World History

Rep. John Lewis

Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, on the Struggle to Win, and Now Protect, Voting Rights in U.S.

Citys-Logo_change-color_GrToday we spend the hour with 13-term Congressmember Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, one of the last surviving speakers from the historic 1963 March on Washington, D.C. — which took place 50 years ago this year. During the 1960s, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times and beaten nearly to death as he served as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, marched side by side with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped organize the Freedom Rides, and campaigned for Robert Kennedy’s presidential bid.

We look at the bloody struggle to obtain — and protect — voting rights in the United States with Lewis. He reflects on the ongoing struggle for voting rights today, when 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws that critics say target people of color. “It is so important for people to understand, to know that people suffered, struggled,” Lewis says. “Some people bled, and some died, for the right to participate. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool that we have in a democratic society. It’s precious. It’s almost sacred. We have to use it. If not, we will lose it.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We spend today’s hour looking at the bloody struggle to obtain—and protect—voting rights in this country, in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court decision to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. In a five-to-four decision, justices ruled Congress has used obsolete information in continuing to require nine states with a history of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval for changes to voting rules. The Voting Rights Act was challenged by Shelby County, Alabama, which argued the preclearance requirement has outlived its usefulness. Just two hours after the ruling, Texas said it would enact a voter ID law that was blocked last year for discriminating against African-American and Latino residents. Alabama followed suit.

This is Congressmember John Lewis of Georgia speaking on MSNBC last week just after the Supreme Court ruling.

REP. JOHN LEWIS: I was disappointed, because I think what the court did today is stab the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its very heart. It is a major setback. We may not have people being beaten today. Maybe they’re not being denied the right to participate or to register to vote. They’re not being chased by police dogs or trampled by horses. But in the 11 states of the Old Confederacy, and even in some of the states outside of the South, there’s been a systematic, deliberate attempt to take us back to another period. And these men that voted to strip the Voting Rights Act of its power, they never stood in unmovable lines. They never had to pass a so-called literacy test. It took us almost a hundred years to get where we are today. So will it take another hundred years to fix it, to change it?

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember John Lewis reacting to the Supreme Court ruling striking down the Voting Rights Act last week.

Well, today we bring you an extended interview with the Georgia congressmember, John Lewis, a civil rights leader who risked his life numerous times marching for the right of all Americans to vote. He marched side by side with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, helped organize the Freedom Rides and spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, which took place 50 years ago next month. He has been arrested more than 40 times and has just written a new book called Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change.

Congressmember Lewis visited us in our studio last year, and I began by asking him about the voter purge in Florida ahead of the 2012 election, where the Justice Department had sued to block Republican Governor Rick Scott’s controversial effort to remove thousands of registered voters from the rolls, using an outdated drivers’ license database to ostensibly identify non-citizens registered to vote.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/5/rep_john_lewis_civil_rights_icon

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