On 'Freedom Riders' 60th anniversary, voting activists ask Biden to do
more
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[June 22, 2021]
By Merdie Nzanga
(Reuters) - President Joe Biden needs to do
more to secure voting rights for Black Americans, said activists
traveling through the South to commmemorate the historic 'Freedom
Riders'.
"I am hoping that we will see the same kind of tenacity, commitment, and
passion around protecting the civil rights of Black voters as we've seen
with other policies," LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter,
which organized the tour, told Reuters from Atlanta on Monday.
Dozens of civil rights activists are traveling on five customized buses
from Jackson, Mississippi to Washington D.C. this week, to mark the 60th
anniversary of the historic protest against segregated bus terminals in
the south, and push for voting rights legislation.
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They were greeted in Atlanta by a rally of hundreds of local activists
and Georgia residents, a local band and performances of the "Electric
Slide" line dance in front of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Biden has appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the Democrats'
effort against a slew of restrictive state voting rights bills,
including sweeping changes in battleground states like Georgia https://www.reuters.com/world/us/big-changes-under-georgias-new-election-law-2021-06-14.
Congress will vote on a Democratic-backed voting rights bill Tuesday,
that faces long odds in the U.S. Senate.
"I think he needs to look for the next John Lewis," Shenita Binns, 42, a
civil rights activist from Atlanta told Reuters, referring to the
Congressman and activist who was instrumental to the passage of the 1965
Voting Rights Act.
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![](../images/062221PIX/news_d7.jpg)
A man gestures during a speech at a stop on the Freedom Ride For
Voting Rights at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
June 21, 2021. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers
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Biden "needs to look right here in Atlanta because we
are the ones who have been on the ground fighting against voter
suppression...we are the ones who put Biden into office," Binns
said.
Biden gained the White House, and his Democratic Party both houses
of Congress, on the back of Georgia's switch in 2020 from a
Republican 'red' state.
The bus tour will head to South Carolina, North Carolina, and stop
on Thursday in Charleston, West Virginia, home state of Democratic
Senator Joe Manchin, who has refused to back the Democrats' broadest
voting rights proposal.
"There's more that we think the White House could do, and that
involves continuing to put pressure on folks like Manchin," Cliff
Albright, executive director and co-founder of Black Voters Matter,
told Reuters.
"When I say pressure, we don't even care what it looks like,"
Albright said. "It could be the carrot or it could be the stick, it
doesn't just have to be pressure. It could be 'Look what does it
take for this to be done with,' to be honest."
(Reporting by Merdie Nzanga; Editing Heather Timmons and Michael
Perry)
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