Washington, DC – On March 25, 2009 Southern Echo, Inc. joined others in the filing of an Amicus Brief in the United States Supreme Court as part of the effort to save the preclearance provisions of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the US Congress overwhelmingly voted in 2006 to extend for another 25 years. A decision is expected in June 2009.

The Section 5 preclearance requirement that political jurisdictions obtain approval from the US Justice Department to ensure that minority voting rights are protected is under attack by a Texas sewer district in the case entitled, Northwest Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, et al.

The case was argued before the US Supreme Court on April 29, 2009, where the moderate justices pointed out that Texas had the worst record of voting rights violations since the passage of the Act in 1965 and Section 5 protections are still needed. The reactionary justices attacked the legislation on the grounds that it was no longer needed and that the overwhelming support for Section 5 in Congress meant that the provision must be ill-considered. [No, we couldn’t follow the logic of that, either.]

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has been the principal device through which people of color have fought against redistricting plans, voting regulations and voting customs and practices which have been intended or have had the effect of diluting the voting strength of people of color.

Jackson, MS – “An accurate census count in 2010 is essential to proper allocation of federal grant dollars to local communities and is critical to the creation of fair political districts to ensure people of color have accountable representation at all levels of government,” notes Echo Director Leroy Johnson as he explains Echo’s 5-year census and redistricting program of work.

In the Spring 2009 Southern Echo:

• Became a census partner with the national Census Bureau and Mississippi state level bureau to ensure effective access to information;
• Created state maps to show where hard-to-count census tracts are and the amount of federal grant dollars allocated to each county;
• Held census training sessions with its partner organizations in the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable;
• Began outreach to grassroots community organizations across Mississippi to establish local Complete Count Committees to ensure the census bureau has accurate address data for every home before the census count is taken, to press for employment of local persons to do the census count who are familiar with community and are trusted by the residents, to monitor the accuracy of the count and file objections where necessary; and
• Will present 2 workshops on census and redistricting at the Pushback Network Convening in Las Vegas at the end of June.

The organizational work to build an effective 2010 census process will lay the foundation for the organizational framework needed to ensure the creation of fair political districts when the census data is released in 2011.

Jackson, MS – It is June 11, 2009 and Mississippi is 2 months overdue on passage of a state budget. The Republican-controlled state Senate, dominated by Rep. Governor Haley Barbour, and the Democratic-controlled state House are divided over core values.

The House fiscal year 2010 budget fully funds the public education formula, vocational education, special education, school transportation, and Medicaid. The House budget uses new hospital and tobacco taxes and a portion of the state’s “rainy day” fund to balance the budget, without which, the House leadership contends, public education and Medicaid cannot be fully funded.

The Senate fiscal year 2010 budget does not fully fund either public education or Medicaid. The Senate budget rejects the use of millions of dollars in hospital and tobacco taxes in the 2010 budget in order to set them aside to be used for the fiscal year 2011 budget, notwithstanding there are hundreds of millions of dollars in the state reserve or “rainy day” fund.

The Governor’s budget cuts education and Medicaid more than the Senate version. The Governor threatens to veto any budget that fully funds public education and Medicaid – that is, any budget that fails to set aside significant portions of new taxes for the 2011 budget. The Senate leadership refuses to cross swords with the Governor: 2011 is an election year.

Southern Echo and the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable are working with other members of the Education Stakeholders Alliance to achieve full funding of public education and Medicaid.

Jackson, MS – May 15-18, 2009 the South X Southwest Experiment convened more than 70 community activists, leaders and public officials from New Mexico, Texas and Mississippi in Jackson, MS to share their community organizing experiences and cultural roots, and to learn how to work for an accurate census count in 2010 and to create fair political districts in 2011.

The convening, co-sponsored by SouthWest Organizing Project of Albuquerque, NM, Southwest Workers Union of San Antonio, TX, and Southern Echo and the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable of Mississippi, featured sumptuous food throughout the day, and joyful dancing and raucous games in the evenings to complement the three long, hard days focused on community organizing and the rules and tools of census and redistricting.

On the 4th day a smaller group of representatives from each state met to develop a South X Southwest Experiment strategic planning retreat for 36 activists from the three states scheduled for July 24 – July 27 in Albuquerque, NM, and a convening in the Fall 2009 for 50 public officials, community leaders and activists to lay the foundation for building a new model of accountable governance that can be implemented at the municipal, county and state levels in each of the three states.

The South X Southwest Experiment brings Latino and African American younger and older community activists, leaders and public officials together to build bridges of understanding, common ground and social justice work across traditional barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, class and geography.