Bill Moyers: Today, 73 percent of black voters are registered to vote according to the U.S. Census and black voter turnout exceeded white turnout in 2012 for the first time in recorded history. -In 1965, there were fewer than 500 black elected officials nationwide. Today, there are more than 10,500. -In 1965, there were only five black members of Congress. Today there are 44. The 113thCongress is the most diverse in history, with 97 minority elected representatives. -Since 1965, the Justice Department blocked at least 1,150 discriminatory voting changes from going into effect under Section 5 of the VRA. Yet the Supreme Court’s decision in late June invalidating Section 4 of the VRA threatens to roll back much of the progress made over the past 48 years. Since the ruling, six Southern states previously covered under Section 4 have passed or implemented new voting restrictions, with North Carolina recently passing the country’s worst voter suppression law. The latest assault on the franchise comes on the heels of a presidential election in which voter suppression attempts played a starring role, with 180 bills introduced in 41 states to restrict access to the ballot in 2011-2012, which NAACP President Ben Jealous called “the greatest attacks on voting rights since segregation.” The broad scope of contemporary voting discrimination is why John Lewis testified before Congress last month that “the Voting Rights Act is needed now like never before.”
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 01:35:01 +0000
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