African Americans Challenge Supreme Court Over Voting Rights Act: ‘Hell No, We’re Not Going Back’

[deminks]

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/03/07/3630512/african-americans-challenge-supreme-court-voting-rights-act-hell-no-not-going-back/

SHELBY COUNTY, ALABAMA — When Dr. Earl Cunningham first tried to register to vote in his hometown of Montevallo in 1953, he was asked to pay a poll tax of $1.50, answer obscure questions about the state constitution and have a white employer vouch for his character. After he did all this successfully, the county clerk told him to go buy his own pencil at a shop down the street in order to fill out the necessary forms.

“Then you know what he told me?” said Cunningham. “He said, ‘Sign your name, if you can.'”

Decades later, in 2013, Cunningham sat in the front row of the US Supreme Court as a majority of the justices decided to gut the law that put an end to those restrictive practices: the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, he was one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which argued that federal protection was still needed for states and counties — like Shelby — with a history of racism and voter suppressions.

“I remember hearing one of the justices describe the law as an ‘racial entitlement.’ I wanted to scream,” he told ThinkProgress. “Voting rights is the foundation of liberty, and Section 5 is the heart of the Voting Rights Act.”

(snip)

“My neighborhood is diverse now, but it wasn’t because people woke up one day and said to Black folks, ‘Hey, you can move near me now.’ It was federal housing laws that done it,” he said. “Same with the Voting Rights Act. Why would we get rid of the laws that got us to where we are now? If the medicine is working, why stop taking it?”

(end snip)

[marym625]

1. K&R!

[Faux pas]

2. Kickin'

[ReRe]

3. K&R

Whew! So much going on today, but I had to stop and rec this. Thanks, deminks.

[world wide wally]

4. We simply MUST dismantle this Supreme Court.

It is our only chance to preserve any semblance of democracy in America.
And it depends on YOUR vote!

[BrotherIvan]

5. This article should be read by everyone

The memorial in Selma today is being touted as a completion: the first black president. But still, concurrently, black folk are being denied the right to vote. They are being turned away by long lines and precinct closure. The Republicans are eating away at every string of the programs put in place to make sure that people, ALL PEOPLE, have the right to their vote, to education and fair housing, to safety and protection, and RIGHT TO LIFE which they are guaranteed just by being born within our borders. I always hear a lot about civil rights when it comes to guns, but rarely do we talk about the actual intrinsic rights to citizens.

Today is not the culmination or even the fruition of the civil rights movement. It is an ongoing march.

[libdem4life]

6. Well, if today's speech didn't empower our brothers and sisters of color, as well as ourselves,

nothing will. I'm prouder today of my country than I was yesterday.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. Bookmarking to read later...

but went ahead and rec'ed from what I read in the OP. I can't imagine how he didn't scream hearing voting equated to being a "racial entitlement"

[KMOD]

8. Kick

[Wella]

9. Was it Scalia who said the VRA was a "racial entitlement"?

I can't imagine anyone not understanding the VRA in context.