Reflection, Celebration and Renewal: The Voting Rights Act at 40

Crisis, The, Jul/Aug 2005 by Shaw, Theodore M, Nelson, Janai S

As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), we must not only recognize its historical significance, but also celebrate its successes and work to restore its force.

For four decades the VRA has been a powerful tool in courts throughout the country to protect African Americans and other minorities from discriminatory election practices, ranging from at-large elections and redistricting plans that dilute Black voting strength to biased election administrations. In addition, as a result of the VRA, there are more than 9,000 Black elected officials. Most of these officials are elected from districts created or protected under the VRA in which minorities form a majority of the voters.

But despite these achievements, much more needs to be done. Key provisions of the VRA are set to expire in 2007. As direct beneficiaries of many of the act's provisions, African Americans and other minorities stand to lose significant voting rights protections if we do not rally together to demand that the VRA's provisions are reauthorized and remain consistent with the letter and the spirit of the 14th and 15th amendments, which the act enforces.

This is our simple charge if we are to maintain the political gains of the last 40 years and ensure that more are achieved in coming decades.

Protecting the Vote

On its face, the VRA specifically outlaws several discriminatory practices that were direct barriers to Black civic participation and political advancement, including literacy or good character tests and arbitrary registration rules. The legislation gives African Americans the right to challenge any voting qualification, practice or procedure that is intended to or has the effect of denying minority voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.

Through the ongoing enforcement of the VRA in courts and other arenas, minority voters have won numerous victories. For example, the VRA has been used to create and protect many districts that give African Americans the ability to elect candidates in the face of persistent racial bloc voting.

Every decade since passage of the VRA, Louisiana has had discriminatory redistricting plans rejected. And it is fair to say that the Congressional Black Caucus would not boast a membership of 43 today without the expiring VRA provisions.

More recently, a coalition of civil rights organizations used the VRA in a class action lawsuit against Florida, seven of its counties and two of its administrative agencies. The lawsuit stemmed from the discriminatory practices of the 2000 general elections. The settlement reached required the defendants to, among other things, identify and restore eligible voters who were removed from voter rolls and create new procedures to prevent future mistakes; improve training of poll workers; and distribute equipment, technology and staffing fairly among precincts.

Currently, the VRA is the basis of three federal lawsuits challenging laws that prevent people with felony convictions from voting. These laws have had a major impact on the political participation of African Americans and Latinos who are over-represented in the prison system. More than two million minorities with felony convictions are denied the right to vote every election cycle.

Similarly, in the wake of proliferating legislation requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, the VRA is being used to require certain states to prove that these laws will not have a disproportionate impact on minority voters, who often do not possess such identification.

For example, in Georgia, the legislature recently passed a bill requiring citizens to present valid state photo identification at the polls. According to section 5 of the VRA, Georgia's new law will have to be pre-cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice before it is implemented. The state has to prove that the legislation will not have a negative impact on minorities' right to vote.

These are just a sampling of the contemporary contexts in which the VRA successfully operates to protect Black voting rights today.

A Call for Renewal and Restoration

We've come a long way since the occurrence of Bloody Sunday - in which hundreds were attacked by law enforcement during a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., on March 7, 1965 - and lesser-known violent incidents that prompted the VRA's passage. In fact, the significant advancements in Black political participation in both electing and voting should leave little doubt that VRA provisions must be renewed. First, however, it is important to understand what is up for renewal and what is at stake.

Despite the message of an infamous e-mail currently in circulation claiming that Blacks will lose their right to vote in 2007, the 15th Amendment guarantees that the right to vote cannot be denied to African Americans or other minorities on account of their race. Period. However, the VRA was enacted to enforce both the 14th and 15th Amendments, and certain provisions will expire in 2007 if not renewed by Congress. They include the following: