Voting Rights Act of 1965

Congressional Democrats to introduce bill to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965

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Voting-RightsTomorrow marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) in Shelby County v. Holder. (This has the effect of suspending Section 5 pre-clearance review by the Department of Justice.).

Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion in Shelby County v. Holder opened the floodgates to new GOP voter suppression efforts in those covered jurisdictions within hours of the decision. After Ruling, States Rush to Enact Voting Laws.

Research from earlier this year demonstrates just how full-o’-crap Justice Roberts’ opinion was, as the New York Times editorialized in Voting Rights, by the Numbers.

At the 50th anniversary of of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama in March of this year, President Obama called upon members of Congress to restore the VRA. Obama at Selma: ‘Pledge to make it their mission to restore the Voting Rights Act this year’.

Tomorrow, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) — an icon of the Civil Rights Movement who was nearly beaten to death in Selma on “Bloody Sunday” — will introduce the bill to restore the VRA. (The U.S. Supreme Court could announce its opinion in Arizona Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistriciting Commission tomorrow as well).

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Hillary Clinton goes big and bold for voting rights

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Earlier this year I posted that Hillary Clinton supports the Move to Amend movement:

A major theme of the Hillary Clinton campaign is the Move to Amend movement for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and its progeny?  “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”

Apparently so. Hillary Clinton says she would support a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform:

Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for changes to the nation’s campaign finance system, saying here Tuesday that she would support a constitutional amendment if that’s what it takes to fix what she called a “dysfunctional” system.

Yesterday Hillary Clinton went to Southern University in Houston, Texas, to accept an award in the honor of the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and to deliver a major speech on voting rights. Clinton made several proposals for which I have been advocating for years. “Oh, Mrs. Robinson, you ARE trying to seduce me!”

Screenshot from 2015-06-05 12:49:52

The full video of the speech is available on C-SPAN and can be accessed by CLICKING HERE. Hillary for America also released a fact sheet about voting rights.

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Obama at Selma: ‘Pledge to make it their mission to restore the Voting Rights Act this year’

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President Obama delivered a rousing speech at the 50th Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama today. Transcript: Full Text of President Barack Obama’s Speech in Selma (Excerpt):

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[W]e can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge – and that is the right to vote. Right now, in 2015, fifty years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood and sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, stands weakened, its future subject to partisan rancor.

How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic effort. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred Members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right it protects. If we want to honor this day, let these hundred go back to Washington, and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year.

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50th Anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Selma this Saturday

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This Saturday, March 7, is the 50th anniversary of the first Selma to Montgomery March and Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama:

Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by John Lewis and other SNCC and SCLC activists, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.

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State troopers swing billy clubs to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965. John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (in the foreground), is being beaten by state troopers (Photo: James “Spider” Martin Photographic Archive/Briscoe Center, University of Texas at Austin)

“Bloody Sunday” was televised around the world. Martin Luther King called for civil rights supporters to come to Selma for a second march. When members of Congress pressured him to restrain the march until a court could rule on whether the protesters deserved federal protection, King found himself torn between their requests for patience and demands of the movement activists pouring into Selma. King, still conflicted, led the second protest on March 9 but turned it around at the same bridge.

On March 21, the final successful march began with federal protection.

On August 6, 1965, the federal Voting Rights Act was passed, completing the process that King had hoped for.

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