COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Wednesday marks 60 years since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted. This historic legislation, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to eliminate racial, color, or language-based discrimination in voting.
The law ensured that all citizens, including blind, disabled, or illiterate individuals, had their voting rights protected during registration and elections nationwide.
The bill, most recently reauthorized in 2006 under the Bush administration, made progress towards voter equality.
“The Voting Rights Act, which dismantled segregationist barriers to voting, was a result of the bravery demonstrated on a Selma bridge one Sunday afternoon in March 1965. On that day, African Americans, among them United States Congressman John Lewis, marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to protest the unfair systems that barred them from voting.“
— President George W. Bush, July 2006
LINK: Sen. Warnock Reintroduces the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
Since its initial passage, the 1965 Voting Rights Act has been amended and renewed several times. Nevertheless, it has faced criticism recently, with some democrats arguing that voter suppression continues to be an issue.
Maya Wiley, who leads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is among over 200 organizations advocating for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to be passed.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D- Ill.) accompanied Wiley and other advocates in Washington, D.C., where the proposed legislation was presented in the Senate. He recalled being a new Congress member when Congressman Lewis invited him to Selma, Alabama.
“It was a moment of my public life I’ll never forget,” Durbin said. “I walked down that Edmund Pettus Bridge right next to John Lewis and he told me the story of that day, that day when he was in Selma.”
That day Lewis shared with Durbin, was Sunday, March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday.
A then 25-year-old Lewis led more than 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. They were brutally attacked. The violence captured the nation’s attention and energized the civil rights movement.
AP POLITICS: Democrats try again to revive the Voting Rights Act but face long odds
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D- Ga.) of Georgia says the John Lewis bill is needed today.
““We all have value, and if we all have value, we all should have a voice.“
— Sen. Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.)
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) says the new iteration of the bill is a “power grab” by Democrats.
“Over the past several election cycles, both Republicans and Democrats have had serious concerns about election integrity,” Tuberville said. “If we don’t have safe, fair elections, we don’t have a country. Unfortunately, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has nothing to do with ‘voting rights’ – it is a federal takeover of elections.
While I support the heroic actions of leaders like John Lewis who fought to secure voting rights for millions of Americans, this bill has nothing to do with that – it’s a desperate power grab for Radical Democrats.”
— Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)
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