BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A crowd packed the pews at 16th Street Baptist Church Wednesday night and filled the sanctuary with noise to welcome the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network's new voting rights campaign to Birmingham.
The rally, hosted by the local National Action Network chapter, kicked off the Freedom Summer campaign to fight what Sharpton called voter suppression. Sharpton decried laws that he said reduce the number of people who vote, including those limiting early voting and requiring voters to have photo IDs. During a press conference in the basement of 16th Street Baptist Church, he framed the fight as a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement.
"It is for that reason that we come back to where the movement gained its momentum," he said. "Right in this city. Right in this building where a bomb went off and took the lives of four young ladies. Here in this city, on this hallowed ground, we are committing ourselves to work with those of today."
The headquarters of the new project is in downtown Birmingham, and Sharpton said the workers will focus on voter registration and education as well as campaigning for changing these voting laws. The campaign will work in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.
"We are not going to be distracted and we're not going to be deterred," he said. "Too many nights were spent in jail, too much suffering and too much bloodshed to bring us this far. We've made a lot of progress in this country, but we're not going to be turned around."
Sharpton questioned the necessity of voter ID laws, saying it's always required some form of identification to vote and that there's no indication it would prevent any significant amount of voter fraud.
"The same ID that was good enough for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Carter, Clinton, both Bushes, why do we get to Obama and we need some special ID?" he said.
Sharpton said the campaign's focus will be through November's elections, but he said the National Action Network plans to remain active in Birmingham afterward. During the rally, he said he wanted to stay and fight on other issues. He responded to comments made by Alabama GOP Chairman Bill Armistead, who said Sharpton was "a race-baiting liberal." Sharpton said he plans to stay in Birmingham and fight, not run.
"You might have been better off keeping your mouth shut," he said, directed at Armistead.
During the rally, Birmingham City Council President Johnathan Austin compared Sharpton to Nehemiah in the Bible, who was asked by God to build a wall and stayed on the wall because it was what God asked him to do.
"I just want to say to Rev. Sharpton, stay on that wall," Austin said before presenting Sharpton with a resolution from the city council. "Stay on the wall. You've been on it for a long time. You've been fighting for us, and we appreciate it."
State Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, said she wanted people who showed up for the rally to stay involved with politics and the National Action Network.
"My prayer, my sincere prayer, is that you didn't come here just for the thrill of it all," she said. "To pray, to see the Rev. Al Sharpton, to jump up and then you go home."