The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was introduced last week by more than 200 House Democrats ahead of the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
On March 7, 1965, voting rights marchers walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama and were greeted by a line of state troopers and deputies who were prepared for violence.
After a two-minute warning to the marchers, the state troopers and deputies began to club, prod and tear gas the marchers, including women and children.
An annual commemoration of the march is held in Selma, but this year’s march was held after the introduction of legislation to restore and modernize the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2013 Shelby v. Holder. The 1965 legislation prevented states with a history of voter discrimination from erecting new barriers to the ballot.
Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan of Virginia and Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell of Alabama joined 212 House Democrats in introducing H.R. 14.
“I hold the right to vote sacred because my family fought so hard to earn it. My great grandfather had to take a literacy test and find three white men to vouch for his character to register to vote. My father and grandfather had to pay poll taxes to register. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed all that because courageous Americans like John Lewis put their lives on the line. Over the past decade, legislators across our nation have advanced hundreds of new laws to make it harder for Americans to exercise their right to vote. Building on the legacy of generations of civil rights activists, I am proud to introduce the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act with Rep. Sewell,” McClellan said.
Lewis marched in 1965 when hundreds were viciously attacked by police while peacefully demonstrating in support of the equal right of all Americans to vote. The brutality of Bloody Sunday galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).
For decades, the VRA prevented states with a history of voter discrimination from erecting new barriers to the ballot box, until it was gutted by the Supreme Court in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. Without its guardrails, state officials have enacted at least 94 restrictive voting laws, many in states with a history of racial voting discrimination. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions have further weakened the VRA, making it more difficult to challenge voter discrimination in court.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and modernize the protections of the VRA and establish a modern-day framework to determine which states and localities have a recent history of voter discrimination and require jurisdictions to pre-clear new voting law with the Department of Justice.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is cosponsored by every House Democrat and supported by more than 140 organizations across the nation.
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Rebecca Barnabi
