The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act – a law that’s still very much in the news, with a wave of recent state laws changing voting procedures after a Supreme Court ruling struck down some of its key provisions.
One of those laws was North Carolina’s controversial 2013 “voter ID” bill – passed almost immediately after the Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which enabled states and municipalities with a history of discrimination to amend its voting laws without getting “pre-clearance” from the federal government. That law is now being challenged in court too, as are similar laws in other states – including Texas, whose post-Shelby law was recently struck down by a court.
Those legal conflicts make it clear – if it wasn’t already – that the Voting Rights Act is still just as salient in public life today as it was fifty years ago. To mark the anniversary, the League of Women Voters of Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties has teamed up with the Chapel Hill branch of the American Association of University Women to sponsor a discussion of “Civil Rights: Then and Now,” featuring NC Central law professor Irving Joyner.
The event will take place on Thursday, September 17, at 6:30 pm in the Chapel Hill Public Library. It’s free and everyone’s welcome to attend.
Irving Joyner spoke with WCHL’s Aaron Keck on Tuesday – along with League of Women Voters president Janet Hoy and AAUW president Bea Keller.
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