Obama rolls out Civil Rights Platform

[illinoisprogressive]

Jessica Pupovac - AHN Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) outlined his civil rights platform Friday, saying that if elected president, he would target racial disparities in the U.S. justice system through a host of measures, including relaxing drug sentencing laws.

The presidential hopeful said he would review mandatory minimums and push to give first-time, nonviolent drug offenders a chance to serve their sentence in drug rehabilitation programs, rather than prison.

"We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, non-violent offenders for the better part of their lives - a decision that's made not by a judge in a courtroom, but all to often by politicians in Washington and state capitals around the country," Obama said.

The speech came just one week after the contemporary civil rights movement was revitalized by an outpouring of support for six black teens in Jena, Louisiana. The teens were charged with attempted murder for what Obama called a "schoolyard fight" after a wave of racially-charged attacks and insults were launched at the town's black population. "Like Katrina did with poverty, Jena exposed glaring inequities in our justice system," Obama said.

Obama said other aspects of his civil rights plan would include ridding the Department of Justice of "political cronies," creating a voting rights division within the DOJ to track and prosecute voter fraud and intimidation, providing law school loan compensations to entice highly-qualified public defenders and closing the sentencing disparity between crack-cocaine and powder cocaine.

"It's not enough just to look back in wonder of how far we've come," the Illinois Senator said to the crowd, " I want us to look ahead with a fierce urgency of how far we have left to go."

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008667878