La. NAACP groups gearing up for national march

WASHINGTON – NAACP state chapters across the country, including Louisiana, plan to join a national march next month from Selma, Ala., to the nation's capital to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

Organization officials said the march — called "America's Journey for Justice" — will focus on social justice concerns, including voting rights, racial profiling, the high rate of incarceration of black men and women and the disproportionately high rate of school suspensions and discipline for minority children.

"It's important to raise the profile around the policy needs as they affect African-American communities,'' said Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP. "Voting rights should be something afforded to all citizens in Mississippi specifically, but across the South. There have been ongoing attempts to suppress the black vote and this march is geared toward bringing attention to those attempts.''

The 860-mile march kicks off Aug. 1 and ends Sept. 15 with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial. It will include stops in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

"We march because our lives, our votes, our jobs and our schools matter,'' Cornell William Brooks, president of the national NAACP, said Wednesday. "We march because we've reached a pivotal moment, a movement moment if you will, in the life of our nation.''

Ernest Johnson, president of the Louisiana NAACP, said he hopes the march draws attention to efforts in Congress to resurrect a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

That "pre-clearance" provision, which the Supreme Court struck down in 2013, had required states with a history of voting discrimination, including Louisiana and Mississippi, to get federal approval before making any changes to their election procedures.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., recently introduced a bill that would update the provision to cover 13 states, but it faces an uphill battle.

"I think it's a very worthwhile project to call the nation's attention to the need to continue voting protections,'' said Ernest Johnson, also a member of the NAACP's board of directors. "We have to keep up agitation. We have to keep pressure on the systems. The system doesn't change without pressure.''

NAACP chapters are also planning local events, including rallies, press conferences and walks. The Mississippi NAACP will conduct a statewide voter registration drive and voter education campaign.

The national march comes as NAACP officials also push to remove the Confederate flag from public places.

"The timing is right for people to pay more attention, not just on the symbolism on flags, but the policies that have been implemented,'' Derrick Johnson said.

— Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett