Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
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Voting Rights Now!
For African Americans, freedom, citizenship and the right to vote are inextricably linked. With the victory of the Union in the Civil War, the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution -- the 13th, 14th and 15th --were passed, freeing the slaves, requiring equal justice for all, and protecting the right to vote against discrimination. Those rights were trampled by segregation, an apartheid regime shamefully ratified by a reactionary Supreme Court. It took 100 years and the civil rights movement to end segregation and pass the Voting Rights Act once more enforcing the right to vote.
