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Press Statement July 28, 2021

NAACP Announces New Push to Safeguard Americans' Voting Rights

Woman holding Count Every Vote sign - Styled Home Hero

Contact: Marc Banks,
National Press Secretary
dbanks@naacpnet.org

Association Will Take Specific Steps Aimed at Promoting Passage of Federal Legislation

The NAACP today announced a new push designed to call attention to the grave risks that recent developments in Texas pose to the voting rights of all Americans and encourage elected officials to take concrete steps to prevent the spread of voter infringement.

Led directly by NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and NAACP Texas President Gary Bledsoe, the goal of this work will be to alert concerned Americans as to how easily the infringement of voters' rights in Texas could become a nationwide blueprint unless the United States Senate passes voting reforms. The NAACP's work will:

  • enlist support from and highlight stories of elected officials and other policymakers who are ready to enact needed voting reform;
  • evaluate the various voting rights reform measures being considered for passage at the federal level; and
  • track state-specific impacts that certain voting policies could have on disenfranchised communities.

"The alarming efforts in Texas to deny vulnerable communities of their right to vote must not be allowed to spread like a virus across the entire country. It is critical that our federal government uphold its Constitutional duty and enact strong, meaningful voting rights reform," said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO, NAACP. "As it has for over a hundred years, the NAACP will continue leading the fight to protect and preserve our nation's moral compass."

Across the country, lawmakers are proposing bills that endanger everyone's voting rights, and in particular target the rights of Black and Brown communities. For example, in Texas, restricting mail-in ballots and reducing early voting inflicts on every American's right to a fair and just voting process.

"Voting is power and voting rights need to protect all Americans, not just certain constituencies, and so we must all fight together to ensure a set of rules that gives equal power to all communities," said Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP. "Elected officials from all backgrounds and at all levels of government must sound the alarm on these injustices rather than enabling them to become laws of the land."

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About NAACP

Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists. Our mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

NOTE: The Legal Defense Fund – also referred to as the NAACP-LDF was founded in 1940 as a part of the NAACP, but separated in 1957 to become a completely separate entity. It is recognized as the nation's first civil and human rights law organization and shares our commitment to equal rights.