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Love democracy? Protect minorities, re-up the Voting Rights Act

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Re-up the Voting Rights Act.

Date published: 8/16/2005

IN AUGUST 1965, five months after the infamous beatings of nonviolent civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act into law.

In the four decades since its passage, the act has come to be regarded as one of the most successful civil rights laws in our nation's history, and with good reason. Prior to its enactment, there were fewer than 300 African-Americans in public office in the United States, virtually none of whom were in the South. Today, there are nearly 300 in Virginia alone and more than 9,000 nationwide, including 43 members of Congress, one of whom proudly represents our commonwealth.

Virginia is replete with successful Voting Rights Act stories. Less than 25 years ago in Hopewell, for example, African-Americans were effectively shut out of city politics, holding no elected offices. Although they comprised 20 percent of the city's population, the discriminatory design of Hopewell's election plan made it mathematically impossible for minorities to be elected to public office.

Under the Voting Rights Act, Hopewell drew a racially fair electoral plan, and the first African-American was elected to office in the mid-1980s. After the release of the 1990 Census data, Hopewell's City Council, again adhering to the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, drew up yet another election plan. During the next election cycle, two African-Americans were elected to City Council.

Then in 1998, Hopewell's still overwhelmingly white City Council did the unthinkable: In a city that had prevented any minority from holding elected office from Reconstruction to the mid-1980s, they voluntarily elected an African-American to be their mayor.

Like most political jurisdictions, Hopewell is not without its problems. But thanks to the Voting Rights Act, its minority citizens today have a real voice in the governance of the community where they live and work.

There are many Hopewell-like success stories in Virginia, and hundreds across the country. But the work of the Voting Rights Act is not yet done. Many state and local governments still erect barriers to minority political participation, and the risk of losing the gains we have made is great.

Date published: 8/16/2005