Democracy 21 Applauds President Biden’s Efforts to Protect Voting Rights on the 56th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Democracy 21 Applauds President Biden’s Efforts to Protect Voting Rights on the 56th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

56 years ago today, undeterred by the violent forces opposing their progress, John Lewis led thousands of Americans across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, demanding the right to vote. Lewis was beaten senseless, and hundreds of others experienced unimaginable hatred and violence by the protectors of a cruel and racist system that denied people the right to vote based solely on the color of their skin.

Today, President Biden honored the memory of John Lewis and those who marched with him by issuing an executive order that will expand voter registration and voting access for all Americans.

In addition, and of enormous importance, President Biden also called upon Congress to pass S. 1 – the For the People Act – which along with H.R. 1 recently passed by the House contains the voting rights provisions that John Lewis worked so hard to pass for so many years, as well as H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Taken together, these two landmark pieces of legislation will finally guarantee every American citizen access to the ballot, regardless of one’s race or economic status. These two bills represent the fulfillment of a dream that has been waiting generations to become a reality.

And in the face of a coordinated effort in dozens of state legislatures around the country to once again deny citizens the right to vote, Democracy 21 calls on Congress to act swiftly to enact H.R. 1 and S. 1 into law and to do the same for H.R. 4 so that the words, the deeds, and the actions of John Lewis, along with innumerable others, will finally be fully realized.

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