In honor of Black History Month, all month long we will be sharing the legacies and stories of the heroes, sheroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory. Follow us on Twitter (@VRAmatters) to share your own facts.
Today, on February 25, 2017, we are educating about the rise of modern voter suppression. Our focus will be on the United State’s Supreme Court’s 2013 decision of Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. ___ (2013), which ruled Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) unconstitutional. As is outlined in the article, the Court ruling Section 4(b) of the VRA, which set the coverage formula for Section 5 of the VRA (the preclearance section), unconstitutional effectively gutted Section 5 of the VRA.
Although our focus today will be on Shelby County v. Holder, it would be remiss of us not to make of utmost clarity that voter suppression did NOT begin in 2013 after the Shelby County v. Holder decision.