As the nation mourns for nine black Americans murdered in a Charleston, South Carolina, church, let us never forget that this most recent incident of domestic terrorism is part of a long series of murders, not only of blacks, but of whites who worked in solidarity with black activists. Today is the anniversary of the tragic deaths of three young civil rights workers, on the night of June 21 and 22 in Neshoba County, Mississippi, whose deaths brought the attention of the nation to the issue of voting rights, and whose murders influenced the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Our voting rights were paid for in blood, and as we watch voter repression and suppression rulings pass in state legislatures, and the current radical extremists on the Supreme Court gutting voting rights, it is time to fight back even harder to ensure that these young men and so many others did not die in vain.
"The right to vote is precious and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our democracy. Today we must be vigilant in protecting that blessing."
Congressman John Lewis
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