In 2012, we will work with NAACP to ensure every American has the ability to vote. Across the country, community activists are joining us in this effort. Please take a moment to read the blog below from Benjamin Todd Jealous, President & CEO of NAACP and watch the video.

We’re Turning the Tide

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Benjamin Todd Jealous, President & CEO

Last week was a game changer. We issued our call for voting rights in the streets of New York, at the United Nations and across the nation through the media. The far right is now on the defensive about their attack on voting rights.

In collaboration with Brave New Foundation, the NAACP has put together a new video about the impact of the voting right attacks on communities of color. Please take a moment to watch and spread the message to everyone you know, then text STAND to 62227:

Our new video, We Will Stand, shows exactly how difficult obtaining ID can be for many people. In the rural South, many people of a certain age have no birth certificate because they were born to a midwife. For them, the barriers to getting a state issued ID without a birth certificate are tremendous. Others are dependent on the rides to the polls provided by church-organized Sunday voting drives, which have been shut down in some states.

In 2012, we will work tirelessly to ensure every American has the ability to vote. On Martin Luther King Day, we will launch an unprecedented voter registration drive and our first-ever voter identification drive. And throughout next year, we will wage voting rights battles in state houses and courts around the country.

Across the country, community activists are joining us in that effort. As our video shows, South Carolina doctor Brenda Williams has spent countless hours and thousands of dollars helping her patients clear the financial and legal hurdles associated with satisfying the state’s new strict voter ID law.

Dr. Williams is a hero in her community – but she cannot do it alone. It is going to take the efforts of people like you to help strengthen our front line and ensure our right to vote in 2012 and beyond.

I urge you to take this opportunity to make this movement your own and stand on the right side of history. Watch our video, share it with your friends, then text the word STAND to 62227 using your mobile phone. We will use this list in the year ahead to make sure that you have the information that you need to fight back against voting rights attacks in your community.

Remember that right to vote empowers us to defend our other rights. Enemies of justice will target your voting rights to take away the rest of your rights, knowing that when they come for your right to vote, the whole house of cards we call democracy starts to fall.

Text STAND to 62227 and help us build a strong foundation.

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The student resegregation plan favored by industrialists Charles and David Koch has been a divisive flashpoint between school board members in Wake County, NC. The billionaire brothers continue trying to resegregate a widely celebrated school system, which sets the agenda for hundreds of communities across nationwide.

The Koch brothers are extending their political battles to local school boards. An anonymous campaign flier, which may have ties to the Kochs, accuses the NAACP of brainwashing local anti-resegregation candidates. The flier is called “indoctrination” and is being investigated by state officials. The Kochs have been linked to similar smear efforts in Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Koch brothers own virtually all of Koch Industries, a $100 billion manufacturing conglomerate. Through our Koch Brothers Exposed videos, we’ve brought the brothers’ spending on political causes that advance their bottom line and anti-civic service ideology to the fore. This film investigates the Kochs’ role in resegregating a high performing school district.

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