where vote willing be harder this year, this marks 50 years since freedom summer mississippi 1964. this very week marks 50 years since the three were killed in mississippi, and then they would not let schwerner and chaney be buried together because one is black and the other is white. the black man s gravestone stands there, like the american achievement that he died for, right? still standing, propped up, damaged, braced, chipped, pitted. we ve come to agree that they were heroes, right? today, the day the republicans replaced eric cantor who made a big show of re-enacting the marches at selma, and it was in his power and he didn t. today, when at least in public we agree that those young men 50 years ago are our heroes today, do we come to a new agreement about the voting rights that they died for? do we have the will to do that? it is 50 years since freedom
achievement that he died for, right? still standing, propped up, damaged, braced, chipped, pitted. we ve come to agree that they were heroes, right? today, the day the republicans replaced eric cantor who made a big show of re-enacting the marches at selma, and it was in his power and he didn t. today, when at least in public we agree that those young men 50 years ago are our heroes today, do we come to a new agreement about the voting rights that they died for? do we have the will to do that? it is 50 years since freedom summer, 50 years since they died. is this back on the agenda? this is a test, but it is not merely a test. that does it for us tonight. we ll see you tomorrow night. now time for the last word.
congressman john lewis. he walked across the bridge at selma with john lewis. he came back from those pilgrimages saying yes, we ought to do something to prop up the voter righting act that the supreme court destroyed, but he never actually signed on for legislation to do that, even though he talked about it all the time. now of course he is soon to be former congressman eric cantor. the heart of the voting rights act is dead, and republican control of congress means that part of it will stay dead, at least for the foreseeable future. for now, the obama administration is using the bit that remains of the voting rights act to do what they can to prop up the law that way. hoping that the republicans in congress who don t want to bring it back, maybe they ll be embarrassed about that or maybe replaced in an election and maybe a future congress will reinstate that law that people died for. and this summer of 2014, heading towards this year s elections
where vote willing be harder this year, this marks 50 years since freedom summer mississippi 1964. this very week marks 50 years since the three were killed in mississippi, and then they would not let schwerner and chaney be buried together because one is black and the other is white. the black man s gravestone stands there, like the american achievement that he died for, right? still standing, propped up, damaged, braced, chipped, pitted. we ve come to agree that they were heroes, right? today, the day the republicans replaced eric cantor who made a big show of re-enacting the marches at selma, and it was in his power and he didn t. today, when at least in public we agree that those young men 50 years ago are our heroes today, do we come to a new agreement about the voting rights that they died for? do we have the will to do that?
in the country. of the top 11 states for black voter turnout, seven of them have new restrictions on voting going into effect for this year s election. of the 12 states with the largest hispanic growth population in the country, 9 of those 12 states have past laws to make it harder to vote this year. and the state of mississippi is on both of those lists. the changes that state government wanted in mississippi, they were seen as too racist to be approved. while mississippi was under federal oversight. but the second that federal oversight was lifted, mississippi pushed ahead. since that big supreme court ruling last summer, republicans in congress have talked occasionally about maybe some kind of legislative fix for the voting rights act, some way to bring the law back, strengthen the law again. congressman eric cantor was the biggest talker of them all. he started the last couple of years making civil rights pilgrimages to the south with congressman john lewis. he walked across the br