These are challenging times here in America. As we approach the 250th year of the nation’s founding, our democracy, our freedoms and our very way of life are all under assault. I am grateful that Marc Morial and the membership of the National Urban League are committed to the difficult but necessary work of holding our country to its promise of liberty and justice for all.   

We are facing an all-out assault on Black life – Black liberty, livelihood, history, prosperity, economic power, and opportunity to fully participate in this democracy. These attacks began before this Administration, with a well-funded, coordinated effort to erase over sixty years of racial and economic progress achieved since the civil rights movement.

In a democracy under siege, the integrity of our institutions depends not only on who governs, but on how they govern. I’ve served across local, state, and the federal government leading racial equity and economic justice efforts in the White House under President Biden and now advancing equity and protecting civil rights in one of the nation’s most historic African American cities.

Michelle Obama founded When We All Vote in 2018 to increase participation in each and every election, change the culture around voting, close the race and age voting gaps, and fight against voter suppression. Seven years later, our fight continues.

Our fight continues because Black Americans are overwhelmed and exhausted by the news cycle and constant attacks on our communities.

Following the historic election of President Barack Obama, the illusion that racism had vanished – that the Civil Rights Movement had accomplished its righteous ends – blanketed many Americans with a warm, false sense of equality and security. But upon the successful conclusion of the Obama presidency, Americans awoke to a renewed boldness in bigotry. Audaciously racist, sexist, and xenophobic sentiments celebrated a revival in President Trump’s first term.

This essay examines the current state of voting rights in America on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It identifies sophisticated legal strategies being used to restrict voting access, documents recent victories in the fight for voting rights, and proposes a comprehensive strategy for both defending existing rights and building a more inclusive democratic system.

Dear Voting Rights Advocates,

As the proud representative of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, a district shaped by decades of struggle, sacrifice, and perseverance, I carry your legacy with me every single day. I have immense gratitude and deep respect for the work you have done—often in the shadows, but always on the front lines—to help secure and protect the sacred right to vote for all Americans.

Sixty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), this moment marks a critical time to embrace the lessons learned from the movement that brought about one of our nation’s most effective pieces of civil rights legislation.

“There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.”

Malcolm X would have turned 100 on May 19, 2025. February 21, 2025, also marks the 60th anniversary of his assassination in Washington Heights, a neighborhood outside Harlem’s boundaries that his presence made a permanent part of New York City’s cultural tapestry. His legacy embodies Black Islamic revolutionary cosmopolitan international cool.