SOLVE Calls to Protect Multiracial Democracy on VRA Anniversary

The following is a statement from the SOLVE Network, a coalition of 300 grassroots groups dedicated to voting access, on the 60^th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6.  

August 6th marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a watershed moment in our country when critical protections for minority voters, and in particular Black and Brown Americans, were enacted to stop discriminatory voting practices.   

Passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, the Voting Rights Act is one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in our country. It came from the tremendous and brave advocacy of Black Americans and allies who challenged the violence and cruelty of white supremacy and Jim Crow laws that violated the voting rights of Black Americans across the South.    

However, we have seen the VRA’s promises of freedom to have a say over the decisions that impact our lives and pick our leaders broken with waves of restrictions to the ballot in Southern states, that continually come.  

Harmful court decisions beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder (2013) and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021) have weakened the Voting Rights Act and effectively given a greenlight for discriminatory voting practices and unfair voting maps to go largely unremedied in the South.  

The Southern Leadership for Voter Engagement network has noted and described the multitude of voter suppression bills that have been passed since Shelby County in 2013. Meanwhile, Congress has failed to respond to the crisis for years, by failing to update the Voting Rights Act as previous Congresses have.  

We, members of Southern Leadership for Voter Engagement Network, a coalition of close to 300 grassroots voting rights groups based in Southern communities, are demanding restoration of the protections afforded in the Voting Rights Act and an urgently needed strengthening of these protections through other measures that will address modern day methods of voter suppression.   

We need these comprehensive voting rights protections more than ever, as we experience the most brazen attacks on our civil rights and democracy in a generation.    

Just as before, the movement for this change must come from the people and include the South as a central focus given how inequitable the forces of discrimination and disenfranchisement have fallen on our communities.  

We will work together to strengthen, preserve, and perfect our nation’s multiracial democracy until every citizen is fully and fairly served by our nation’s promise of just and equal electoral access.   

Endorsing organizations include the following SOLVE members: