A civil rights coalition is urging the U.S. Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
According to the coalition, more than 200 civil rights and democracy organizations showed their support for the reintroduction of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Senate.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on the reintroduction of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, S. 4, in the U.S. Senate:
“Millions of voters are finding it harder to vote. They’re drawn into maps designed to protect politicians, not earn votes, and are told, despite years of voting, that they haven’t proven they belong in our democracy. Extremists who prefer a White, Christian and male controlled country don’t mind destroying our rights to see a return to the days when Black people, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans could be blocked from the ballot but told it’s not due to racism.
“As we approach the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we face a captured Supreme Court, where an ideological majority has abandoned decades of precedent. And as we look toward the 2026 midterms, we face a Trump administration openly threatening to disenfranchise tens of millions based on lies about who is voting.
“We are not just celebrating 60 years of voting rights, we’re calling out more than a decade of deliberate harm aimed at voters of color. Those in power see the rise of a multiracial democracy as a threat, and they are doing everything they can to silence it.
“But we won’t be silenced. We will not be threatened into submission. We will keep rising up and speaking out for the fundamental right to decide who represents us and what they do with our power.
“We call on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, along with the Freedom to Vote Act, the Native American Voting Rights Act, and DC statehood bill. This freedom package of laws are urgently needed to hold anti-voter politicians accountable for their attacks on our multiracial democracy.”
Maya Wiley recently joined coalition leaders and Senators in a press conference on the reintroduction of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which can be viewed online.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, saying it works toward an America as good as its ideals.
