It’s March 7, which suggests it’s the sixtieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the legendary freedom march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. And since, below the present presidential administration, each single day is a day to marvel which civil rights protections our revolutionary icons fought and bled for will likely be rolled again subsequent, Democratic leaders are nonetheless selling payments to guard fundamental constitutional rights for Black folks — nearly as if we have been nonetheless in that period and “making America nice once more” meant not solely repeating that historical past, however making it everlasting.
So, to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday — and to use the lesson America was purported to study from it — U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Al.) led “each Home Democrat” in introducing H.R. 14, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Development Act, which is supposed to “restore and modernize the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), addressing modern-day voter suppression and making certain each voter, no matter race or background, has equal entry to the poll field,” in keeping with a press launch printed Tuesday by Sewell’s workplace.
The invoice particularly seeks to handle a 2013 Supreme Courtroom resolution that considerably weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by eliminating key provisions of the legislation with the intention to — properly — I’m searching for a extra subtle reply than “reinforce white supremacy,” however I’m drawing a clean right here.
“For the reason that Supreme Courtroom gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we now have seen state officers advance tons of of recent measures to make it more durable for Individuals to vote,” Sewell mentioned in an announcement asserting the invoice. “As we put together to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in my hometown of Selma, Alabama, it’s clear; the battle for voting rights is simply as pressing at present because it was many years in the past. I’m proud to be reintroducing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Development Act with the help of each Home Democrat. Our invoice would give us the instruments essential to handle modern-day voter suppression and guarantee each American has equal entry to the poll field.”
Right here’s a fast synopsis on what occurred in 2013, through the Brennan Middle:
On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom issued a devastating resolution, Shelby County v. Holder, which dealt a big blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Courtroom struck down the legislation’s components for figuring out which states and localities ought to be required to get federal approval for modifications to voting insurance policies to make sure that they weren’t racially discriminatory.
By hanging down that components, the Courtroom successfully put an finish to that course of, which was often called “preclearance.” For nearly 50 years, the Voting Rights Act was arguably the best piece of civil rights laws within the nation’s historical past, and the preclearance requirement, present in Part 5 of the legislation, was its most progressive and impactful provision.
The consequences of the ruling have been fast. The identical day, Texas officers introduced that they’d implement the nation’s most restrictive voter ID legislation, which had beforehand been blocked within the preclearance course of. That legislation, which a courtroom later dominated to be racially discriminatory, was the primary of an enormous wave of restrictive voting insurance policies applied in jurisdictions beforehand topic to preclearance. And it turned out that the Shelby County resolution was solely the primary of a sequence of Supreme Courtroom selections that may roll again protections for voting rights.
Not solely did the Supreme courtroom resolution function a catalyst for voter suppression legal guidelines, however it’s arguably what led to the more moderen development of Republican legislators redistricting their states’ congressional maps with the expressed goal of diluting Black voting energy.
60 years was not very way back. 60 years in the past, tons of of protesters who can be labeled “woke” agitators by present conservative political requirements tried to stroll from Selma to Montgomery demanding that Black folks have the unfettered proper to vote. The demonstrators have been brutally crushed, hosed, and gassed by state and county cops, a few of whom chased protesters down on horseback.
The late Democratic senator and civil rights icon who helped lead the march, Sen. John Lewis, who Sewell’s laws is known as for, famously described the protesters as “a number of harmless youngsters of God–some carrying solely a mattress roll, a number of clutching a easy bag, a plain purse, or a backpack,” who “have been impressed to stroll 50 harmful miles from Selma to Montgomery to show the necessity for voting rights within the state of Alabama.”
In 2020, when President Donald Trump launched his “election fraud” propaganda marketing campaign, he completely (and baselessly) challenged the election ends in voting districts with giant Black populations, that means, if his “massive lie” had been profitable in overturning the outcomes, it will have been Black voters who have been disproportionately disenfranchised.
Then, America elected him again into workplace 4 years later.
We’re not as far alongside as they declare we’re, good folks. RIP Sen. John Lewis, and a particular shout out to Rep. Terri Sewell and all leaders who perceive the battle that started after we landed on this rock, and culminated into Bloody Sunday 60 years in the past, nonetheless lives on.
Keep woke!
