Voting Rights Act Quotes

“[T]he vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson

“If you're on benefits you shouldn't get to vote.

You’re making no contribution to society, so why should you have a say in how it’s run? If you’re retired, of course you vote. You’ve made your contributions. If you’re a stay-at-home mum, then likewise you get to vote. And if ill or invalided in some way, the same. But if you’re fit and healthy and capable of mending a fence or stacking shelves, and you’re not doing either of those things, then you don’t get to vote.

I don’t want someone who’s too lazy to get a job making decisions on how this country should be run.”
― Karl Wiggins, 100 Common Sense Policies to make BRITAIN GREAT again

“The VRA was nevertheless a seismic shift in thought, action, and execution for the U.S. government when compared with the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and its equally enfeebled companion legislation of 1960. Rather than passively waiting for locales to violate the rights of American citizens and then sitting still until those who had been routinely brutalized by this system made a formal complaint, the VRA put the responsibility for adhering to the Constitution onto state and local governments.”
― Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

“[Jeff] Sessions was "someone who thinks that the VRA ought not to have ever been in existence" because, for him, it was an "intrusive piece of legislation." Thus, in a move that flipped the Voting Rights Act on its head, his investigation targeted only counties where African Americans had won office.”
― Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

“Put some respect on my vote.”
― Sabrina Newby

“Black Votes are worth far more than a Fish Sandwich.”
― Sabrina Newby

“Black Votes are worth far more than a Chicken Sandwich.”
― Sabrina Newby

“Black Votes are worth far more than a Hot Dog.”
― Sabrina Newby

“Therefore, 2016 was the first federal election in fifty years held without the protection of the Voting Rights Act.”
― Carol Anderson