In this week’s address, the President celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act by underscoring the importance of one of the most fundamental rights of our democracy – that all of us are created equal and that each of us deserves a voice.
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West Wing Week: 08/07/15 or, “The Measure Of A Leader”
This week, the President announced a new historic action to cut harmful carbon pollution, advocated for the Iran deal, celebrated his 54th birthday, and inaugurated a new class of Mandela fellows.
Business Schools Come Together to Expand Opportunities for Women in Business
Over the last few decades, the American workforce has evolved dramatically. Women now make up nearly half of our workforce and are a substantial majority of college graduates. Households are now more likely to involve a more even split of home and work responsibilities than ever before.
Yet the U.S. labor market has not fully adapted to these changes, with too few businesses recognizing that many of their workers — men and women — need to be able to balance home and professional responsibilities. Every day, businesses are realizing that change is essential to their bottom line.
As the developers of the next generation of business leaders, business schools, too, must adapt to the changing times.
On Wednesday, the Council on Women and Girls and the Council of Economic Advisers hosted a convening at the White House focused on opportunities for business schools and the business community to work together to ensure that students are trained to lead in the 21st century and to expand opportunities for women in business.
The Employment Situation in July
The economy added 215,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.3 percent—its lowest level since 2008. Over the past two years, our economy created 5.7 million jobs, the strongest two-year job growth since 2000. And our businesses have created 13.0 million jobs over the past 65 straight months, extending the longest streak on record. But despite the rapid pace of recent growth, some slack left over from the financial crisis remains in our labor market, and there is more work to do to ensure that we continue to make progress. That’s why the President is committed to pushing Congress to increase investments in infrastructure as part of a long-term transportation reauthorization, opening new markets for U.S. goods and services through expanded trade, providing relief from the sequester, and raising the minimum wage.
FIVE KEY POINTS ON THE LABOR MARKET IN JULY 2015
1. The private sector has added 13.0 million jobs over 65 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that private-sector employment rose by 210,000 in July. Our businesses created more than 200,000 jobs in fifteen of the past seventeen months. In fact, we have created over 5.5 million private-sector jobs over the past two years—more than in any two-year period since 1997-1999.
#JonVoyage: Our 4 Favorite Moments from President Obama’s Interviews on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” has become one of the most influential programs on television by offering honest, passionate analysis and satirical commentary of the news. Politicians, network executives, and everyday Americans tune in four times a week and esteem his segments for their thoughtful monologues, sharp correspondents, and well-timed celebrity guests.
Since 1999, Jon Stewart has tackled current events and changed the way we talk about the world around us. His episodes show incredible range of emotion — from hilariously referring to President Obama as “dude,” to his powerful, solemn monologue after the shooting in Charleston.
Tonight, Stewart will give his last performance on “The Daily Show.” He and President Obama have shared the screen a total of seven times over the past 10 years, discussing the President's work as a Senator, on campaigns, and in the White House. Most recently, President Obama sat down with Stewart last month as part of the trailblazing final season.
Here are four of our favorite moments Jon Stewart has shared with President Obama over the years:
President Obama, Congressman John Lewis, and Others Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. introduces President Barack Obama, with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, Aug. 6, 2015.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Fifty years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law — a landmark piece of legislation breaking down barriers across the South that prevented countless African Americans from voting.
This afternoon, President Obama hosted a discussion here at the White House to mark the Act's 50th anniversary, featuring Congressman John Lewis, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, and others.
50 Years Ago:
This morning, Congressman John Lewis sent the following message to the White House email list, reflecting on the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and highlighting the barriers to the vote that are still present today.
And if you didn't get the email, sign up for email updates here.
Every year, I head back to the birthplace of a new America — Selma, Alabama — where a determined struggle for voting rights transformed our democracy 50 years ago.
On March 7, 1965, Hosea Williams and I led a band of silent witnesses, 600 nonviolent crusaders, intending to march 50 miles to Montgomery — Alabama's capital — to demonstrate the need for voting rights in America.
At the foot of the bridge, we were met by Alabama state troopers who trampled peaceful protestors with horses and shot tear gas into the crowd. I was hit on the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge.
I thought that was going to be my last demonstration. I thought I might die that day.
50 Years After the Voting Rights Act, We Still Have Work to Do
Ed. note: This is cross-posted on Medium.
The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights of any democracy.
Fifty years ago today, because of the sacrifice of countless men and women, that right was secured for more Americans.
On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law — breaking down legal barriers at the state and local level that had prevented African Americans and others from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
Because of that law — one of our nation's most influential pieces of legislation — Americans who were previously disenfranchised and left out of the democratic process were finally able to cast a ballot. The law was designed to ensure that all American citizens, regardless of the color of their skin, had an equal opportunity to make their voices heard.
But that law didn’t come to pass because folks suddenly decided it was the right thing to do.
This past March, I had the honor of traveling to Selma, Alabama for the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma to Montgomery. Those who marched over the course of those five days in 1965 were fighting to ensure that African Americans could exercise their right to vote under the 15th Amendment of our Constitution. They were marching in the face of a segregationist system that wanted to deny them that right.
And on one afternoon, two visions of America met on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Those nonviolent marchers, representing the idea that all men and women are created equal and deserved to be treated as such, stared into the faces of those who represented a South that stood for the racial segregation and oppression of Jim Crow.
Roughly 600 people stood on the right side of history that day — armed only with their faith, and the conviction that we could be better. They were willing to sacrifice their own bodies in order to help bring America closer to its ideals of equality and justice for all.
President Obama’s Iran Deal Speech Echoes John F. Kennedy
Yesterday, President Obama spoke on the Iran deal at American University's School of International Service.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy also delivered a historic foreign policy speech at American University. Just eight months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy had boldly entered into a diplomatic agreement with an adversary of the United States — the Soviet Union. He faced criticism at home for choosing to pursue a peaceful weapons agreement with a country no one trusted.
President Kennedy addresses the American University Commencement, recieves honorary degree.
President Kennedy's diplomatic approach succeeded in advancing the national security interests of the United States — and the Iran deal does the same.
50 years ago, JFK spoke of peace in a nuclear age at @AmericanU. Today, @POTUS will too. Read JFK's speech: http://t.co/Vk6SI5hkiF #IranDeal
— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) August 5, 2015
Both Presidents believed that a peaceful agreement was preferable to alternatives which would likely lead to military confrontation.
U.S. Takes New Steps to Combat Wildlife Trafficking
The loss of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion has dominated recent news coverage. What has received less attention is that five elephants were killed in Tsavo West National Park in Kenya as well last week.
These incidents raise the question of how to best protect treasured wildlife. Poaching is a global problem and a focused effort is required to combat it, even when it's not in the headlines. And that's what we're committed to do.
Poachers kill one elephant about every 15 minutes, and it's led northern white rhinos to the brink of extinction. Poaching doesn't just hurt animals, but everyday people. Ivory and other wildlife goods fuel a network of wildlife traffickers and armed groups that create instability around the world.
President Obama is making sure that, when it comes to ending poaching, the United States takes the lead. While in Kenya last month, he announced the latest in a series of American steps to stop this deadly practice — a new proposed rule, which would prohibit most interstate commerce of African elephant ivory and beef up commercial exports. Put together with other actions under the President's 2013 Executive Order, the proposed rule would create a near-total ban on domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory.
The President also announced other new steps to support international efforts against poaching: