Obama marks 50th anniversary of hard-won Voting Rights Act by urging everyone

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, which has been called the single most effective civil rights law ever passed by Congress.

Vice President Joe Biden was direct, calling the Texas law “one of the most pernicious anti-voting laws in the country” in a Thursday statement.

“It is not lost on me that persons of color are disproportionately represented in our correctional institutions and that undeniable disparities exist”, he said.

Despite 50 years of voter freedom, Moore says current legislation is jeopardizing voter rights.

Obama said, “Photo ID laws on the surface sound good”.

Monroe Woods, area director, said America’s Journey for Justice is more than just a journey for NAACP members because the issues affect everyone. But he warned the law has come under attack from GOP-backed laws requiring voters to provide identification at the polls.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Texas’ voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act, but is not an unconstitutional “poll tax”.

“If in fact those practices, those trends, those tendencies are allowed to continue unanswered, then over time, the hard-won battles of 50 years ago erode, and our democracy erodes”, Obama said. Closing arguments in that case wrapped up last week.

Roughly 600 people stood on the right side of history that day-armed only with their faith, and the conviction that we could be better. “Today, it’s more imperative than ever that Congress pass a comprehensive legislative proposal that restores the Voting Rights Act and improves our nation’s voting system in a way that guarantees access to the ballot box and protects the fundamental right to vote for every American once and for all”.

Led by its president, James Perkins, the conference announced it will support the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 as introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this summer.

Congress should honor the original intent of the Voting Rights Act by passing several bills that have been introduced to re-establish the federal oversight authority that had been struck by the court. A number of states have implemented voting requirements in the wake of a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.

Obama proclaimed September 22 to be National Voter Registration Day, which will be marked with groups mobilized throughout the country in an effort to get people registered to vote. But Democrats say the measures are aimed at suppressing the minority vote, and there is scant evidence of widespread voter fraud.