Why we still need the right to vote, a generation later

When leaders from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) put it all on the line in the fight for voting rights, they did not imagine that in 2016 we would still be fighting the same fight all over again.

In a dramatic new Advancement Project video, SNCC leaders join contemporary racial justice voices to discuss a crucial next step for voting rights: a constitutional right to vote.

In states like Missouri, those looking to silence communities of color are trying to water down the state constitution’s right to vote — yet another attempt to take away voting rights and make it harder for people to have a voice.

Unfortunately, Missouri is hardly alone. The right to vote is under attack all across the country. Given that attacks on the right to vote are widespread and ongoing, organizers and supporters from past and present voting rights struggles are increasingly calling for an explicit right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.

As the SNCC elders say in the video, this is part of a carefully crafted playbook to keep people of color from seizing the political power we deserve. It’s a struggle that our communities have resisted since the origin of our country.