The Continuing Struggle for Voting Rights


Resolution Adopted by the CCAR

THE CONTINUING STRUGGLE FOR VOTING RIGHTS

Adopted by the 116th Annual Convention

of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Houston, TX

March, 2005

WHEREAS, while working for the Congress of Racial Equality during the summer of 1964, James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael H. Schwerner were murdered because of their advocacy and involvement in the civil rights struggle, and

WHEREAS, their labors represented the best of the Jewish and Christian, African-American and White communities coming together to bring justice to our world, and

WHEREAS, those who committed the crimes against these three men and many other victims of the civil rights movement to date have not been convicted, and

WHEREAS, these crimes of decades past are currently receiving redress and prosecution thanks to courageous activists and politicians throughout the Southern United States, and

WHEREAS, many of the injustices that the civil rights struggle fought to defeat.including inequity in education, employment, politics and opportunity.still remain a bitter portion of daily life in our United States, and

WHEREAS, new challenges to our civil rights continue to arise with alarming frequency, including in the area of voting rights, which these young men died to promote,

Therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Central Conference of American Rabbis reaffirms its commitment to civil rights for all.education, equal rights, and equal opportunity.for which James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael H. Schwerner died. With the upcoming reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, we will remain vigilant to concerns about voting irregularities; voter disenfranchisement, access and redistricting; and new voting technologies, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the CCAR works to strengthen its relationships with like-minded civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, the Urban League and the National Council of Negro Women, as well as similar civil rights groups in other racial and ethnic communities, so that we may live up to the spirit of diversified partnership embodied by these three young men, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the CCAR encourages its members to commemorate the past and continuing struggle for civil and equal rights through educational programs and religious services at their congregations, pulpits and offices, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the CCAR supports the contemporary commitment to prosecuting the perpetrators of the Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner murders and other such crimes by supporting publicly the work of The Philadelphia Coalition, The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and other such groups advocating their historical redress in the interests of justice, atonement and peace.