Voting Rights Act

10,000 Marchers walked on Martin Luther King Jr Drive in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

However, their purpose was multi-fold. Some of the provisions of the act are lined up to sunset in 2007, within Bush's tenure. The marchers aim to pressure Congress and The Administration to renew these provisions and sign them in to law permanently.

"Forty years later, we're still marching for the right to vote," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who participated in the civil rights struggles that helped secure passage of the law in 1965. "Don't give up, don't give in. Keep the faith, keep your eyes on the prize."

Activists from across the country — including Dick Gregory and Harry Belafonte — joined Lewis, NAACP President Bruce Gordon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who heads the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, at Saturday's demonstration.

"The most fundamental aspect of our democratic existence is at stake," Belafonte said as the march got underway. "We are the keepers of the gates of democracy ... We must stand vigilant, as there are those among us who would steal our liberty and steal our souls."

The provisions are important, and under certain threat. One requires certain states to get federal approval when they make significant voting changes. This will apply primarily in Southern states, but in places where redistricting is an ongoing issue, it could drastically affect the way that minorities are represented in government.

The second is a provision which requires that ballots and voting materials be provided in the native language of immigrant populations. This has come under attack before by cultural conservatives and those who think that English is the only spoken language of America. It should be easy to point out that the purpose of Democracy is not to preserve the traditional power of an English-speaking electorate, but rather to allow a representative voice to every American citizen to participate in their government. In a nation of Immigrants, you'd think that this would make sense. However, sadly, it does not.