by Jesse Berney
With the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act approaching, lawmakers and luminaries are gathering in Selma, Alabama for a three-day event to commemorate the historic protest in that city and the civil rights victories that followed.
Not a single member of the GOP congressional leadership will be attending.
That includes Speaker John Boehner. It includes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. And it includes Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who made news this year when it was revealed he spoke at a white supremacist event in 2000.
Just days after the Justice Department released a report
detailing how far we still have left to go to fix the deep wounds
racism still inflicts on our nation, with protests continuing on the
streets of Ferguson, you would think Republicans would jump at the chance to show their solidarity with minorities in this country — or at least to make a show of it.
Instead they are choosing to send a
powerful message to African-Americans: 50 years after the Voting Rights
Act was passed, conservatives still don’t care.
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