Update: Now we're hearing the bill, HR 9, is scheduled for the House floor next week. It's urgent to get calls into the House to tell your Representative to vote for the bill.The Voting Rights Act has been stalled in Congress by lawmakers unwilling to acknowledge that voter discrimination and voter suppression still exist. Millions of voters, or potential voters, are prevented or discouraged from voting. We need to renew and strengthen the Voting Rights Act.
Sign our petition to push Congress to act now.Here's an excerpt from an op-ed in
today's NY Times by the daughters of President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the original, groundbreaking Voting Rights Act of 1965:
By LUCI BAINES JOHNSON and LYNDA JOHNSON ROBB
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965, by our father, President Lyndon Johnson, opened the political process to millions of Americans. The law was born amid the struggle for voting rights in Selma and Montgomery, Ala., which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called "a shining moment in the conscience of man." By eliminating barriers, including poll taxes and literacy tests, that had long prevented members of minority groups from voting, the act became a keystone of civil rights in the United States.
Now, crucial provisions of this legislation are in jeopardy. Last month, Congress seemed set to renew expiring sections intended to prevent voter discrimination based on race or language proficiency. Instead, a group of House lawmakers opposed to those sections succeeded in derailing their consideration.
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