Eric Holder, an attorney general during the Obama administration, called for people to rally in the streets in support of voting rights legislation backed by Democrats.
He went further, telling MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in an interview on Thursday that by getting arrested, citizens can truly inspire change to counter Republicans who are pushing election reforms on the state level and “partisan and racial” gerrymandering the former Department of Justice official said the GOP relies on to win power.
“Raising the consciousness of people by demonstrating, by getting arrested, by doing the things that ended segregation,” Holder said. “If you asked people back in the 1950s, ‘Do you think marching, demonstrating is going to bring down a system of American apartheid?’ You probably would have said, ‘No, that won’t happen.'”
He added: “We shouldn’t lose faith right now. Citizens can make a change. Citizens need to be in the streets. Citizens need to be demonstrating. Citizens need to be calling their representatives to demand the kind of change that will make this country more representative, make our democracy more fair.”
Holder is the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which advocates for Democrats winning “critical battles” in connection to redistricting, a scramble now underway following the release of Census Bureau data used to draw voting districts.
The House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, are working on voting and election reform legislation over the summer recess as Republican-controlled states have passed their own reforms that supporters say are good for election integrity, but critics often pan it as causing disenfranchisement, particularly for minorities.
