President Barak Obama has launched campaign for the right of blacks to vote, even as he called on the Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act. The Act is a historic 1965 law that removed legal barriers that prevented African-Americans from exercising their right to vote.
“Our state leaders and legislatures must make it easier — not harder — for more Americans to have their voices heard.”
The president said that he was “inspired” by Jim Rutenberg’s August 2 cover story, “A Dream Undone: Instead the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act.”
“The Voting Rights Act put an end to literacy tests and other forms of discrimination, helping to close the gap between our promise that all of us are created equal and our long history of denying some of us the right to vote,” Obama said.
“The impact was immediate, and profound — the percentage of African-Americans registered to vote skyrocketed in the years after the Voting Rights Act was passed. But as Rutenberg chronicles, from the moment the ink was dry on the Voting Rights Act, there has been a concentrated effort to undermine this historic law and turn back the clock on its progress.
“These efforts are not a sign that we have moved past the shameful history that led to the Voting Rights Act,” the president added.
“Too often, they are rooted in that history. They remind us that progress does not come easy, but that it must be vigorously defended and built upon for ourselves and future generations.”
In his story, Rutenberg profiled Rosanell Eaton, a plaintiff in a North Carolina case arguing to repeal voting restrictions that were enacted in 2013. Obama called the 94-year-old an “unsung American hero.”
“She has not given up,” he said, adding: “She’s still marching. She’s still fighting to make real the promise of America. She still believes that We the People have the awesome power to make our union more perfect. And if we join her, we, too, can reaffirm the fundamental truth of the words Rosanell recited. [myad]
