Selma: Honoring the courage of democracy heroes

Every March, we commemorate the heroism of the people of a small town in Alabama who decided to put their bodies on the line to hold America accountable to the promise of its democracy. For the Lawyers’ Committee, the convener of Election Protection Coalition, the nation’s largest non-partisan voter support coalition that administers the 866-OUR-VOTE voter assistance hotline, this remembrance holds a special place within our collective hearts. In 1965, ninety-five years after the passage of the 15th Amendment, which prohibited voting discrimination on the basis of race, many states in the former confederacy responded to the opening of our democracy by defiantly refusing to allow African Americans access to the ballot through both legal and extralegal means. For decades, these states passed laws that included literacy tests, poll taxes, character tests, grandfather clauses, racial gerrymandering, and harassment and violence. The lesson of Selma that we must take to heart today is that citizens do not need to depend on the political class to find the courage to do what’s right. We can force the government to take necessary action.

The hundreds who gathered to pray in front of Browns Chapel in Selma before the march knew the danger that was inherent at the time in demanding a voice in our democracy and yet they courageously showed up. They lined up behind 25-year-old John Lewis, then chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and 39-year-old Hosea Williams, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and silently approached the 150 state troopers who brutally attacked them with batons and tear gas. 

In response to witnessing the barbarity against the citizens who gathered to march 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery, which was broadcast across the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech to the nation that adopted the language of the civil rights movement. This was no accident. Understanding that the attack on the marchers was an attack on American Democracy, President Johnson began his speech by saying “I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of the country, to join me in that cause.” He acknowledged that it was the efforts of the civil rights movement that compelled to respond by mentioning its constant refrain, “we shall overcome” in his speech and tied the need for political action to the demands of the movement. Six months later, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law the transformational Voting Rights Act. This law finally made the words of the 15th Amendment real and America became a true democracy. Among its provisions, the Act prohibited discrimination in voting nationwide (Section 2) and required jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting to submit voting changes for federal review before the changes could be implemented (Section 5).

However, in 2013, inShelby County v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court began weakening these vital protections of the Voting Rights Act. Significantly, it found that the formula which determined which states were subject to federal review to be unconstitutional. This is the very formula that in 2006, Congress reviewed and overwhelmingly found to still be needed to protect voters from discrimination. Brazenly, the day of the decision, Texas, one of the states subject to Section 5 of the Act, announced it would begin implementing its voting laws that were previously found to be discriminatory after Department of Justice and federal courts review. Other states followed the decision by passing omnibus suppressive voting legislation. The Fourth Circuit’s finding that North Carolina’s suppressive voting laws were enacted with “surgical precision” to target African American voters became the trend of these laws. Not surprisingly, the result of these suppressive laws have been an increase in racial disparities in access to the ballot. The gap in participation rates for Black voters and White voters has increased in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, states previously subjected to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. 

This trend of states continuously passing suppressive legislation addressing the very means that voters have used to overcome previously enacted barriers in the prior election must stop. As in 1965, we need Congress to act. The lesson of Selma is that Congress will act when embarrassed to do so after being confronted with the broken bodies of peaceful protestors. It should not have to come to that. But we do need everyone in this country who cares about the future of our democracy to continuously insist that Congress do its job to ensure that every vote can be cast free from discrimination or harassment. As the late great John Lewis, who had his skull fractured by state troopers during that first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery has urged us: “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” In honor of his sacrifice and that of countless foot soldiers of the civil rights movement, the courageous many who put their lives on the line, I urge every American to constantly and consistently insist that all elected officials do their part to protect our democracy by making sure that the right to vote is protected. After all, democracies only survive if their citizenry remain engaged and hold both their leaders and institutions accountable. We need to each ask ourselves, what part will we play in making sure that this country is a vibrant democracy and that our elected officials are not emboldened to create barriers to silence the voices of voters, particularly those historically disenfranchised.

Marcia Johnson is co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.