Protecting the Voting Rights Act and our democracy
Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could shape the future of the Voting Rights Act. If the Court further limits Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, it would take away one of the most important achievements of our nation and deny Black voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.
As the Court considers the case, it’s important to remember the stories of the VRA – this is not just about statutes and laws, but about the right to vote and be part of our democracy. I am grateful to share my own family’s story about the Voting Rights Act, and why we must defend it.
I was raised with the understanding that I am a grandchild of the Civil Rights Movement, and I carry with me an inherent legacy and responsibility rooted in the centuries-long fight that led to Black Americans finally achieving full citizenship with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
My mother, who recently passed away, was born in 1948 in Greenville, Mississippi – the heart of the Jim Crow South. Until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, my mother did not have the full rights of an American citizen, and watched the adults around her struggle to participate in our democracy.
She shared stories about how my grandparents were denied the right to vote. She told me about the indignities and intimidation they experienced – like all Black Americans during Jim Crow – with literacy tests, poll taxes, the grandfather clause, and constant fear.
These tactics dated back to voter discrimination laws like the infamous Mississippi Plan, which was designed to systematically exclude Black Americans from exercising the right to vote. My mother often spoke about the violence that loomed over the Black community, with the threat of beatings and imprisonment for Black Americans who dared try to register.
As my mother came of age, so did the Civil Rights Movement – with the images of the late Congressman John Lewis coming within an inch of his life on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma; of Amelia Boynton Robinson, beaten unconscious there by Alabama state troopers; of fire hoses and police dogs released on activists peacefully protesting segregation in Birmingham.
This history stayed with my mother for the rest of her life. She understood how precious and fragile our democracy is, and that our civil rights protections were not guaranteed, but instead were demanded and won through blood, sweat, tears, and even loss of life.
But now, the ongoing erosion of the Voting Rights Act threatens the fundamental achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. It serves to negate the work of those who fought and died for the right to vote and for full citizenship for Black Americans.
In its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act by striking down its preclearance provisions, which required states and localities with a history of voter discrimination to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before changing their election laws. This decision opened the door to a flood of voter restriction laws, which disproportionately harm communities of color and other historically marginalized communities. For example, since 2013, at least 31 states have passed 115 restrictive voting laws.
Louisiana v. Callais represents just the latest threat to our hard-won voting rights. A Supreme Court decision that weakens Section 2 of the VRA would not only harm Black voters in Louisiana; it would jeopardize our nation’s ability to ensure full citizenship, fair representation, and a multiracial democracy.
The question of the right to vote is not a simple or procedural matter. It is a question of whether we have a representative democracy, and who gets to participate in it. We must keep up the fight.
FairVote stands with the voting rights community in the fight to preserve the Voting Rights Act, and will continue to advocate for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
As Congressman Lewis stated in his book, Walking with the Wind:
In the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams – so much tension, so many storms… the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.
Once again, America is bursting at the seams, and we must be the people of conscience, aligned across organizations and communities in the fight to protect voting rights. We owe it to Congressman Lewis, to our parents and grandparents, and to everyone who fought, bled, and died for the right to vote. The future of our representative democracy depends on it.
