Yolanda Miller, a teacher at Richmond Hill HS in Queens. (Dave Sanders)
Civil rights pioneer W.E.B. DuBois’s epigram, “The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense, else what shall save us from a second slavery?” was the subtext of the Dec. 10 Stand for Freedom march and rally for voting rights that drew what rally organizers estimated were tens of thousands of demonstrators, including more than 700 UFT members.
The rally — on United Nations Human Rights Day — was sparked by recent Republican efforts to restrict voting rights by introducing photo ID requirements, shortening early voting and making it more difficult to register to vote. In 2011 alone, 14 states passed laws undermine the right to vote, an effort that NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice estimates could disenfranchise five million voters. Moreover, two-thirds of state legislatures introduced such laws this year. A recent NAACP report documents the disproportionate effect the new restrictions have on people of color, low-income, student, immigrant and senior voters.
The protesters assembled in front of the Midtown offices of Koch Industries, major bankrollers of state legislation to suppress voting, and marched to the United Nation’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza for the rally.
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous accused the billionaire oil tycoon brothers David and Charles Koch and their allies of spearheading “the greatest attack on voting rights in over 100 years.” He cited the brothers’ massive and almost singlehanded sponsorship of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the rightwing lobbying and research center that models reactionary state bills and resolutions on voting restrictions and is the prime mover in attacking voting rights and unions.
“This isn’t partisan or a matter of black and white; it’s whether or not you believe in ‘one person, one vote,’” said Jealous. “This effort is an attack on our democracy. We should be making it easier to vote, not harder.”
UFT President Michael Mulgrew did not mince words. “Let us be clear,” Mulgrew said. “This is about trying to engineer election results. They’re saying that people who disagree with them don’t have a right to vote.”
Hazel Dukes, the president of the NAACP New York State Conference, said that she found it “truly disheartening to see that nearly 50 years after passage of landmark civil rights legislation, our nation has not fully embraced the idea of change and equality. Enactment of these state election laws is a reflection of a troubled past that we are forced to relive and will only continue to impede progress for America and its people.”
George Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU, framed the debate as a battle between the extremely wealthy and everyone else. “They want to change the rules,” he said. “We want to take the country back for working people. We’re here as the 99 percent to say we’ll protect our inalienable right to vote.”
Anthony Harmon, the UFT’s parent and community outreach coordinator, wasn’t surprised that so many UFT members turned out for the protest.
“This union has a history of doing what is right in support of social justice,” he said. “This march and rally is just the most recent example of how seriously the union takes issues of human and civil rights.”
One of those members was Geoffrey Tulloch, the chapter leader of West Midtown’s Food and Finance HS and a chef turned teacher. The demonstration wasn’t his first, nor would it be his last, Tulloch said.
So why did he spend his free time at a cold and blustery outdoor event?
“It’s the only way to get heard, when you stand up and advocate for the right things,” Tulloch said.