Archive for the ‘Joseph Lowery’ Category

Updated with new video at 2:55 p.m.: We told you last night about the radio ads put out by an anti-Amendment One group, declaring that Tuesday’s ballot issue on charter schools was an effort to recreate an educational system that separates black and white students.

Several of the 60-second spots featured the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the 91-year-old civil rights figure. “Don’t let them resegregate our schools,” Lowery says in the ads.

As it turns out, the sharp-tongued Lowery was already an Internet topic on Wednesday – but not for dipping into the charter school debate. Rather, it was for comments made over the weekend in Monroe County, as part of a Southern Christian Leadership Conference trek across the state to encourage support for President Barack Obama.

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young was there, too. But it was Lowery — the same fellow who gave the benediction at Obama’s 2009 inauguration — who raised eyebrows. Lowery says he’s being pilloried for a joke about …

Continue reading What a sharp-tongued Joe Lowery said over the weekend »

Opponents of Tuesday’s charter school ballot question this afternoon unveiled a series of four racially provocative, 60-second radio spots aimed at African-American audiences across the state.

Three of the radio ads include this plea from the 91-year-old Rev. Joseph Lowery, the legendary civil rights figure: “Don’t let them resegregate our schools.”

In case that message didn’t penetrate, the opposition group — Vote Smart! No to State-Controlled Schools — labeled one of the spots “Plessy” and another “Ferguson.” Plessy v. Ferguson was the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized segregated public facilities in the South and ushered in the Jim Crow era.

It’s important to note that the charter school measure, which would reaffirm state authority to create charter schools over the objections of local systems, has significant support among African-Americans, according to polls – who figure heavily in pro-Amendment One advertising.

Listen to “Plessy” …

Continue reading Joseph Lowery in radio ads: ‘Don’t let them resegregate our schools’ »