President Obama at Rep. Lewis’ funeral last year: “If all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do”
Washington, DC — Today, on the 56th anniversary of the first Selma to Montgomery march, known as Bloody Sunday, Fix Our Senate released the following statement standing in solidarity with the millions of Americans across the country who are looking to the Senate to step up to protect the right to vote and take critical steps to fix our broken democracy.
“On this day, we honor Rep. John Lewis and the hundreds of Americans who put their lives on the line and faced massive violence, but still refused to accept obstacles on the path to equality. We call on the Senate to honor them as well and build on their legacy by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For The People Act to protect and expand the right to vote for every American and take critical steps toward restoring our broken democracy.
“We know that Sen. McConnell will do everything he can to block these bills and allow voter suppression and gerrymandering to continue, and that he will use the filibuster – a Senate rule with a long history of blocking civil rights bills – as his weapon to do so. We are calling on Senate Democrats to listen to President Obama and eliminate this ‘Jim Crow relic’ that stands in the way of taking these critical next steps in the journey that Rep. Lewis and so many others dedicated their lives to.”