New York, NY — The following is a statement from ColorOfChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson:
“Wendy’s announcement that it decided not to renew its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council is further evidence that corporations are beginning to understand how dangerous association with ALEC is for their brands.
“We applaud Wendy’s for recognizing that this is not the kind of association that its customers support. In announcing its decision to end its membership in ALEC, Wendy’s joins McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods and Intuit on the list of corporations that place the integrity of their brands over connection to a right-wing group that pushes bills that threaten Black communities’ access to the polls and ability to walk the streets of their neighborhoods without fearing for their lives.
“Today, ALEC issued a statement in response to the efforts of our members and allies. We know that ALEC’s discriminatory voter ID law was designed to intimidate, dissuade, and block voters from participating in our democracy. But of course ALEC doesn’t want to talk about their role in voter suppression, or in spreading the deadly ‘kill at will’ laws that have prevented justice for Trayvon Martin and continue to endanger communities across the country. These policies are not pro-business, they are anti-American.
“Our members are engaging in the free marketplace of ideas, using their power as consumers, and reaching out to corporations to ask that they stop funding ALEC. If companies want to continue funding ALEC’s dangerous agenda, they must do it in the light of day. ALEC’s activities can no longer take place behind closed doors and outside the public view.
“We continue to call on all major corporations to stop supporting voter suppression through ALEC. Our members and allied groups are prepared to hold accountable companies that continue to participate in ALEC’s attack on voting rights.”
This week, ColorOfChange members and partner organizations began calling on State Farm and Johnson & Johnson to cut ties with ALEC, and calls to AT&T began earlier this week. Members of the coalition include Common Cause, People for the American Way, Progress Now, the Center for Media and Democracy, CREDO Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
More than 85,000 CoC members signed an earlier petition targeting ALEC’s corporate partners for their role in suppressing Black votes. The petition can be found here: https://colorofchange.org/campaign/alec/
In addition, more than 170,000 CoC members have signed the petition calling on the Department of Justice to take over the Trayvon Martin case, arrest Martin’s killer, and launch an independent investigation into the Sanford police department’s mishandling of the case. The petition can be found here: https://colorofchange.org/campaign/trayvon/
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With more than 800,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest African-American online civil rights organization.