Peniel Joseph:

Well, Congressman John Lewis is a national hero. His skull was fractured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And so when we think about Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, it's really the best of times and the worst of times because that violence brought out the best in Americans and the best in our politics to really have nonpartisan voting rights for all Americans. So the lesson is that even though we thought we had one voting rights protection in perpetuity in 1965, that struggle continues. Fifty-five years later, we have people of color who have don't have the same voting rights access that they did in 1966, in 1968, in national elections. Too many people face long voting lines right here in Texas. People stayed in line for four, five, six hours, even after the polls were closed to try to get their right to vote. So when we think about the lesson fifty five years later is that there is no right that's more fundamental for our democracy than voting rights in the United States. And we should really be pushing in a nonpartisan way for voting rights protection. So we need a new Voting Rights Act for the 21st century that covers all 50 states. It is not fueled by any kind of partisan appeals, but appeals to citizenship and really the virtues of American democracy.