Greene County Democrat

Tag: Congressman Andy Levin from Michigan; Congressman Jamaal Bowman from New York; Congresswoman Nikema Williams from Georgia; and Congresswoman Cori Bush from Missouri.

  • Newswire : The clash: Museum Advocates vs The Smithsonian Board of Regents

    Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. C.

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    Today is an all-day board meeting for the Smithsonian Regents. Advocates and lawyers are advocating for this quarterly meeting to save over a million artifacts and specimens, particularly at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
    A group forming a broad-based coalition called America’s History SOS is presenting over 70,000 signatures to members of Congress who serve on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to save artifacts at what is affectionately called the Blacksonian (NMAAHC), which opened in September 2016.
    America’s History SOS says We Demand:
    – That the NMAAHC and the Smithsonian remain free from political interference.
    – That Congress and the Smithsonian Board of Regents act to protect the Museum’s independence.
    – That President Trump immediately rescind Executive Order 14253. Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History – The White House

    – That all efforts to censor or sanitize African American history be met with unified, unflinching resistance.
    Questions circulate as to why there has been no legislation this year to preserve the history at the museum. A person familiar with the Congressional Black Caucus emphasized “that the caucus is ready, willing, and able to help.” However, the CBC has received “cautionary direction from the Museum hierarchy about how to support.” Even before the government shutdown, a general sense of fear had already been prevalent among Smithsonian Museum workers. A source, who wishes to remain anonymous at the Smithsonian, has warned that emails are now being monitored. The question is, why and by whom?
    However, in March of this year, Congresswoman Nikema Williams led the Call for Protection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Also, a letter in May, led by Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, announced the Democrats’ probe into Trump’s Executive Order on Museums, asking the Smithsonian Inspector General to investigate the EO’s implementation. The CBC source also states that this year, Black federal lawmakers have “not had any official conversation with the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch.”

    As far as today’s meeting, the regents include Chief Justice John Roberts. The Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents will preside over a meeting. Vice President J.D. Vance is also an ex officio member of the Board of Regents. The meeting is typically public, unless the Regents enter into an executive session, in which case the meeting will then go into a secret session.
    Concerns have arisen regarding the anticipated intense scrutiny of Secretary Bunch’s job performance since Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025. The Trump administration’s request for the itemization of all the specimens and artifacts has been one of several sticking points. The president’s Executive Order specified a specific time period for compliance.

  • Newswire: Rep. Sewell speaks at press conference with RWDSU, Congressional Delegation to support the right of Amazon workers in Bessemer to unionize

    Terri Sewell at press conference Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) spoke at a press conference with RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum and Representatives Andy Levin (MI-09), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Cori Bush (MO-01), and Nikema Williams (GA-05) in support of Amazon employees’ right to unionize in Bessemer. Below are Sewell’s remarks.  Rep. Terri Sewell: I’m Congresswoman Terri Sewell, and I am honored each and every day to represent Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. I want to thank Stuart, I want to thank the workers from Amazon, and all of the organizers from RWDSU for the courage to stand with Alabama workers.  The world is watching Alabama, and I want you to know that these workers are following a rich tradition—a tradition of civil rights and human rights of crusading against something that is wrong. This weekend, we celebrate the 56th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. I know that Alabama workers, like Kevin, Jennifer, and Darryl, all of these Amazon workers, stand in the same tradition as John Lewis, as Amelia Boynton Robinson, as those Foot Soldiers that dared to change the world by having the audacity to stand up for their rights.   I am welcomed today by a delegation from Congress who are standing with these workers, and we have one message. Our message is: We see you! We hear you, Alabama workers! And we are with you! We are with you! I just want all of you to know that it is a basic human right, the right to organize, and it is in my DNA. I am the daughter of educators, and if it wasn’t for the Alabama Education Association, AEA, my mother and my father would not have been able to integrate public schools in Alabama in order to be teachers, in order to be coaches, in order to be guidance counselors. It is important that the people of Alabama know that workers have rights. It is because of unions that we have a five day work week. It is because of unions that we have safer conditions in our places of work. It is because of unions that we have benefits.  And so, all we ask is that, free of intimidation, the people of Alabama, Amazon workers, have the right to choose whether or not they organize—free of intimidation, free of interference. That is what we want.  I want to thank my colleagues for joining me, and today I’m with four of them: Congressman Andy Levin from Michigan; Congressman Jamaal Bowman from New York; Congresswoman Nikema Williams from Georgia; and Congresswoman Cori Bush from Missouri.  We proudly stand with Alabama workers in Bessemer, Alabama because we know, we know, that standing up for the right of people to organize and collectively bargain is a God-given right for anyone who is working in America. And we look forward to going back to Congress and passing the PRO Act, which would streamline the NLRB, and stop companies from intimidating their workers.  It’s critically important that you all know that we all stand on the shoulders of John Lewis, who said if you see something that ain’t right, that’s not just, we have a moral obligation to do something about it. So, we stand in solidarity with the workers. It’s critically important that you all know that we don’t stand alone. The world is watching Alabama once again. And, once again, my district, Birmingham and Bessemer, it is so important that the world knows that once again, Alabama is standing up for civil rights, and for human rights.