RESULTS responds to Supreme Court’s dismantling of the Voting Rights Act

RESULTS condemns the recent Supreme Court ruling dismantling the remaining viable components of the Voting Rights Act. In 1965, after years of tireless work—following centuries of struggle through slavery and Jim Crow—civil rights leaders were able to enshrine into law and practice the constitutional guarantee of  “one person, one vote” for all Americans. Sixty years later, the U.S. Supreme Court has turned jurisprudence on its head by gutting this landmark law and dishonoring those who have fought and died for equal protection under the law. The majority’s decision will further poison our politics by allowing extreme partisan and racially discriminatory gerrymandering. It will make challenging oppressive voting laws more difficult for marginalizing communities, whose voices are systemically shut out of the democratic process. 

Like those who fought for basic human rights in the decades before the VRA, it is hard to see through the darkness ahead. Reversing this travesty of justice will not be easy, and success is not assured. But, as Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” At RESULTS, our resolve remains firm, and our vision is clear. Poverty cannot end as long as oppression exists, and we will never back down from our mission of creating a world free of both.