- Sherrilyn Ifill Writes Op-Ed in The Bellingham Herald, Miami Herald, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch
“… it is ironic that as Selma is commemorated this month, the Voting Rights Act lies critically wounded by a 2013 Supreme Court decision and that an effort to fix that damage cannot even get a hearing in Congress. Although the Voting Rights Act has been reauthorized three times with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, there is as yet no Republican co-sponsor for the Senate bill and there has been no hearing in the House on proposed bills that would restore what the Supreme Court destroyed.”
- Sherrilyn Ifill pens Op-Ed in LA Times:
“…Without question, we must celebrate what happened [in Selma] 50 years ago. We must honor and lift up the vision, sacrifice and courage of the activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. and by the members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who literally put their lives on the line to bring true democracy to the South. But we must also demand that Americans of all races and all political parties come together again to restore the strength of the Voting Rights Act.”
- Janai Nelson writes Op-Ed on MSNBC:
“Congress is being called upon now to support the Voting Rights Act again. In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the part of the Voting Rights Act that triggered federal screening of voting changes in jurisdictions with a documented history of virulent racial discrimination in voting. The Court’s decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, took away the ability to preemptively challenge some of the most pernicious and retrogressive anti-voter laws before they discriminated against minorities. ”
“Since Shelby, there has been ample and incontrovertible evidence of its discriminatory fallout.”
- Ryan Haygood in Cincinnati.com:
“No elected official should come to Selma and leave without throwing their full-throated support behind passing the Voting Rights Amendment Act.”
‘”No elected official should come to Selma and leave without throwing their full-throated support behind passing the Voting Rights Amendment Act,” Ryan Haygood, Deputy Director of Litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said before Sunday’s event.’
- LA Times Endorses call for VRA action:
“African Americans no longer face billy clubs and tear gas when they seek to exercise the right to vote, but subtler forms of discrimination persist, and not only in the South. The best way to address them is through a national preclearance standard that addresses the court’s concerns while restoring protection for minority voting rights. Republicans in Congress can’t credibly honor the men and women who marched in Selma and oppose legislation that would safeguard and extend their achievement.”
- Sherrilyn Ifill in the New York Times:
“Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., urged listeners to call their representatives in Congress. “Tell them you demand a hearing on an amendment to the Voting Rights Act,” she said.”
- Janai Nelson on NPR:
“It almost brings tears to your eyes if not fully to know that we have come so far in these 50 years that we have gone from being, you know, forcibly denied the right to vote to electing the first black president and having him address us after serving two terms in office.”
- Sherrilyn Ifill video on DemocracyNow:
“… we need an amendment to the Voting Rights Act. Congress should take up the Voting Rights Act. But we can’t even get a hearing in the House. We’re not afraid of the facts. We’re not afraid of our position. All we want is to come together and talk about the issue, talk about the Voting Rights Act amendment, talk about what we need. If there are objections to it, tell us what they are in a hearing room. Give us the respect of bringing it to the table and having the American public hear what we want and what they want. So that’s what we’ve been asking for.”
- Janai Nelson tweet on NBCNews:
‘At Brown Chapel in Selma now, RevJJackson: “Selma is in the mirror; Shelby is in the windshield.”‘
- Sherrilyn Ifill on PBS NewHour (starting at 5:42)
- LDF in the SentinalSource.com:
“But it was also a conference. Saturday evening in the Brown Chapel, for example, lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund held a seminar on their voting rights work.”
- Sherrilyn Ifill in Politico:
“”Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, urged the congregation at Brown Chapel and the hundreds of people swarmed outside watching the proceedings on a jumbotron to leave Selma with three priorities: a renewal of the Voting Rights Act and police reform, but before anything, calling senators and urging them to move Lynch’s confirmation immediately.”
“That, Ifill said, is carrying on what the Selma’s legacy means”
‘“They did what they did under the threat of dogs and billy clubs and tear gas. You have to do what you must do today,” Ifill said.'”
- Leah Aden in ThinkProgress:
“Leah Aden with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which represented the Shelby County plaintiffs, told ThinkProgress she and other civil rights lawyers are currently scrambling to take over the monitoring the federal government once provided. She has Google alerts set up for areas with a history of discrimination, scours local newspapers and City Council minutes, and takes calls from voters around the country — reporting something as small as one polling place cutting its hours to something as big as a state requiring proof of citizenship at the polls.”
‘“It’s impossible for us to recreate the notice we used to get under Section 5,” she said. “And it’s so much harder for residents to bring a challenge. Why would they spend three to five years and potentially millions of dollars just to fight their city moving a polling place?”’
- Sherrilyn Ifill in the Wall Street Journal:
“Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, said the “Bloody Sunday” anniversary and the findings of bias in Ferguson had brought a range of important issues to the fore this past week. “It’s a moment when this whole country should be pausing,” she said. “We can no longer simply ignore the discussions about race and law enforcement.””
- Sherrilyn Ifill on the Tom Joyner Morning Show:
“Roland Martin talks to Sherrilyn Ifill, leader of the legal defense and education fund about what happens now that the #Selma50 celebrations are over.”
‘“We’ve got three things we’ve got to do an we’ve go to do it this week. One is the confirmation vote for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch. Secondly we need to have an amendment to the voting act,” Ifill said.’
