The Voting Rights Act at 50

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On August 6, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which arguably has done more to empower African Americans than perhaps any law since the Fourteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, a 2013 Supreme Court decision gutted a central component of the law, and conservative attacks on voting rights have disenfranchised vulnerable communities. To discuss the storied history of the Voting Rights Act and where we need to go to restore its protections, we speak to Michele Jawando, Vice President of Legal Progress at the Center for American Progress and Ari Berman, a contributing writer for The Nation magazine. Later, we are joined by Glenn Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA, to discuss President Obama’s exciting program that would restore Pell Grants to some incarcerated students.