The onslaught on voting rights in the United States demonstrates that only a new federal voting rights bill will help preserve democracy. This article by Michael Starr Hopkins is published by The Hill. Here is an excerpt:

We are in the midst of a new chapter in which the civil, human and fundamental rights of African Americans are under attack. This isn’t hyperbole, but the reality of events happening before our very eyes. 

Despite all of the Beltway talk of a post-racial America and speeches reciting hopeful but incomplete quotes from Martin Luther King, students of history can recognize the blaring indications that a new nadir is underway. Passing a new Voting Rights Act is the only antidote to the dangerous days that lie ahead. 

The period after post-Civil War reconstruction is commonly referred to as the nadir. Prior to the nadir, many African Americans in the South saw improvements to their lives, such as access to education, the opportunity to run for elected office and the ability to purchase land. As poor whites and former plantation owners saw former slaves take control of their destiny, and in many cases, outperform those who not long before kept them in bondage, they pushed to roll back progress.

Read the full article here.