A hundred people gathered on the lawn of the Shelby County Courthouse in Columbiana, Alabama on June 25, 2019, the sixth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Shelby vs. Holder to protest and call for renewal of the Voting Rights Act.
The protest in Columbiana was part of a series of national events, coordinated by “Lift Our Vote 2020”, to restore the preclearance and other provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which were stripped away in the Shelby vs. Holder Supreme County decision.
The Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision in June 2013, decided that due to progress in voting rights, that states and political subdivisions that previously had been required tosubmit changes in voting rules and procedures, such as district lines, polling place locations and times, early voting, voter ID, and many others, were no longer required to seek preclearance from the U. S. Department of Justice for these changes.
As a result of this Supreme Court decision many states, particularly in the southern states of the ‘ old Confederacy’ have instituted changes to make it more difficult for Black and other minority people to vote. In Alabama and other states, strict photo identification requirements have been put in place, early voting has been curtailed, voter lists have been severely purged as a result of the decision.
Bernard Simelton, State President of the NAACP said, “When five justices on the Supreme Court gutted the VRA in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case, they made it easier for states and localities to revert back to discriminatory practices that restrict the voting rights of Black, Brown, Native American, and Asian American people.  It is time we address this injustice so that we have the tools to effectively combat current racial discrimination in voting.”
Attorney Faya Rose Toure from Selma said, “The Shelby vs. Holder decision was the 21st century version of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1850, which said that Black people had no rights that white people were bound to respect. We must work to restore the VRA and make sure that our people vote in every election for every contest on the ballot.”
Faya Rose and Jessica Barker spoke about plans for an August 3 to 7 bus ride to support amending and strengthening the Voting Rights Act . The buses will leave Selma that morning and drive to state capitols in Montgomery, Atlanta, Columbia, Raleigh, Richmond and on to Washington D. C. There will be a major rally in Washington D. C. on August 6, the 54th. anniversary of the passage and signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Rev. Kenneth Glascow of The Ordinary People’s Society, based in Dothan, Alabama spoke to the problems of disenfranchisement of incarcerated and prevuiously incarcerated people in Alabama and other states. “ We must make sure that people in jails awaiting trial can vote before their convictions and we must restore the vote to any persons who complete their prison sentences,” he said.
John Zippert speaking on behalf of the Alabama New South Coalitrion and the SOS Coalition for Justice and Democracy urged everyone to register to vote, to organize people in their communities to vote and to vote in every election for all for all conytests and items on the ballot.
For more information contact Alabama New South Coalition at 334/262-0932 or alabamanewsouth@aol.com and
Lift Our Vote 2020 at Liftourvote@gmail.com.