RMC chair joins hunger strike: no solid food for Richburg over voting bills

Richburg, chairman of the Regional Medical Center board, is also pastor of Bethel AME Church in Columbia.

The strike was launched on Jan. 6 by Faith for Black Lives, an initiative of The People’s Consortium for Human and Civil Rights Inc. It’s a New York City-based advocacy organization that says it’s committed to building communities through “radical love in action.”

Richburg and 24 other pastors from across the nation are not eating solid foods until Monday, Jan. 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the national holiday celebrated in honor of the late civil rights icon.

Richburg said the effort was launched to urge the U.S. Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act either before or on MLK Day.

Key provisions of the Freedom to Vote Act include requiring that all 50 states offer early voting periods – with exceptions – for at least two weeks prior to Election Day, including on nights and weekends, for at least 10 hours per day.

Each state would also be required to ensure that, when possible, early voting polling places are within walking distance of public transportation, accessible to rural voters and located on college campuses.

“The hunger strike is simply a demand for action in response to threats against the basics, or the bones of our democracy and really the right to vote. States across the country passed laws directly impacting voters,” Richburg said.

The pastor claims the laws could make mail-in voting and early voting more difficult, impose stricter voter identification requirements and make “faulty voter purges more likely.”

“In an emerging trend, we have restrictive laws in four states, i.e. Georgia, Kansas, Iowa and Texas. They impose newer and even more stringent criminal penalties on election officials and other persons. These new criminal laws will deter election officials and other officials who assist voters from engaging in what you just might call simple, ordinary, lawful and often essential tasks,” Richburg said.

The pastor said a Georgia law where an individual can be charged with a crime for handing out water and snacks to voters waiting in line at the polls was unimaginable. The law allows self-service water receptacles.

“Can you imagine that? You’ve got voters standing in line at the polls. Some could very well be persons who are diabetic, who have a very rigid order of when it is that they should eat. Move over to the Midwest. In Iowa and Kansas, if you look at their laws, people could literally face criminal charges for returning ballots on behalf of voters who may very well need assistance, such as voters with disabilities,” Richburg said.

He continued, “When you go down in Texas, you have election officials who could face criminal prosecution if they encourage voters to request mail ballots, or regulate poll watchers. So what we have here is states which have enacted laws to reduce early voting (and) restrict access to absentee ballots to literally seize control of nonpartisan elections,” he said.

Richburg said extreme gerrymandering also “threatens access to Black political representation in states and federal elections.”

He said a hunger strike requires dedication and sacrifice, but it is a worthy effort.

“A hunger strike is really a form of sacred resistance through nonviolent action. We sacrifice in order to raise the moral conscience of this beloved nation of ours to the challenges facing our beloved democracy. None is better than the one which we’ve been blessed with,” Richburg said.

He referenced Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian anti-colonial nationalist who employed nonviolent resistance, including hunger strikes, to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule.

“That’s basically where we are. We’re asking strikers to abstain from solid foods for the duration of the action, and we’re encouraging them to drink just water and (other) liquids. … As faith leaders, our call to ministry goes well beyond the boundaries of the campus by which our churches are domiciled,” Richburg said.

He continued, “As faith leaders, we’re both priests and prophets, and we’re called to simply speak truth to power and raise the conscience of our nation. We need to do that through moral resistance, and here’s a kind that really requires sacrifice. It’s a kind that requires deep commitment, and it’s a deep commitment to radical love.”

The pastor said he optimistic change will come.

“We’re swiftly approaching midnight for democracy in our nation, and we’ve got to act before it’s too late. We’re not going back. I think too much has been achieved, too many sacrifices have been made for us to be where we are today,” he said.