U.S. Attorney General; Sustained Efforts to Disfranchise Black Voters

MarchersPhoto byAustrian National LibraryonUnsplash

US attorney general Merrick Garland spoke to a Selma church service that was commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday police attack on civil rights activists.

Garland said decisions by the supreme court and lower courts since 2006 have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and that the right to vote in the US is under attack.

A recent spate of gerrymandering voter districts and restrictions on voting early, elaborate ID requirements, and trying to ban vote by mail, all of which occur primarily in Republican controlled states, are all attempts to dissuade voting for the benefit of one party.

Images of the violence surrounding the march in Selma shocked the nation at the time. Despite the resultant voting rights legislation that was passed, the right to vote is still not guaranteed.

The coming election may become a watershed for the rights of individuals in this nation. A return to the 18th Century would not seem to be of benefit to modern society.