(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
After Death of John Lewis, Democrats Renew Push for Voting Rights Law [1]
['Luke Broadwater']
Date: 2020-07-21
WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Monday to lament the death of Representative John Lewis, a civil rights icon whom the Republican leader called a “monumental figure” who made “huge personal sacrifices to help our nation move past the sin of racism.”
While many Democrats welcomed the tribute, they immediately pressed for more than just reverent words: If Mr. McConnell and Republicans really wanted to honor Mr. Lewis, they argued, they should agree to restore the voting rights protections that were the cause of his life, which were stripped away by the Supreme Court seven years ago.
The death of Mr. Lewis, who was brutally beaten in 1965 while demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, Ala., has renewed a push by Democrats and civil rights activists to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, a move that Republicans have steadfastly opposed, and name it in his honor.
“The law he nearly died for has been gutted by the Supreme Court,” Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said Monday on the Senate floor. “Congress has the power to restore it. But only one party seems interested in doing so.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/john-lewis-voting-rights-act.html
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
