At a meeting at the White House Monday with the president and civil rights leaders,
Eric Holder reiterated his announcement last week that the DOJ will not be dragging its feet
in bringing action against discriminatory voting laws.
Some 15 civil rights leaders
emerged from a 45-minute meeting at the White House Monday afternoon saying they were heartened by what they said was President Obama's commitment not to roll over in the face of the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision outrageous weakening the Voting Rights Act. Those in attendance included Attorney General Eric Holder and representatives of the National Action Network, NAACP, ACLU, National Council of La Raza, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Urban League.
One participant quoted the president as saying "When you think about it, this is small-bore stuff compared to lynching and shootings and killings that happened 50 years ago," and "this is within our power to change."
The Rev. Al Sharpton said he and other participants at the meeting will work with the Department of Justice to collect evidence of discrimination against voters:
“We’ve been assured by the president and attorney general that they will continue to aggressively fight to protect the right of all Americans to vote,” he said. “They are open to many of us on the ground to continue to use the Voting Rights Act–it is not dead–and to resources to bring information of any violation of voting rights directly to the Justice Department.”
“There is a wound in the voting rights act but it is far from dead, it is not even on critical, and we intend to use the information that we have today to assure our constituents that we intend to aggressively fight to protect those rights in all communities, which is why everyone—the Latino, the Asian, the black communities—were represented in this meeting today,” he added.
That fight has already begun. Eight of the 11 states of the Old Confederacy have passed or made moves in the direction of passing new voter restrictions since the Supreme Court handed down its decision. Last Thursday, Holder
announced that the DOJ will seek a federal court ruling in Texas that creates a requirement for all changes in voting laws to be pre-cleared by the federal government under sections of the Voting Rights Act not wrecked by the Supreme Court's ruling. Holder said this first action by DOJ won't be the last and that he and his staff are "determined to use every tool at our disposal to stand against discrimination wherever it is found."
The civil rights leaders said they will march and rally in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 24, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
At a press conference after the White House meeting, Democratic Rep. Alan Williams of Florida said that Trayvon Martin, slain at age 17, would have been old enough to vote in 2014: “That’s very sacred and it’s not lost on us. We’re going to make sure that everyone has that opportunity.”