"…The true way to abolish slavery is to vote such men into power who will exert their moral and political influence for the abolition of slavery."
_-Frederick Douglass _
"I am glad that men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is stirring I will step into the pool… I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring. Because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again."
-Sojourner Truth, Comments after passage of the 15th Amendment
"We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote."
_-Alice Paul, Suffragist _
"So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I cannot possess myself. I cannot make up my mind—it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen…"
_-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. _
"Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on the battlefield."
_-President Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks on the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act _
"I say from time to time that the vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society. And we must use it."
_-John Lewis _
"Democracy thrives when it (the right to vote) is practiced, and it suffers when practice is prevented."
_-John Payton, Former President/Counsel General NAACP LDF _
"There is only one motivation for imposing burdens on voting that are ostensibly designed to discourage voter-impersonation fraud, and that is to discourage persons likely to vote against the party responsible for imposing the burdens… (states’ voter ID laws are) a means of voter suppression rather than fraud prevention… a mere fig leaf to disenfranchise voters."
_-Judge Richard A. Posner, U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals _
"Voting, a fundamental right, should be made easier - not harder... When barriers hinder a population's ability to express its views, the complex system of checks and balances that the framers of our nation put in place to safeguard democracy will fail in their duty."
_-David Goodman, Brother of Andrew Goodman and President of The Andrew Goodman Foundation _
"Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella because you are not getting wet."
_-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, In Dissent: Shelby v. Holder (2013) _
"There is no Constitutional issue here. There is no moral issue. It is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow citizens the right to vote. There is no issue of States’ rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights."
-President Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks on the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act