CEO Ann Toback’s Statement on Voting Rights in Letter to Editor on NY Daily News
Voting rights are in every American’s interest
Manhattan: A century ago, Eastern European Jewish immigrants came to the United States fleeing persecution and seeking the rights and protections of a democracy. My great-grandparents were among them.
At the same time, harsh Jim Crow laws, brutal white supremacist violence, exploitative working conditions and a U.S. Congress that refused to act were taking their toll in Black lives and livelihoods.
Yet, from factory floors to lunch counters to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, courageous Black Americans reached out to newer Jewish immigrants and to Americans of all backgrounds who believed in our fundamental equality enshrined in the Constitution. Our collective power and the sacrifice of countless people ultimately forced the federal government to live up to its obligation to end Jim Crow and ensure voting rights for all. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was one of the most impactful achievements of that struggle.
For 50 years, the Voting Rights Act was supported by a bipartisan majority in Congress. But in 2013, extremist Supreme Court justices cut the heart out of the law, allowing states to pass laws that restrict the vote and target voters of color.