Congresswoman Lawrence Commemorates the 50th Anniversary of The VRA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Lawrence (MI-14) released the following statement in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and called upon her colleagues in Congress to make the restoration of this landmark piece of legislation among its first order of business upon their return to session.

"The passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 became the foundation for ensuring that states that blatantly discriminated against African Americans, and many other people of color, meet a series of simple but important requirements to ensure all American citizens had the right to vote. As hard as it is to understand, the Supreme Court of the United States of American in 2013 threw out most of the VRA, though the court did not strike down Section 5 itself, leaving it to Congress to devise a new formula for the VRA.”

“Today, on the 50th anniversary of the first passage of the VRA, I call on my colleagues in Congress to do just that and to restore the Act so that no citizen of this great nation, the world's most successful Democracy, be denied the one right that best defines what it means to be an American. The time to act is now and we must succeed so that current and future generations will have a voice and the means to shape their own destiny and realize their American dreams."