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Who Was John Lewis?
John Lewis, born in 1940 and died in 2020, was a civil rights activist and longtime U.S. Congressman who dedicated his life to fighting for equality and voting rights. In his earlier life, Lewis was one of the “Big Six” leaders of the civil rights movement, helping organize the 1963 March on Washington and leading the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he sustained injuries from a fractured skull due to police violence. This “Bloody Sunday” march helped mobilize support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Lewis went on to serve 33 years in Congress representing Georgia, where he continued to defend voting rights until his death. He believed voting is “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in democracy” and encouraged people to make “good trouble” through civic participation.
Voting Rights: 60 Years Later
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, long hailed as the “crown jewel” of the civil rights movement. The VRA was enacted to protect the freedom to vote and to ensure that all communities, including communities of color, could have a say in the decisions that shape their futures.
But the promise of the VRA was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder on June 25, 2013. By striking down the VRA’s preclearance requirement, which ensured federal review of voting changes in places with a history of racial discrimination, the Court opened the floodgates to a wave of discriminatory voter suppression laws.
In the years since, states and localities have raced to erect barriers to the ballot box that disproportionately harm voters of color, low-income voters, and people with disabilities. The Shelby County ruling also set the stage for broader rollbacks of civil and human rights, emboldening those who seek to weaken our democracy.
Sixty years after the VRA’s passage, we do not have full protection in place.
Policy Solutions
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This bill would require states with histories of voting discrimination to get federal approval before changing voting laws and expand protections against voter suppression tactics like closing polling places in minority communities.
The Freedom to Vote Act would create national standards for voting access, including requiring early voting periods, enacting online and automatic voter registration, and making Election Day a federal holiday. It would also increase fair representation and combat the influence of big money in politics.
Washington D.C. Statehood would give D.C. residents full voting rights and representation, just like citizens in all 50 states. Washington, D.C., has over 700,000 residents who pay federal taxes but currently have no voting representation in Congress.
The Native American Voting Rights Act addresses barriers Native Americans face in voting, such as long distances to polling places on reservations and a lack of traditional street addresses. It would require accessible polling locations on tribal lands and accept tribal IDs for voting.