Companies Promised to Fight for Voting Rights, You’re Failing Us

Black men and women stand in line in the rain while trying to register in a priority book to take a voter registration test in Selma, Ala., Feb. 17, 1965. (AP)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s restrictive voting law despite its disproportionate negative effect on Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans. A decision solidified in a 6–3 decision with enough votes from Supreme Court justices added to the Court.

The Voting Rights Act was introduced into Congress a week after Black men and women were violently beaten on a day infamously known as Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, 1965. This bill required members of Congress to overcome the filibuster — a parliamentarian rule consistently used by segregationists to block Civil Rights legislation, including the 1965 Civil Rights Act of which we celebrate the anniversary today. Legislation protecting the rights of People of Color and women promised in the U.S. Constitution.

The Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s are a legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. After fervent lobbying by King, John Lewis, the SCLC, NAACP, SNCC, National Urban League, Congress on Racial Equality, and countless other patriots tirelessly marching for equality, these laws — including the Voting Rights Act — were passed.

However, with yesterday’s ruling combined with the 2013 Shelby County decision, the Supreme Court has successfully gutted and defanged the most effective tool against voter discrimination in history.

A legacy of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement is left abandoned.

With the Voting Rights Act rendered powerless, more restrictive laws — including ones that target Native Americans in Arizona, Asian Americans in Georgia, and other states — will go into effect further abridging the sacred right to vote enshrined in the 15th Amendment.

An amendment passed after a brutal war instigated by a white supremacist insurgency devoted to maintaining the institution of slavery. A war ended by those devoted to freedom, liberty, equality, and national unity.

Companies promised to stand up for voting rights including a call on politicians to guarantee these sacred rights. And we hope actions support these promises. But, right now, you are failing.

And we need your help.