Portside

There’s a comforting myth in the United States that suggests African-Americans steadily moved from absolute slavery to complete freedom following the Civil War. This, however, obscures how hard many Americans of every race had fought against racism since the Revolution. It was a struggle that went deeper than slavery and right to the core of who was an American.

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This weekend, thousands of people -- including one-fifth of the U.S. Congress and President Obama -- are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the famous Selma to Montgomery march. The irony is rich: The 1965 Selma march -- and the violent "Bloody Sunday" caused by Alabama troopers -- is credited with speeding passage of the Voting Rights Act, Yet voting rights in the South and the Voting Rights Act itself are in their most precarious position in half a century.

The attack on voting rights has spread to virtually every state in the country. From 2011 to 2015, 395 new voting restrictions have been introduced in forty-nine states (Idaho is the lone exception). Half the states in the country have adopted measures making it harder to vote. The Selma anniversary offers lawmakers a prime opportunity to move from symbolism to substance.

USSA announces Campaign Toolkits are ready for USSA’s big campaigns: Fund The Future and State of Emergency. Toolkits are ready-to-go manuals everything from sample petitions and student government resolutions to tips on planning rallies and meet with legislators. Fund The Future is part of USSA’s efforts to win FREE Higher Education by doubling Pell Grants and increasing student eligibility. State of Emergency seeks to end racial profiling and restore voting rights.

My husband James Bevel and I conceptualized and wrote the plan that became the Selma Right to Vote movement. We believed that if Negroes in Alabama could vote, they could better protect their children from things like the Alabama church bombing.

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The solution, both to America's voting access problem and to alleviating public concerns about fraud, is to establish an affirmative right to vote.

Voters in fifteen states—many with tight races—will face new restrictions at the polling booth for the first time in November.

Voter suppression is not new. We've seen grandfather clauses, poll taxes, and literacy tests as historical barriers to the vote. Now, we see a reduction in voter flexibility, with more ID requirements, fewer early voting days, and stricter rules about voter registration.