MSNBC to air Voting Rights Act Special…
MSNBC announced today that Lester Holt will host the special “The Law That Changed America”, on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, on Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm EST…
Millions of Americans are able to vote and live in the American dream because of the Voting Rights Act. “The Law That Changed America” places the Voting Rights Act into the perspective of modern day life and traces the historical ideas that inspired the Act, along with the actual events that lead to it. It also traces the people who helped make the dream of voting into a reality for all Americans, despite race or educational background.
“The Law That Changed America” includes a variety of voices ranging from politicians to musicians who share their thoughts on the history of the Voting Rights Act. These contributors include Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill); Former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman; Rapper Chuck D of the Rock the Vote Board of Directors; Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill); James Horton, prominent African-American historian; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Sen. Harold Ford (D-Tenn); Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga); Michael Beschloss, presidential historian and NBC News analyst; Loretta and Linda Sanchez, the first Latino sisters to serve in Congress; and Harvard University professor and author of “The Right to Vote” Alexander Keyssar.
Let me put in a plug for my new book, THE TWO RECONSTRUCTIONS: THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK ENFRANCHISEMENT, available in paperback from the University of Chicago Press. It puts the Voting Rights Act in a longer historical perspective of struggle — and thus frames the upcoming renewal of the Voting Rights Act as another democratic opportunity to make good on the struggle for enfranchisement.
Comment by Rick Valelly — August 5, 2005 @ 11:26 am