L to R: Mr. H. B. Williams of Monroe County, ANSC President Emeritus Hank Sanders, 7th District Congresswoman Terri Sewell, ANSC State President Roberta Watts, ANSC Board Chairman James Laster.

Scott Douglas addresses ANSC members on voting and civil rights issues, Alabama Immigration Bill HB56 and the Selma to Montgomery March.

At its Spring Convention, Saturday, February 4, 2012 in Montgomery, Alabama New South Coalition screened and endorsed statewide, congressional and state district candidates for the March 13 Primary Election. 

The endorsees included President Barack Obama, Harry Lyon for Supreme Court Chief Justice, Lucy Baxley for Public Service Commission President, Charlie Holley for U.S. Representative District 5 and Terri Sewell for U.S. Representative District 7.

ANSC members selected presidential delegates from the various districts.  The 7th Congressional District, entitled to nine delegates, endorsed the following five female delegates: Faya Rose Toure, Malika Sanders Fortier, Merika Coleman, Sheila Smoot and Geri Horn Albright. The four male delegates included: Hank Sanders, John England, Chris England and Earl Hilliard, Jr.

The convention also featured a panel presentation on mobilizing communities across the state to participate in the 2012 Selma to Montgomery March scheduled as part of the Annual Bridge Crossing Commemoration sponsored by the National Voting Rights Museum.  The commemorative march will begin on Sunday, March 4 from Brown Chapel in Selma, progressing approximately 10 miles each day and culminating in Montgomery, Friday, March 9.

The convention panel presenters included Darrell Turner, representing labor through AFL-CIO; Taylor Baronich, an organizer with the Hispanic Interests Coalition of Alabama; Alphonzo Morton, III of 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement and Attorney Faya Rose Toure of the National Voting Fights Museum and Institute.

 Greene Co. ANSC Endorsements

 The Greene County Chapter of Alabama New South Coalition met prior to the ANSC state convention to endorse local candidates for the March 13 Primary Election.  For Greene County Circuit Clerk, the local chapter endorsed Mattie Atkins; John Kennard was endorsed for Greene County Probate Judge.

 Scout Douglas Keynote Speaker

 Scout Douglas, Executive Director of the Greater Birmingham Ministries, addressed the convention during the luncheon.  In noting the ANSC Convention theme, One Voice, One Vote, One Victory, Scott stated that defeat is never the end of the battle. “In the struggle for justice the only lasting defeat comes when the battle is no longer fought.  We get pushed down, but we get up,” he explained.

  “In earlier movements, those streets were not self-filled, those buses were not self-boycotted and that bridge was not self-crossed.  It took courage and leadership of men like you, women like you and boys who became men and girls who became women to empty the buses to ride them with dignity, to fill the streets to walk them in respect and to cross that bridge to deliver the vote.

Douglas explained that once again in the Nation and in Alabama our vote is under attack and potential voters are under attack.  Alabama’s Immigration Law, HB56 can be compared to the Fugitive Slave Acts of the 1850’s. The former got you coming into states, the later got you trying to leave states. Douglas noted that the authors of the bill stated that HB56 intended “too make life so unbearable they will deport themselves.” Douglas urged everyone to mobilize communities to join the 2012 Selma to Montgomery march.  “This is not just a commemoration, we are fighting for our rights today,” he said.