Thank you Karina Cervantez, for stepping up to run for Watsonville City Council and for your kind inclusion of me in your “Celebrating Women in Politics” campaign kick-off Aug 18th. Daughter of farmworkers, an outstanding student from an early age, Karina is completing her Ph.D in social psychology at UC Santa Cruz. She serves on the Watsonville Planning Commission, is lecturer at California State University Monterey Bay, is a great mentor to many young women and a wonderful friend! More on Karina http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/rss/ci_21149659?source=rss

Before the November 2012 elections, we must get everyone to register to vote and then out to vote. Remember if you have moved, changed your name or not voted for two elections, you need to re-register. Don’t let regressive scare tactics and repressive voter ID laws keep you from registering and helping to register others. Contact your local Democratic Party, NAACP Branch, union office or go to https://my.barackobama.com to volunteer to register voters at county fairs, shopping centers, and even learn how to canvassing for voters door to door as we did back in Freedom Summer of 1965. These are just a few of the women risked their lives so amazing women like Karina Cervantez can run for office, and so all of us can vote.

Ethel Brooks, SCLC trained community activist, trained and carried youth to marches and demonstrations in Wilcox County Alabama 1965-67. She and I were chased off the road by the KKK while working on voter registration in the Freedom Summer of 1965. More about Ethel https://thislittlelight1965.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/monday-march-1st-in-memory-of-ethel-brooks/

Shelly Dallas Dale was just 16 years old when she was taken to the county prison farm along with hundreds of other Wilcox County youth who were protesting segregated, sub-standard schools and fighting for their parents right to vote. Since 2001 Ms. Dale has served the county’s first female Tax Assessor.

Rosetta Anderson participated in boycotts against stores that refused to hire African Americans, coordinated protests and has worked tirelessly on Get Out the Vote campaigns from the 1960’s to the present. 

When I was a teenage civil rights worker in 1965 they said we couldn’t make a difference, but thousands of African Americans and their white allies forced Congress and the Presidnt to sign the Voting Rights Act thereby assuring their right to vote. If you want to combat the conservative attack on collective community values such as decent, affordable healthcare, living wage jobs, equal education, quality infrastructure and a safe, healthful environment – join your regional voter registration and get out the vote team today! – Maria Gitin, SNCC-SCLC 1965 voter registration worker in Wilcox County, Alabama. Current community activist and author of This Bright Light of Ours: Stories of the Wilcox County Freedom Fight.  Publication news forthcoming.