutionalized – and more and more private,” wrote the international nonprofit “Grain” in an article titled: “Barbarians at the Barn: private equity sinks its teeth into agriculture”.
     
    “To be sure,” says Grain, “investing in agriculture has been going on since time immemorial. But since the mid 2000s, institutional investment in agriculture has really taken off.
     
    “From seven agriculture-focused funds in 2004 to more than 300 today, the interest in capturing profits from farming and agribusiness on a global scale is real – and Covid-19 is not slowing things down.”
     
    While governments justify granting access to land and water to investors to meet the needs of development and food security, a review of 15 large-scale agriculture projects across 11 African countries exposes the impact to be just the opposite,” Oakland Institute found.
     
    “Projects have often led to the loss of streams and swamps — diverted or destroyed to establish plantations. The intensive use of chemicals and pesticides has not only polluted water sources, but also led to the loss of drinking water, crops, fish, and pastures. This disproportionately impacts women, who also bear the burden of collecting water,” they said.
     
    “Investors typically want reliable access to water sources,” said Frédéric Mousseau,  author of the report “Drying Out African Lands: Expansion of Large-Scale Agriculture Threatens Access to Water in Africa” and Oakland Institute’s policy director. “While they enjoy extensive freedom to use the land along with unlimited, cheap or free access to water, their promises of development, infrastructure, and services to the communities fail to materialize,” Mousseau said.
     
    Lack of irrigation in Africa is a major factor holding back agricultural production and food security. When irrigation infrastructure is established, it benefits private firms for large-scale agriculture — often for export crops — instead of local farmers and communities.
     
    “People living in drought stricken lands are severely impacted by large-scale irrigation projects that reduce available pastures, as fences and canals cut through traditional routes of people and livestock,” the Institute found.
     
    Also highlighted in the report is the role of the World Bank and other financial institutions which have been guiding African governments to grant investors large plots of land and favorable water access for their large-scale projects. Tens of millions of acres of land and “underutilized” water resources are being sold off despite the devastating impact of these projects on local communities.
     
    “This report sounds the alarm on the dire threat these large-scale agriculture projects pose to the water usage rights that family farmers, fishermen, and pastoralists have informally held for centuries,” said Leonard Shang-Quartey, Regional Coordinator of FAME 2022.
     
    “Access to water is a basic human right,” he said, “which has to be preserved and prioritized over granting resources to corporations that have a long track record of social and environmental devastation.” 

  • Newswire : Biden Administration focuses money on HBCUs after bomb threats

    George Washington Carver Museum on campus of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Shifting funds from the Department of Education to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities experiencing sporadic bomb threats, several top officials in the Biden Administration spoke out. Over the last two months repeated bomb threats have been made against several HBCUS including Morgan State, and  Howard University.
    On March 16, in a small auditorium at the Old Executive Office Building next door to The White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke on the plan. The allocations, coming from existing money from the Department of Education budget, comes to about $150,000 per school.
    HBCUS have received a record amount of funding from the federal government over the last year into the billions.
    “At the Justice Department, we believe the time to address illegal threats is when they are made, not after tragedy strikes. We also know that the threat against HBCUs and their students has deep, historical roots… In the over 150 years since the founding of the Department, the threats posed by hate-fueled criminal acts have taken on many different forms. But our task remains the same: to use our resources and our legal authorities to prevent and confront bias-motivated violence and threats of violence,” the Attorney said in front of education officials, reporters and supporters of HBCUs.
    Black Press USA asked Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH) and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond about the historic allocations.
    “If you look at our Administration, if you look at what we’re doing we’re making sure we empower our universities. They’ve done great with less for far too long,” Richmond said standing in the White House driveway.
    Members of the CBC received a briefing on the bomb threats from Department of Justice officials in early March. In an era of divisive politics and a former President, Donald Trump, who negatively openly targeted Black members of Congress and cities with large Black populations such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, concerns for HBCUs have remained high.
    “The threats made against our nations Historically Black Colleges and Universities are far from new, and I commend the Administration for finally allocating the necessary attention and resources to HBCUs as we work to end the string of threats and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson in a statement.
    “Our administration is sending a very clear message that intimidation will not stand and we will not be intimidated. We will do everything in our power to protect all our communities from violence and from hate,” said Vice President Harris.
    Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

