Former President Barack Obama spoke out about Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s latest voting bill that was passed late last month.
Obama applauded the League’s decision in a tweet on Saturday (April 3), commending them “for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens.”
The voting law in Georgia has been compared to Jim Crow era legislation as voting rights advocates say the law will make it harder for Black, Latino, and other people of color to vote. The law imposes restrictions on absentee voting, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, and even makes passing out food to voters waiting in lines illegal. It comes after record voter turnout in the 2020 General Election and the months-long campaign by former President Donald Trump who falsely claimed widespread voter fraud was the reason he lost reelection.
“There’s no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who always led by example,” Obama added in his post online, referencing the Atlanta Braves legend who died in January of this year.
In response to MLB’s decision to move the game, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has promised to put up a fight. “I will not be backing down from this fight. We will not be intimidated, and we will also not be silenced,” Kemp said at a news conference.
Kemp named Georgia-based corporations along with the League who he said “caved to fear and lies from liberal activists.”
“Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, and Delta may be scared of Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden, and the left, but I am not,” the Governor said, also mentioning voting rights advocate and leader Stacey Abrams who has long protested the law.
The election law is being contested in court after several voting rights advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against it.
Black business leaders have also joined the fight against the legislation and the hundreds of similar bills around the country going through state legislatures.
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