People’s Organization For Progress Will Hold Voting Rights Forum. Opposes Sending ICE Agents And Troops To Polling Places

Photos: People’s Organization For Progress “The Attack On Voting Rights And The War On Black People,” will be the subject of a forum that will be held on Friday, September 11, 2026, 7:00pm at New Hope Baptist Church of East Orange, 144 Norman Street in East Orange, New Jersey. The event is sponsored by the People’s Organization For Progress (POP) a grassroots group that fights for civil and human rights. It has been endorsed by the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance planning committee. “We are having this forum to discuss the relentless efforts being made by the Trump administration to interfere with, impede, and even prevent citizens from freely exercising their voting rights,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress stated.  “We are also going to examine the particular impact this will have on the Black community, and what can be done about it,” Hamm said.  The forum in East Orange is the sixth of a series on this topic. Others were held in Montclair, Plainfield, Newark, Maplewood, and Hackensack. Hamm said this is a very politically dangerous period in the United States.  “The racist and fascist Trump administration, ultra-conservative super majority on  the U.S. Supreme Court, and the right-wing MAGA Republican majority in Congress have launched a multi-pronged attack on voting rights,” he asserted.  “I believe that we are witnessing an attempt right before our very eyes by Trump and his collaborators to steal the midterm elections,” he said.  “Recently, officials in the president’s administration have said that ice agents or federal troops could be sent to polling places during the election,” he said.  “We believe that this would be an intimidation tactic designed to scare people away from the polls. The People’s Organization For Progress is absolutely opposed to such an illegal and unconstitutional measure,” Hamm said.  “We will urge people at our forum to increase civic engagement at all levels and in every way possible in order to defend voting rights and to defend the Black community against the onslaught of the policies and actions Trump administration,” he stated. “Every tool of resistance at our disposal must be utilized. Protests, boycotts, strikes, legal actions in the courts, and our votes must all be used in this struggle,” he said. “Also, at the program we are going to call for massive voter registration from now until the cutoff date for New Jersey which is Tuesday, October 13th,” he said.  “More importantly, we will call for massive voter mobilization from the start of early voting in New Jersey which is Saturday, October 24th until Election Day on Tuesday, November 3rd,” he declared. POP decided to have this forum series after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case several months ago which eviscerated and effectively killed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court’s decision enables racist state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts and eliminate those which have large black populations. This could result in the loss of as many as 19 congressional seats now held by African Americans. Besides political retrenchment Hamm cited other areas where Black people are under attack. “Black people continue to experience the highest rates of racist violence. Black Americans experience the highest rate of police brutality and fatal shootings by police. Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites. “Black student enrollment at colleges and universities continues to decline due to the Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in higher education. “Since the beginning of Trump’s second term Black unemployment has doubled with roughly 450,000 Black people losing their jobs, including 300,000 Black women, due to a sagging economy, federal budget cuts, and the ending of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs,” he said. Hamm said the racial wealth gap continues to widen between Blacks and whites. White families now have six times the wealth of Black families. The median net worth of white families is about $285,000 compared to $44,900 for Black families. In terms of health outcomes life expectancy of Black Americans is shorter than that of whites. The rate of Black infant mortality is double the rate for whites. Black maternal mortality is more than three times the rate for whites. “Our history and our culture are under attack. Black history is being eliminated in public schools or being re-written to fit a racist and white supremacist narrative. In some states teachers have been fired for defying the ban on teaching black history,” Hamm said. “Scores of books about Black people and other people of color have been banned. Black Studies departments, programs, and courses are being eliminated or downsized at colleges and universities, and Black faculty and staff have be