Last year, after 33 years serving the people of Atlanta in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. John Lewis passed away at the age of 80. Lewis got his start in community organizing all the way back in 1961 when he became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, a role in which Lewis was assaulted and defamed. Following that campaign, Lewis assumed the role of chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the foremost student-based civil rights organization. He even helped organize the March on Washington. After that, he continued his community relations efforts and became a dedicated public servant, leading the conversation on anti-war and global peace in the House.
When John Lewis died, America lost a monumental figure in the fight for equality. And despite all the partisan posturing on that day, we’ve done little to honor his legacy.
Lewis gave his blood, sweat, and tears to the civil rights movement, campaigning hard for equal rights for Black people, including those at the polls. His death and the systemic barriers to voting during the 2020 election inspired calls for a voting rights reform. Unfortunately, such improvements have been slow to materialize.
One such proposal is the For the People Act of 2021, or HR1. This bill would mandate same-day voter registration, require states hold early voting, restore voting rights to felons, and even pre-register 16- and 17-year-olds to voter rolls. The most comprehensive of all the voting rights proposals, there are dozens of other provisions relating to campaign finance, ethics, and election security. All told, this bill would create a national framework for voting rights, which currently exist as a state-by-state patchwork of mismatching laws.
Another is the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, which would amend provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 gutted by the Supreme Court. Section 4 of that law argued that because some areas of the country had historically suppressed the votes of communities of color, they deserved higher scrutiny by the courts. In its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court ruled that this provision was unconstitutional, opening a massive loophole for voter suppression. States like Texas and Iowa have used this loophole to pass oppressive laws, mostly in minority areas. The bill named for John Lewis would permanently close this loophole by elevating the judicial scrutiny for these states.
Both bills have been held up in the Senate by a refusal to eliminate the filibuster by some in the Democratic party. While frustrating, it’s unsurprising that the filibuster is standing in the way of voting rights. After all, segregationists were some of its earliest supporters. Later, in the twentieth century, the filibuster was most used to derail civil rights proposals. The new push for voting rights is just another chapter of legislators weaponizing the filibuster against communities of color.
As we remember John Lewis, we must remember what he gave to the civil rights movement. We must give an equal effort to sway Democrats into eliminating the filibuster entirely. It’s the only thing standing in the way of voting rights for all. Its removal from our politics is necessary, not optional. Without that, the work of John Lewis is incomplete.
