Fifty-five years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) into law. The landmark legislation banned racial discrimination in voting and outlawed voter suppression measures like literacy tests. The legislation also provided federal oversight of elections in states and localities that had a history of discrimination.

As Gilda Daniels, Litigation Director of Advancement Project National Office, notes in her book Uncounted, “Despite advocates’ best efforts, the battle to vote marches on…instead of voting rights, it is essentially voting fights.”

In 2013, the Supreme Court’s Shelby v. Holder decision significantly weakened the VRA. States previously under federal oversight were free to revive, reinvent and re-implement voter suppression measures previously blocked by the federal government. Now, instead of literacy tests and poll taxes, states are aggressively purging voters from their rolls, closing polling locations in Black and Brown communities and failing to make accommodations for voters amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Today, this is why we must keep fighting for voting rights:

• So Breonna Taylor can finally get justice
• So we can elect mayors, sheriffs and district attorneys that will prosecute killer cops
• So Black and Brown communities can build political power
• So all voters can safely cast a ballot in the 2020 elections
• So we can build a more just democracy

To help voters access the ballot, we are working to make structural changes at the national and local level. Yesterday, we endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to place an affirmative right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. The amendment will “guarantee the fundamental right to vote in any public election for every U.S. Citizen. It will also require courts to apply the highest level of judicial review to voter suppression laws that deny or restrict the fundamental right to vote.” 

As Congressman John Lewis posthumously wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”

We couldn't agree more. Take action today by signing our petition calling for a national right to vote and demand your U.S. Senator pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Take action to support voting rights after reading our Top 6 Things You Can Do to Support Democracy resource. You can also sign up to be a Democratizing Voter Protection Captain in your state and get trained to advocate for measures that make it easier for voters of color to vote with election officials. Register to vote, check your registration and encourage your family to register as well.  

If you’re a journalist attending the National Black & Hispanic Journalist Convention this week, watch our #NABJNAHJ session on voter suppression with Stacey Abrams TODAY at 11:30 a.m. ET.

In Solidarity,

Advancement Project National Office Team

P.S. Don’t forget to join us on August 10 at 2:00p.m. ET for a unique webinar on the impact sheriffs have on the school-to-prison pipeline. Register today!