2025 marks the 60^th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the historic day when civil rights activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, but were violently stopped by law enforcement.   

The horrors of Bloody Sunday, broadcast across the nation, led to the signing of the most important and impactful civil rights legislation in our history. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) marked the first time that access to the ballot was genuinely available for all American voters, directly addressing racial discrimination in voting. 

Today, as we examine our current state of voting in the US, it’s crucial to see our history led us here and what we can learn. 

The League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS), the League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL), and the League of Women Voters of New York State (LWVNYS), represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), filed a motion to intervene in Louisiana v. U.S. Department of Commerce, a lawsuit seeking to exclude undocumented persons and holders of temporary visas from the census count used to allocate congressional seats and Electoral College votes.