Today is the anniversary of the signing of the original Voting Rights Act

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Consider how the VRA transformed American democracy (from The Nation):

-In 1965, only 31 percent of eligible black voters were registered to vote the in the seven Southern states originally covered by the VRA, compared to 72 percent of white voters. The number of black registered voters was as low as 6.7 percent in Mississippi. In Selma, only 393 of 15,000 eligible black voters were registered when LBJ introduced the VRA in March 1965.

Today, 73 percent of black voters are registered to vote according to the US Census and black voter turnout exceeded white turnout in 2012 for the first time in recorded history.

-In 1965, there were fewer than 500 black elected officials nationwide. Today, there are more than 10,500.

-In 1965, there were only five black members of Congress. Today there are forty-four. The 113th Congress is the most diverse in history, with 97 minority elected representatives.

-Since 1965, the Justice Department blocked at least 1,150 discriminatory voting changes from going into effect under Section 5 of the VRA.

Yet the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision invalidating Section 4 of the VRA threatens to roll back much of the progress made over the past forty-eight years. Since the ruling, six Southern states previously covered under Section 4 have passed or implemented new voting restrictions, with North Carolina recently passing the country’s worst voter suppression law. The latest assault on the franchise comes on the heels of a presidential election in which voter suppression attempts played a starring role, with 180 bills introduced in 41 states to restrict access to the ballot in 2011-2012, which NAACP President Ben Jealous called “the greatest attacks on voting rights since segregation.” The broad scope of contemporary voting discrimination is why John Lewis testified before Congress last month that “the Voting Rights Act is needed now like never before.”

LBJ made clear, in his remarks at the signing of the Act, that the defense and protection of voting rights for black Americans was, ultimately a powerful advance for ALL Americans:

"It is difficult to fight for freedom. But I also know how difficult it can be to bend long years of habit and custom to grant it. There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American mansion. But there is always room for understanding toward those who see the old ways crumbling. And to them today I say simply this: It must come. It is right that it should come. And when it has, you will find that a burden has been lifted from your shoulders, too.

It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it.

The central fact of American civilization—one so hard for others to understand—is that freedom and justice and the dignity of man are not just words to us. We believe in them. Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us are oppressed—and we are part of that oppression—it must blunt our faith and sap the strength of our high purpose.

Thus, this is a victory for the freedom of the American Negro. But it is also a victory for the freedom of the American Nation. And every family across this great, entire, searching land will live stronger in liberty, will live more splendid in expectation, and will be prouder to be American because of the act that you have passed that I will sign today."

As we work to defend against the latest republican assaults on the continuation of these important voting protections - and work for the enactment of expanded rights and protections for every American - we need to keep the Voting Rights Act at the forefront of our political activity to ensure that the promises made in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were more than just lip service.

We must continue to make certain that those important rights and privileges are backed up by the unfaltering and immediate actions of the federal government to defend and enhance these vital protections of our participation in our democratic process of government and law.



MLK's White House Invitation to Signing of Voting Rights Act

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

Thanks for posting this

[guillaumeb]

3. Coincidentally, it also marked the point that the "solid South", a solidly Democratic region,

went from blue, to purple, to deep red as many Southern Democrats decided that the GOP was the better fit for them.

This decision was undoubtedly influenced by Nixon's strategic decision to employ his Southern strategy and appeal to the racists in the nation. A decision that also influenced a lot of Northern whites to change parties.

On edit: recommended.

[Gothmog]

4. This is a very important anniversary

[ismnotwasm]

5. K&R