AFSCME Labor Management MSH

December 19, 1230PM

Administration Building

Attendance: Adam Castle, Emilio Florez, Ryan Cates, Steve Wilking, Kurt Crosby, Lisa Vanderveen, Crystal Kreklow, Denise Considine, Scott Melby, Emilio Florez, Roxanne Portner, Elizabeth Trandum, Michelle Chalin, Carol Olsen, Marvin Sullivan

As a public librarian for the Philadelphia Free Library, Sheila O’Steen embodies what we think of when we imagine a public service worker. Every day, she interacts with members of her community. Whether her patrons are young or old, affluent or impoverished, O’Steen shares knowledge and information with everyone she serves.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act worked. In the years and decades that followed its implementation, the law helped minority voters make their voices heard, especially African Americans who had been discriminated against at the polls. As a result, our democracy became stronger.

But in 2013, despite bipartisan reauthorization of the law by Congress, the Supreme Court gutted it, ruling 5-4 that a key provision was no longer necessary because the Voting Rights Act had worked and the problem was fixed.