Members of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus Meet in Macon to Discuss Upcoming Session

MACON, Georgia — Several members of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus met at Mercer University for what State Representative James Beverly called a meeting of “great minds.”

“The mind share, the intelligence of this caucus is tremendous,” said Beverly.

State Representative Dee Dawkins-Haigler is the chair of the caucus. She says the goal of this August meeting is to begin building the group’s legislative agenda for the upcoming 2014 session.

She’s a supporter of the second amendment, but she and State Representative Patty Bentley say Georgia’s “stand your ground” law is sure to be on that list.

“We know about protecting this country, and ourselves, but I do believe a person should not be an agressor and then stand your ground,” said Dawkins-Haigler.

“I’m not trying to take their gun rights away but I’m just trying to ensure that Georgia’s not faced with another tragedy such as Florida has experienced,” said Bentley.

Beverly believes since there’s no concrete federal laws in place right now, Republicans might try to push state voting rights laws through using the 10th amendment.

“We need to be ready to have a very strong and vigorous response. It’s you can’t do this, we will challenge you on every step because we believe that the gains that we’ve made over the last 40 years should not be reversed,” said Beverly.

Many of the leaders said addressing health care for all Georgians, and economic development will also be priorities.

State Senator David Lucas says rural Georgia will not be forgotten.

“Water is a big issue in rural Georgia, and I got all rural counties except for Bibb, and it’s been a big issue in Twiggs County as well as Wilkinson County. So we have got to get ourselves acclamated to dealing with those other kinds of issues,” said Lucas.

The group’s annual legislative conference, where they’ll set the legislative agenda, is at the end of September. It’s a three day event in St. Simons.