Immediately upon the announcement of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Tuesday in which the Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was declared unconstitutional in the Shelby County v. Holder case, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton took to the airwaves to express his frustrations.
Sharpton, the host of “PoliticsNation,” called on the president and others to speak out against the decision, but noted despite all the “voter suppression,” there was a record turnout.
“I think the first thing we want to see is the president’s continued commitment to protecting voters around the country,” Sharpton said. “And I think his Justice Department has used this very section. But I think more than just hearing from the president, we’re going to hear from people all over the country. Let’s not forget that with all the voting suppression last year, there was record turnout — people who stayed in line seven or eight hours because people are not going to be robbed of their right to vote.”
Sharpton added he and other civil rights leaders expected to call an emergency summit about the high court’s decision. But he went on to say that decision nullified Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.
“What they just done is really revoked a lot of what Dr. King’s dream was all about,” Sharpton said. “We built a monument to Dr. King and part of — at least half of what Dr. King’s dream was about was voter rights, ’65. They just revoked that. They just cancelled the dream and the children of the dream are not going to sit by and allow that to happen.”