President Barack Obama will mark the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on Thursday by calling on lawmakers to uphold voter protections diminished by a 2013 Supreme Court decision to allow states to independently alter election laws.
Advertisement
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the crowning piece in a series of civil rights laws that, 100 years after the Civil War, sought to truly endow African-Americans with the full rights of citizenship.
He called on Congress to revise and strengthen the Voting Rights Act in response to a Supreme Court decision that struck down a major provision of the law as outdated.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and marched at Selma, is one of many who is using this 50th anniversary to call for revitalization of the Voting Rights Act.
Which brings us back to the Texas ID law.
Still, Catrena Norris Carter and Callie Greer believe overall the Voting Rights Act achieved what it set out to do 50 years later.
“On the ground, there are still too many ways in which people are discouraged from voting”, he said.
Fifty years after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, the president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention said black churches will be redoubling efforts to maintain access to the ballot box. Political activists say if today’s Americans knew the fight it took to earn their right to vote, more black voters would crowd the polls.
“We will not, and we shall not, stop until victory is won”, Sweet-Love said. Republicans in support of greater voter restrictions argue that such laws help reduce voter fraud, but Democrats view such measures as unnecessary and restrictive towards minorities. “Texas should heed the admonishment of three courts, abandon their discriminatory law, and start working to make sure Texas voters can make their voices heard”, Myrna Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said in a statement. Its aim: to ensure that people in areas with a history of racial discrimination receive fair treatment when they vote. The law keeps blacks and HIspanics from exercising their right to vote, according to the court.
Advertisement
I am a direct beneficiary of the Voting Rights Act by having the opportunity to be elected to office which would not have been possible for me and so many others. It also ended Election Day registration, preregistration for those aged 16 and 17, and out-of-district voting, and it required voters to show photo identification at the polls.
