I Spoke Against the Supreme Court's Decision to Gut the Voting Rights Act

Watch my speech on YouTube HERE.

TRANSCRIPT: Today is a devastating day in the history of our American democracy, and it is a devastating day in the quest for racial justice, which is so important to the overall health of our democracy.

Long before I came to the United States Senate, I served as Senior Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. I still preach from that pulpit, which provided the moral and spiritual power behind the Civil Rights Movement and behind the Voting Rights Act. Voting is not only a political exercise. It is, in a real sense, a sacred undertaking, and it is a sacred undertaking that was consecrated in the blood of martyrs who stood up time and time again for that basic American understanding that the people ought to have their voices. John Lewis, who was my parishioner, died fighting for a voice in our democracy. Amelia Boynton was beaten and gassed on Bloody Sunday, so many martyrs, and this decision today by the Supreme Court is a slap in the face of those who work so hard to push our country closer to its ideals.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement. Without it, I quite literally would not be standing here today in front of you as a voice in the United States Senate for the people of Georgia. This Trump Supreme Court just threw out the protections that were earned by the Civil Rights Movement, those who bled, who fought, and who died, so that people might have a voice, so that the people might have a voice in their own house.

Make no mistake, this ruling harkens back to the darkest days of the Jim Crow era, when Black Americans were kept out of rooms of power. This is one huge step backward for racial justice and for the health of our democracy. With this decision, coupled with the continued erosion of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, the voices of the American people are being further squeezed out of their democracy, and that this is coming during an approaching midterm that cannot be lost on us. The same people who have robbed the people of their doctors with these draconian cuts to Medicaid. The same people who have robbed the people of their health care. The same people who are taking the people's money through these tariff taxes that have raised the price on virtually everything, are now trying to take their voice so that they cannot hold them accountable. And so, the answer to this assault on democracy, quite frankly, is more democracy.

It's ordinary people standing up right now, not only committing to voting, but registering other voters, reaching out to their state legislator, pushing hard against the kind of tricks that we are seeing, the kind of partisan gerrymandering that is happening right now at the behest of this President.

The path ahead is difficult, but it is not impossible. We've seen tough days before. We've heard from the Supreme Court. I'm waiting to hear from my colleagues in Congress. Quite frankly, many of them will line up come January, heaping praise on Martin Luther King Jr., well, let the word go forth that you cannot remember Martin Luther King Jr. while sitting silently as his legacy is being dismembered.

Now is the time to speak.

Thanks for reading Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.