Latest Voting rights News
Supreme Court voting rights ruling stuns minority voters, who hope it expands their representation
WASHINGTON (AP) — This week's Supreme Court decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional districts was seen by many minority lawmakers and voting rights activists as a stunning victory with the potential to become a major stepping stone for undoing political maps that dilute the strength...
Voting rights marcher recalls being clubbed, hearing fatal gunshot during pivotal day of protests
MARION, Ala. (AP) — Della Simpson Maynor was just 14 when she marched for voting rights in her hometown of Marion, Alabama. Her most distinct memory of that evening is of the police attacking the demonstrators. She recalls one officer, on horseback, swinging at her head with a...
LBJ's daughter Luci watched him sign voting rights bill, then cried when Supreme Court weakened it
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Luci Baines Johnson was a somewhat impatient 18-year-old on Aug. 6, 1965, when she happened to be on what she called “daddy duty,” meaning “I was supposed to accompany him to important occasions.” The occasion that day was President Lyndon Johnson’s...
Young lawyer who helped write voting rights bill 'star-struck' as he witnessed 1965 signing into law
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joel Finkelstein is an accidental witness to one of the seminal events of the civil rights movement, the signing in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act. He was a year out of law school at Cornell when he received the call to head to the Capitol for the signing. Now 83,...
Voting activist killed during Freedom Summer in Mississippi believed country should be integrated
NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Schwerner doesn’t remember how he learned that his younger brother Michael, nicknamed Mickey, was missing in Mississippi along with colleagues Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. What he remembers is that as soon as the family heard the news, they were certain of the young...
Activist's fight against segregation evolved into political action to push for voting rights
NEW YORK (AP) — Norman Hill was at the AFL-CIO office in Washington, D.C., in August 1965, and recalls cheering when he learned the Voting Rights Act had passed Congress. He then took a moment to remember the people “who were killed, literally, struggling to try to get Blacks registered to...
Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle
They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades ago, an era driven by segregation, violence and the yearning for equality that eventually led to laws bringing the U.S. closer to its promise of democracy for all its citizens. ...
Supreme Court tossed out heart of Voting Rights Act a decade ago, prompting wave of new voting rules
ATLANTA (AP) — Within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court decision dismantling a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Texas lawmakers announced plans to implement a strict voter ID law that had been blocked by a federal court. Lawmakers in Alabama said they would press forward with a similar law...
People with felony convictions can now vote in Minnesota; secretary of state celebrates
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — At a celebration of Minnesota’s new law that restores voting rights to people who have left prison, Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon registered newly eligible voters Thursday, when the law went into effect. “It is the largest single act of...
Justice Dept. settles with New Jersey county over ballot languages, highlighting widespread barrier
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has reached a settlement with a New Jersey county over language barriers for Spanish-speaking voters, emphasizing a growing challenge for certain minority communities nationwide. The agreement with Union County comes after federal...
