By Johanna Kaiser, Communications & Development Associate
Last month, advocacy groups, community leaders, and fellow Rhode Islanders joined us in commemorating the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. If you were able to attend, you heard how the Act, a crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement, tore down the barriers to voting and for decades prevented discriminatory voting measures from becoming law. You also heard how we are still fighting to protect voting rights from threats of suppression and improve access to the polls for all.
If you were not able to attend, you can tune into our cable show this month to watch the first half of our panel discussion with the NAACP-Providence Branch, RI Coalition for the Homeless, and RI Disability Law Center. In this first half, we talk about the Voting Rights Act and the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted one of its key provisions as well as Rhode Island’s photo voter ID. Check out the clip below for a preview and tune in for one of the showtimes to learn about the state of voting rights today.
Showtimes:
Channel 13 (Channel 32 on Verizon FIOS)
Tuesdays 10:00 pm
Fridays 3:30 pm
Channel 18 (Channel 38 on Verizon FIOS), Providence and N. Providence
Wednesdays 9:00 pm
Next month, we plan to show the rest of the discussion, which focused on prison-based gerrymandering, electronic voter registration, and issues seen at the polls in past years.
