Jesse Jackson and Civil Rights Leaders Arrested in Arizona

By Tadi Abedje Published: July 29, 2021

Jesse Jackson and Civil Rights Leaders Arrested in Arizona

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is helped across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Sunday, March 1, 2020, in Selma, Ala. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

By: Tadi Abedje

There was a march in Phoenix that was led by Jesse Jackson and Reverend William J. Barber II, who is the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. They, along with several liberal activists, went to Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s office where they did a sit-in protest of her opposition to ending the filibuster, even though she says she is for bipartisan voting rights legislation.

According to the United States Senate website, the filibuster is defined as an “action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment or other debatable question.” The filibuster has been a huge barrier to passing meaningful laws, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour along with voting rights.

“I’m excited about what’s happening now. We will win this battle,” Jackson said to 12 News. The 79-year-old recently was presented in France with one of the country’s highest honors for his work in civil rights.

The ongoing battle for voting rights has been an arduous fight for people of color. There was a time when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders pushed then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, which allowed African Americans to vote without any pushback.

However, after almost five decades of existence, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled against a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Ever since, there has been a rise in voter suppression laws across the country that impacts Black voters.