72 Black executives sign letter urging corporate America to stand against voter suppression

72 Black former and current business executives including Ken Chenault, Ursula Burns, Mellody Hobson, Robert F. Smith, and more signed a full-page ad in the New York Times Wednesday pushing for corporate America to stand up against voting rights restrictions after lawmakers in Georgia passed a controversial new voting bill.

Ken Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, and Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox, join "CBS This Morning" to discuss what role corporations have in protecting the rights of Americans.

Boycott Coca Cola until they come out against Georgia's new Jim Crow voting law

By George L. Cook III African American Reports

I'm boycotting all Coca Cola products, and I hope that you join me.

Why?

The state of Georgia has passed a restrictive voting law that brings back the era of Jim Crow laws.

The new law includes language that adds a new ID requirement that will overwhemingly effect minority voters, allows voting precints to close at 5PM when many are just getting off work, makes it a crime to give water or food to those standing in line to vote, removes the secretary of state as chair of the State Election Board, allowing the SEB and lawmakers a process to temporarily take over elections offices and limiting the number, location and access to secure absentee drop boxes.

This new era of Jim Crow must be stopped now and it takes just not action from President Biden and Congress, but from us and big business. We may can have more of an immediate effect than our nation's lawmakers if we demand that businesses in Georgia come out against the new voting law. Let's be real here, money talks. If we withhold our dollars that sends a message that everyone, even racist Georgia lawmakers understand.

Coca Cola has it's corporate headquarters in Atlanta and is one of the biggest employers in the region. Not only that but they donate to Georgia politicians on a regular basis. That means they have a lot of pull in Georgia and can apply pressure to help to change this horrible voting law.

But they are not going to do this out of the kindess of their hearts. It is going to take a litle pressure from us to get the ball moving. So I and many others are boycotting Coca Cola products until the company comes out against this new Jim Crow legislation.

That means just not buying Coke, Diet Coke, Powerade, Vitaminwater, or Sprite it means not buying several of their brands. Here is a list of the many brands in their portfolio:

Coca Cola

Diet Coke

AdeS soy-based beverages

Aquarius

Ayataka green tea

Barqs

Chivita

Ciel water

Costa Coffee

Dasani waters

Del Valle juices and nectars

Fairlife

Fanta

Fresca

Fuze Tea

Georgia coffee

Gold Peak teas and coffees

Honest Tea

ILOHAS

innocent smoothies and juices

Minute Maid juices

Powerade sports drinks

Simply juices

Schweppes

smartwater

Sprite

Topo Chico

vitaminwater

Let's send a message that will not tolerate this voter suppression law by boycotting Coca Cola. It will send a message to not just them but to big business throughout the United States.

We can make a difference.

MLB players open to discussing moving 2021 MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta after new voting laws pass in the state

Major League Baseball is scheduled to play its 2021 All-Star Game this summer at Truist Park, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Yet with less than a week to go until Opening Day, the MLB Players Association appears open to discussing whether or not the event should be relocated in response to recent legislative developments in the state.

MLB Players Association director Tony Clark told the Boston Globe that the union body is "very much aware" of the bill signed by Georgia governor Brian Kemp on Thursday that overhauled the state's election laws.

The bill includes "new restrictions on voting by mail and gives the legislature greater control over how elections are run," according to CBS News. It has been opposed by both Democrats and voting rights groups who believe the law will "disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color."

Clark told the Globe that "we have not had a conversation with the league on that issue" before adding that "if there is an opportunity to, we would look forward to having that conversation."

[SOURCE: CBS SPORTS]

Cummings: Kemp should testify about voter suppression allegation

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who's expected to become the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he wants Georgia Gov.-elect Brian Kemp (R) to testify before Congress about allegations that he suppressed minority voters during his tenure as Georgia's secretary of state.

“I want to be able to bring people in, like the new governor-to-be of Georgia, to explain ... why is it fair for wanting to be secretary of state and be running [for governor],” Cummings told HuffPost in an article published Monday.

A news report a few months before Election Day found that a disproportionate number of the state's thousands of stalled voter applications were from black residents.

Cummings told HuffPost that he hopes to address the issue of voter suppression when Democrats are the majority in the 116th Congress.

“One of the things about my committee, you know, it’s called Oversight and Government Reform," he told HuffPost. “Oversight, you know, you gotta research and find out what the hell is going on and then, if it is appropriate, to do those things to reform the system.”

Cummings said he also wants to call on election officials from Kansas and North Carolina accused of suppressing Latino and African-American votes.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

Judge moves to block Georgia election officials from tossing out absentee ballots

A federal district court judge said she will issue an order to temporarily block election officials in Georgia from tossing out absentee ballots or applications when a voter’s signature does not match the signature on their voter registration card.

Judge Leigh Martin May, on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, said election officials should have to notify voters first before they can reject absentee ballots with mismatched signatures.

May gave Georgia's Secretary of State office as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and county registrars, until noon on Thursday to respond to her proposal.

The judge said she will then consider their suggestions and immediately enter an injunction.

"This is not meant to be an opportunity to readdress the propriety of entering the injunction — only its form," she said.

Read more: Judge moves to block Georgia election officials from tossing out absentee ballots