Dr. Bernice A. King says changes to Civil Rights Act of 1866 could have "cataclysmic results for people of color."
By TheGrio -November 9, 2019
In this Jan 10, 2018 photo, Bernice King poses for a
photograph at the King Center, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)
Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights icon Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., is calling on Comcast to not challenge the Civil Rights
Act of 1866, in its Supreme Court case involving media mogul Byron Allen.
In an open letter to Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, Dr. King
lays out the "cataclysmic" consequences of the cable company's attempts to
change America's original civil rights law.
"We are alarmed at the consequences of a Supreme Court
ruling that could have cataclysmic results for people of color, who comprise a
large segment of your customers," Dr. King wrote.
King's letter comes the same week as Congressman Bobby Rush
(D-IL), issued a scathing critique of Comcast, and demanded the conglomerate be
broken up.
Allen, who is Chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios,
sued Comcast and Charter Communications for $20 billion, alleging racial
discrimination because the companies refused to license his channels.
In pursuing a legal edge against Allen's claims of racial
discrimination, Comcast's appeal to the Supreme Court rests on changing the
essence of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It would require people to prove race
was the sole motivating factor for any discrimination claims, not a partial
factor as was used in the past.
"To alter the Act to accommodate discrimination against
people based on race would reverse precarious progress in the freedom struggle,
which my father was assassinated for leading and which my mother continued to
join others in leading until her death," Dr. King writes.
"Knowing that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was enacted to
prohibit discrimination of any kind when making and enforcing contracts, why is
Comcast relentlessly fighting for the right to avoid doing business with a
person of color so long as her or his race is one of several factors for such
refusal?"
King, who is the CEO of The Martin Luther King Jr. Center
for Nonviolent Social Change, is protective of her parents' legacies- invoking
their names on issues of the utmost importance.
Her two-page letter signals the seriousness of the moment not only for
Black America, but the entire country.
Comcast will argue its case before the Supreme Court,
Wednesday, November 13th, utilizing the legal support of President Donald
Trump's Department of Justice.