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Thom's blog
4 Ways Republicans Are Trying to Take Us Back to the Jim Crow Era
If you haven’t already seen Selma, the new movie about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fight for voting rights, do it tonight or tomorrow. It’s a great film - one of the best I’ve seen in a long time - and it does a great job of showing why all successful social movements start from the bottom up. But what’s really amazing about Selma is how relevant it is.
Nearly 50 years after the events depicted in the film, the right to vote is under threat once again. But this time it’s Republicans, not Southern Democrats, who are waging war on democracy.
During the Jim Crow era, it was pretty much impossible for black people to vote. While the Constitution banned voter discrimination based on race, Southern states got around this ban by using tricks and tests to keep African-Americans way from the polls. These weren’t fair tests, either - they were designed to make people fail.
In one scene in Selma, for example, a white official rejects the voting application of a black woman played by Oprah Winfrey because she can’t name every single county judge in the state of Alabama. That’s the kind of daily humiliation black people in the South had to deal with until the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists forced the hand of President Lyndon Johnson and he signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
But now, 50 years later, people of color are experiencing the nightmare of the Jim Crow era all over again. That’s because the Republican Party has declared all-out war on democracy.
Since the 2010 elections, 22 states, almost all controlled by Republicans, have passed laws restricting the right to vote. While not as blatant as literacy tests, these laws - and let’s call them voter suppression laws, because that’s what they really are - all have one thing in common: they make it harder for Americans, especially African-Americans, to do what every citizen of a democracy is entitled to do - go to the polls and choose who they want to run their government. - See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2015/01/4-ways-republicans-are-trying-take-us-back-jim-crow-era#sthash.FSnIRX4B.dpuf
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... How do we fulfill MLK's dream? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
Daily Take: 4 Ways Republicans Are Pushing Jim Crow
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Monday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: How do we fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream?
Speech: " I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr., 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C..
Movie: " Lincoln" by Steven Spielberg.
Hour Three: How do we fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream?
Bible: " Matthew 26:52" " 'Put your sword back in its place,' Jesus said to him, 'for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.'".
Economic and Labor News
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Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
On the day of the President's State of the Union Speech, I'll be debating Neil McCabe about Obama’s proposal to tax the rich.
And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...
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Thom's Poll
Is the United States moving further away from MLK's Dream?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Conversations w/Great Minds P2 - Norman Lear Goes After the Media
Big Picture Rumble - Should BP Get The Corporate Death Penalty?
Conversations w/Great Minds P1 - Norman Lear "You Matter, Whoever the Hell You Are"
Big Picture Rumble - Why Is the GOP Letting Bridges Fall Down?
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Full Show 1/16/2015: The Iconic Norman Lear
In tonight’s Conversations with Great Minds, Thom talks to iconic television and movie producer, Norman Lear, producer of American classics such as “Good Times”, “Sanford & Sons”, “The Jeffersons", "All in the Family", and the Princess Bride.
On the Big Picture Rumble Panel, Bishop Council Nedd II, Project 21 Founding Member, Sam Sacks Co-Founder of The District Sentinel, and Patrick Hedger, Policy Director at American Encore discuss America’s deteriorating infrastructure, BP & the corporate death penalty, Pres. Obama’s local internet push, Wyoming Governor Mead’s Medicare support, paid sick leave and how the Healthcare act is saving American’s money and lives.
How do we Fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream?
Thom Hartmann on Economic & Labor News: January 19, 2015
Caller: A 'Planet Zenu' Convention in Colorado...
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Republicans Want Democrats to Kill Santa...
Fail: Gun Nuts Simulate Charlie Hebdo Attack...
Caller: 'Greenhouse Gas' Does Not Convey the Danger!
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