Former NAACP Chief: Voting Rights Are 'Endangered'

Former NAACP Chief Cornell William Brooks told Hill.TV on Monday that "the right to vote is under threat" in the U.S., on this the 53^rd anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

"The status of Voting Rights Act and voting rights in general is imperiled, as in endangered," Brooks told Hill.TV.

Brooks cited the 2013 Supreme Court ruling - Shelby County vs. Holder - as the genesis of the assault on voting rights. 

"After the Shelby vs. Holder Supreme Court decision, a key provision was weakened," Brooks said.

"We've seen since that time this Machiavellian frenzy of voter disenfranchisement. It is a critical moment in our Democracy where even as we commemorate the act, we lament the fact that the right to vote is under threat," said Brooks, head of the NAACP from 2014 to 2017.

"It’s not enough for us to commemorate voting rights anniversaries -- we need to celebrate some democracy birthdays, the birthday of automatic voter registration," Brooks told Hill.TV.

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