“When that decision came down yesterday you know who I was thinking of? John Lewis, who was beaten almost to death in 1961 on the Freedom Rides—who was almost beaten to death on the Pettus Bridge between Selma and Montgomery when they were fighting for voting rights. I thought of all of those now forgotten martyrs—young black men and women—who died fighting for voting rights. I thought of Bernard Lafayette who was beaten two or three times. I thought of all of those guys who stood up so that everyone in this country irrespective of race, religion, creed, income—were all equal in that voting booth. I thought of them. And it was a betrayal of their martyrdom that this court said, ‘It’s gonna be okay for you to go back and try to put discriminatory laws against voting in different places’.” —Bill Moyers, on Supreme Court ruling against Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act Read more: This Week in Poverty: The Unfinished March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom | The Nation thenation/blog/175022/week-poverty-unfinished-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom#ixzz2XXhN53Qo Follow us: @thenation on Twitter | TheNationMagazine on Facebook
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 19:53:55 +0000
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