It's Not Just the Sins of the Grandfathers

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Facade of Supreme Court building.
United States Supreme Court, Washington, D.C.

A popular attack by critics of the Voting Rights Act is that the covered jurisdictions are being punished for the sins of their grandfathers.  It’s an argument that doesn’t hold water but it doesn’t stop people from repeating it, especially in the lead-up to the oral argument in Shelby County v. Holder. Two short new videos from the Leadership Conference lay bare these claims and hammer home the continuing need for voter protections afforded by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The videos show that discriminatory voting practices are by no means a thing of the past.  They focus on two recent attempts to disenfranchise voters through laws passed by the legislatures of South Carolina and Texas—state laws that were blocked thanks to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  Real people who would have lost their ability to vote were it not for Section 5 share their stories.

To watch the videos, click here.