Suzanne Monyak, Daily Report
June 4, 2015
The
State
Bar
of
Georgia
and
the
Center
for
Civil
and
Human
Rights
on
Wednesday honored 129 Georgia lawyers for
their
work
on
civil
rights
matters
between
1960
and
1970.
Bar
president
Patrise
Perkins Hooker
presented
each
honoree
who
attended
the
event
with the
Celebration
of
Civil
Rights
Milestones
Award
recognizing
their
contributions
in
pushing for
equality
and
integration
of
African Americans.
The
event
began
with
a
youth
program
on
"The
Story
Behind
Selma,"
held
at
the
Center
for Civil
and
Human
Rights,
followed
by
a
Continuing
Legal
Education
seminar
on
civil
rights legislation,
the
awards
ceremony
and
reception
for
the
honorees,
and
finally
a
panel
of
civil rights
leaders
who
discussed
their
experiences.
Led
by
Holland
&
Knight's
Charles
S.
Johnson
III
and Leland
Ware,
a
University
of
Delaware law
professor,
the
packed
seminar focused
on
progress
and
recent
setbacks
for
minority voting
rights
since
the
passage
of
the
Voting
Rights
Act
50
years
ago.
Johnson
and
Ware
took
aim
at
the
2013
U.S.
Supreme
Court
decision
to
strike
down
a
key section
of
the
Voting
Rights
Act.
Under
Section
5,
states
with
histories
of
discriminatory voting
proceduresincluding
Georgiawere
required
to
obtain
preclearance,
either
from the
U.S.
attorney
general
or
a
three judge
panel
at the
U.S.
District
Court
in
Washington, before
making
any
changes
to
their
voting
laws.
The
high
court
gutted
Section
5
when
it
struck
down
Section
4(b),
which
determined
which states
would
need
preclearance.
Chief
Justice
John
Roberts
wrote
for
the
54 majority,
finding
that
Section
4(b)
had
"no logical
relationship
to
the
present
day" because
the
law,
which
had
been
extended
by Congress
over
the
years,
was
based
on
data
from 1975.
Ware
blasted
the
ruling,
which
he
called
a
"BS
opinion"
and
a
"backhanded
slap."
"How
can
one
guy
say,
'Well,
Congress,
you
didn't
know
what
you
were
doing,
you're
stupid, so
I'm
just
going
to
reverse everything
you
said,
and
I'm
going
to
decide
that
racial discrimination
is
in
a
distant
past.
The
Voting
Rights
Act
is
no
longer
needed,'
citing
no evidence
whatsoever,
but
just
deciding
arrogantly
that
that
would
be
the
case,"
Ware
said. "It's
simply
unprecedented,
simply
unlawful."
The
event
concluded
with
a
panel
of
six
civil
rights
activists:
Joanne
Bland,
the
Rev.
Dr. Bernard
Lafayette,
Charles
Mauldin,
Dr.
Frederick
Douglas
Reese
Sr.,
and
Sheyann
Webb-Christburg.
WebbChristburg,
named
the
"Smallest
Freedom
Fighter"
at
age
8
by
Dr.
Martin
Luther
King Jr.,
shared
her
experiences growing
up
surrounded
by
racism
in
Selma
during
the
1960s, where
AfricanAmericans
were
barred
from
entering
stores, restaurants,
and
"even
simple places
like
the
Dairy
Queen."
She
recalled
her
first
encounter
with
King,
who
invited
her
to
watch
a
meeting
and
inspired her
future
activism.
"I
can
never
pay
the
debt
that
I
owe
this
great
man,"
she
said.
Reese
was
a
teacher
and
the
president
of
the
Dallas
County
Voter's
League
when
he
invited the
Southern
Christian
Leadership Conference
and
King
to
Selma
to
aid
a
voting
rights campaign.
He
advised
today's
youth
to
exhibit
the
determination
shown
by
students
during the
movement.
"Young
people
today,
they
do
not
have
the
same
kind
of
determination
that
we
had,"
he
said. "Forget
about
skin
color,
think
about
the
character
a
person
has."
At
the
awards
ceremony,
Dr.
Jacqueline
Jones
Royster,
dean
of
the
Ivan
Allen
College
of Liberal
Arts
at
the
Georgia
Institute of
Technology,
announced
an
endowed
scholarship
in
PerkinsHooker's
honor,
to
be
presented
annually
to
an
AfricanAmerican student
in
metro Atlanta enrolled
in
Tech's
prelaw
program.
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