  • Newswire: Judge Jackson’s historic confirmation assured after three GOP Senators say ‘Yes’

    WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 21: U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, will begin four days of nomination hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said out loud on Monday what many may have thought about the Supreme Court nomination hearings where Republicans verbally lynched Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
    
“Judge Jackson is a better person than me,” Durbin announced.
    
As the committee advanced Jackson’s nomination and, with three Republicans announcing their support for the judge, it’s all but assured that a Black woman will sit for the first time on the highest court in the land.
    
The final tally of 53-47 included GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expects final confirmation by April 9.
    
“My support rests on Judge Jackson’s qualifications, which no one questions; her demonstrated judicial independence; her demeanor and temperament; and the important perspective she would bring to the court as a replacement for Justice [Stephen] Breyer,” Murkowski said. “She will bring to the Supreme Court a range of experience from the courtroom that few can match given her background in litigation.”
    
On Twitter, Romney announced that Jackson is a “well-qualified jurist and a person of honor” who “more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity.”
    
The most recent committee hearing appeared headed on a spiral toward earlier confirmation sessions when Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who three times had voted to confirm Jackson to other seats, spewed more venom.
    
“[Jackson] is embraced by the most radical people in the Democratic movement to the exclusion of everybody else,” Graham spouted. He also referred to Jackson as an “activist” judge, noting that if the GOP controlled the Senate, she would already have been voted down.
    
“If we get back the Senate and we are in charge of this body, and there [are] judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side, but she would not have been before this committee if we were in charge,” Graham railed.
    
However, Durbin praised the nominee’s restraint in the face of unhinged GOP senators who many suggested posed questions that bordered on being racist and obscene. “She stayed calm and collected, showed dignity, grace, and poise. It is unfortunate that some moments in our hearing came to that. But if there’s one positive to take away from these attacks on her, it is that the nation saw the temperament of a good strong person ready to serve on the highest court in the land,” Durbin asserted.
    
As most observers speculated, the Senate Judiciary Committee split down the middle, voting 11-11 along party lines on Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination.

    D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said while the vote to advance and ultimately confirm Jackson “is historic,” there’s still some emptiness for the District of Columbia.
“D.C., as with every other SCOTUS nominee in history, will have no vote on confirmation even though D.C. and its residents are bound by the court’s rulings,” Norton stated.
    
Still, Jackson’s confirmation remains on pace for a dramatic conclusion either on April 7 or 8.
“We applaud the Senate Judiciary Committee for taking a critical step towards a U.S. Supreme Court that represents our communities and fulfills the promise of equal justice under law,” Wade Henderson, the CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, remarked.
    
“At her hearing, Judge Jackson showed the nation why she will be a justice for all — her years of experience as an even-handed jurist, her brilliance and passion for the law, and her commitment to fairness and to upholding the constitutional rights of all,” Henderson said.
    
“In the face of dishonest attacks and shameful attempts to derail her nomination, Judge Jackson demonstrated her thoughtful judicial temperament and perseverance. She is ready to serve on our highest court, and we call on the full Senate to confirm this distinguished and highly qualified nominee immediately.”
    
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) also praised Jackson. “The NNPA reiterates our strongest support for Judge Jackson to join the U.S. Supreme Court,” Dr. Chavis remarked.
    
“It appears now that the U.S. Senate will do the right thing at the right time with the confirmation of Judge Jackson at a time in our nation where the racial divide has not been closed. Having Judge Jackson on the Supreme Court will at least give Black Americans and other communities of color a strong voice for fairness and equal justice.”