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JANUARY 2013
Amicus Curiae, Congressman John Lewis, is the United States Representative of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, which includes the entire city of Atlanta, Georgia and parts of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties.1 He has served in this capacity since January 1987. Congressman Lewis has a continued interest in the development and protection of laws that guard against racial discrimination and promote social and political equality for all Americans. Today, political historians and constitutional scholars acknowledge that the main impetus for President Lyndon Johnson submitting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to Congress on March 15, 1965, and its passage by both Houses of Congress a mere five months later, was the brutal attacks on nonviolent civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Congressman Lewis was one of the marchers on that day and, like many of his fellow nonviolent civil rights demonstrators, was beaten with bullwhips, choked with toxic tear gas, and nearly trampled by horses simply because he wished to exercise his constitutional right to vote. In submitting this brief, Congressman Lewis hopes to attest personally to the high price many paid for the enactment of the Voting Rights Act and the still higher cost we might yet bear if we prematurely discard one of the most vital tools of our democracy.
Publication Date
1-2013
Recommended Citation
Archer, Deborah N.; Belinfanti, Tamara; Wood, Erika L.; and NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL RACIAL JUSTICE PROJECT, "BRIEF FOR THE HONORABLE CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS AND INTERVENORRESPONDENTS" (2013). Briefs, Court Filings, and Testimonies. 5.
https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/rjp_briefs_filings_testimonies/5