60 Years After the Voting Rights Act: A White Nationalist Power Grab in Broad Daylight

Sixty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. It was one of the most powerful and transformational civil rights achievements in American history — born from the blood, sweat, and bones of Black Americans who were beaten, jailed, and murdered for demanding the right to vote. From the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the steps of the Capitol, that struggle was met with tear gas and truncheons, with hatred and humiliation. But in 1965, we codified justice.

Now, in 2025, we are watching that justice be systematically ripped apart by racists in suits — disguised as “patriots,” funded by billionaires, and cloaked in white grievance politics. Make no mistake: this is not just a rollback of civil rights. This is a white nationalist power grab, engineered to suppress the votes of Black and brown Americans, young people, and anyone who dares challenge the modern-day Confederacy that now masquerades as a political party.

Let’s call this what it is: deeply racist, deeply corrupt, and deeply un-American.

The Voting Rights Act was meant to stop states from enacting Jim Crow 2.0 — poll taxes, literacy tests, voter intimidation, gerrymandering, and all the other tactics white supremacists used to keep power in the hands of the few. And for decades, it worked. But since the Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the law in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), racist state legislatures across the South — and beyond — have been sprinting to do exactly what the Voting Rights Act was created to prevent.

Fast forward to today, and this administration — let’s be honest, the Trump regime — is not just ignoring the Voting Rights Act. It is actively working to dismantle it.

They have purged voter rolls with surgical precision in Black communities.

They have closed polling places in poor neighborhoods while expanding them in rich, white suburbs.

They have cut early voting, banned ballot drop boxes, gerrymandered districts, and criminalized giving water to voters standing in 8-hour lines.

And now they want to federalize that corruption with Project 2025, a blueprint for authoritarian rule that seeks to weaponize the Justice Department, destroy the independent Civil Rights Division, and purge anyone in government who won’t goose-step in sync with the “America First” agenda — which, let’s be honest again, is a White America First agenda.

This isn’t about “election integrity.” It’s about election control — by any means necessary.

This isn’t democracy. It’s autocracy in khakis and flag pins.

And what makes it all the more infuriating is the way they lie to our faces about it. They scream about “rigged elections” while rigging them. They claim to protect “freedom” while jailing peaceful protestors, banning books, and crushing dissent. They wave the Constitution like a shield while setting fire to the principles it was built upon.

Sixty years ago, the Voting Rights Act said, “Never again.” Today’s Republican Party says, “Not so fast.”

And if you think this doesn’t affect you because your skin is lighter or your neighborhood is whiter — think again. Once you normalize suppressing one group’s votes, it doesn’t take long before they come for yours. Power unchecked is power abused. And these people — these self-righteous frauds posing as patriots — don’t care about your rights. They care about their rule.

This administration is not interested in governing. It is interested in ruling.

Not in democracy. But in domination.

Not in the will of the people. But in the silencing of it.

And the only thing standing between us and that future is us.

We have to raise hell, raise our voices, and raise our expectations. We have to stop treating this like “politics as usual” and start calling it what it is: a desperate, racist, fascist campaign to seize permanent power.

So on this 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, don’t just remember the marches. Don’t just quote Dr. King. Honor them by fighting like hell. Honor them by organizing, registering voters, suing in courtrooms, showing up at school board meetings, running for office, and voting like your rights depend on it — because they do.

The people who fought for the Voting Rights Act didn’t just want us to remember. They wanted us to continue. They wanted us to protect what they earned. And now, more than ever, that torch is in our hands.

Don’t drop it.

Julie Bolejack, MBA