Folks,

On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the most consequential civil rights law of our time, prohibiting states from denying the right to vote based on race or color.

The legislative victory we achieved on that sacred day was hard fought by the 600 Foot Soldiers who risked their lives on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma just five months prior. These brave Americans had had enough of the voter suppression being waged against voters of color by state and local governments.

Even though the days of poll taxes and literacy tests are supposedly behind us, we’re still seeing the effects of systemic voter disenfranchisement today.

Old battles have become new again! GOP legislators across the country are working overtime to pass anti-democratic policies designed to keep Black and minority voters away from the polls.

We see their tactics -- from closed polling locations to purged voter rolls, and recognize that they are all masked efforts to exclude communities of color, rural communities, and young people from the electoral process.

And the Supreme Court isn’t helping. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby decision -- allowing states with a proven record of voter suppression to once again create barriers to the voting booth for people of color. And just this summer, they weakened the provision of the Voting Rights Act that allows voters to seek relief if a state or locality denies them the right to vote based on race in the Brnovich decision.

Provision by provision, they are chipping away at the Voting Rights Act.

Make no mistake - we are in the fight of our lives!

We’ve also seen the unwillingness of the GOP to pass legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that would restore and protect the essence of the original Voting Rights Act.

There is unfinished business in the Voting Rights Movement, and as my dear friend Representative John Lewis would say, “we’ve got to keep our eyes on the prize” and continue the fight to protect the sacred right to vote.

56 years ago we made history, and I won’t rest until we’ve done it again and cemented voting as an inalienable right for ALL Americans.

Thank you for reading,

Terri Sewell

P.S. I’m fighting to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, my legislation that expands and protects voting rights -- will you chip in and support my efforts? →  https://secure.actblue.com/donate/sewell-voting-rights