John,

55 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into federal law.

This monumental legislation did not become law without a fight. In March of 1965, John Lewis led a march from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Alabama stormtroopers brutally attacked them, sending 17 marchers to the hospital.

Congressman John Lewis often said he thought he was going to die on that bridge. Instead, the marchers' righteous courage in the face of violent injustice inspired action from people across the country. 8 days after Selma, President Johnson sent the first draft of what would become the Voting Rights Act to Congress.

Congress and the President acted because Americans nationwide rose up and demanded change.

But in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key component of the Voting Rights Act, allowing states across the country to unleash a wave of new laws and tactics designed to deny people of color the right to vote.

In 2019, Congressman John Lewis gaveled in a bipartisan vote to approve the Voting Rights Advancement Act in the House of Representatives.

On the 55th anniversary of the first Voting Rights Act's passage, the Senate should honor John Lewis's memory by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Add your name to our petition if you agree >>

John Lewis was an American hero. As President Obama said in his stirring eulogy, "someday, when we do finish that long journey toward freedom; when we do form a more perfect union… John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America."

John Lewis never stopped fighting for the rights of all people in the face of violent injustice and oppression.

We should cement his legacy today by making the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act the law of the land.

If you agree, add your name to our petition today calling on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We should honor John Lewis's legacy by protecting the right to vote for every American >>

Thank you for adding your voice to this fight today, and for all you do to protect our most fundamental rights.

— Charles

Charles Chamberlain, Chair
Democracy for America