Says Congress Needs to Strengthen It
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) celebrated the passage of the Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on this date in 1965, and made the following statement:
“We are a better, more representative democracy thanks to passage of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited practices like literacy tests used to disenfranchise racial minorities. Spurred to action by the Bloody Sunday attack by white Alabama state troopers on marchers demanding voting rights, led by future Georgia Congressman John Lewis, Congress and President Johnson crafted and passed the landmark bill at a tense time in America. Unfortunately, in the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case, involving an Alabama county, the high court weakened some of the law’s most important provisions. We need to strengthen the Voting Rights Act and restore its ability to guarantee voting rights for all.”
