Amplify Values In These Emerging Issues
As Covid Aid Moves Forward, A Continued Push For Systemic Change
The Senate passed its version of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Saturday. Following today's House vote, the bill is now headed to President Biden's desk to be signed. This colossal plan predominantly focuses on immediate economic relief, by allocating much-needed money for vaccines, schools, small businesses and anti-poverty plans such as an expanded child tax credit. While the plan goes far, it does not address some of the systemic issues – such as increasing the minimum wage - that we have been advocating for in order to achieve long-term Economic Opportunity for all. We support our allies in continuing to message for these more visionary solutions with the following messaging tools:
Racial Justice Struggle Comes to Congress as Policing and Voting Rights Bills Head to Senate
In the past week, the House passed two bills our parters are closely watching that each address issues at the core of our nation's racial justice struggle. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act bans chokeholds, limits no-knock warrants, prohibits racial and religious profiling, mandates data collection on police encounters, redirects funding to community-based policing programs, and would make it easier to pursue claims of police misconduct. The bill moves to the Senate as jury selection begins in the trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, whose brutality against Floyd sparked last year's uprisings.
The For The People Act of 2021 would end many voter suppression and redistricting tactics used against Black voters and other groups. Along with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which was passed by the House in December and would reverse Supreme Court decisions that have eroded voting rights protections in recent years, and separate legislation to admit Washington, D.C. as a state, granting the majority-POC district of 700,000 residents voting representation in Congress for the first time, voting rights have not seen this much attention in decades. At the same time, a record number of attacks on voting rights are moving through state legislatures, using lies about the 2020 election as justification for policies that would disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. While pushing for action from Congress, President Joe Biden signed an executive order expanding voting resources, including equitable access for persons with disabilities and Native Americans.
These key bills now await action in the the Senate, where reform of the undemocratic Senate filibuster — itself a rule most often used against civil rights and voting rights legislation — may be required for passage if ten Republicans do not join Democrats in advancing them to an up or down vote.
- Beyond Policing tool
- Transforming The System
- Why People Trust Their Lying Eyes
- 10 Lessons for Talking About Race
- A Civil Rights Hero’s Legacy Is Essential Today
- Partner Tools: Healing In Action Toolkit (Black Lives Matter); Anat Shenker-Osorio and The Race Class Narrative Action’s messaging guide on policing, protest, and racial injustice; Color of Change’s Voting Rights Toolkit; The Leadership Council’s Voting Rights Resource Page; JLUSA Resource Page (Ending Felony Disenfranchisement); AFSC's How To Talk About Ending Incarceration and Detention; Voting Rights Lab
- Hashtags: #PoliceReformNow; #ForThePeople;
Upcoming Media Hooks & Events
Events for March 10 - March 25
March is Women's History Month and National Professional Social Work Month.
March 10: Abortion Provider Appreciation Day
March 17: St. Patrick's Day, an opportunity to talk about the Irish immigrant experience and the construction of "whiteness."
March 20: International Day of Happiness
March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
March 22: World Water Day
March 25-31: National Farmworker Awareness Week
Birthdays and Anniversaries
March 12, 1912 - Workers at the Lawrence, MA Bread and Roses strike win their demands
March 14, 1990 - 16 activists arrested in Washington demanding passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
March 15, 1933 - Birthday of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, gender equity advocate and the second woman named to the Supreme Court
March 17, 1912 - Birthday of Black gay civil rights icon Bayard Rustin
March 18, 1963 - Supreme Court ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright ensures legal counsel for people living in poverty. Celebrated as Public Defense Day.
March 19, 1917 - Supreme Court upholds the Eight Hour Act, the first federal law regulating the work hours of private companies.
March 23, 2010 - The Affordable Care Act is signed into law by President Barack Obama
March 24, 1987 - ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) holds its first demonstration.
March 25, 1911 - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 workers, mainly immigrant women
March 25, 1931 - Nine Black men who came to be known as The Scottsboro Boys falsely charged with rape in Alabama, eight of whom were sentenced to death by an all-white jury despite lack of evidence.
March 25, 1942 - Birthday of singer and civil rights activist Aretha Franklin
