50 years after “Bloody Sunday,” why Asian Americans must continue to fight to protect the right to…

3 min readMar 6, 2015

50 years after “Bloody Sunday,” why Asian Americans must continue to fight to protect the right to vote

by Terry Ao Minnis

Fifty years ago today, the country watched in horror as more than 500 activists began a 54-mile trek from Selma to Montgomery to take a stand against rampant — and often violent — voting discrimination across Alabama. Just a few blocks into the march, state troopers intercepted the peaceful marchers and brutally beat them. The images of that day, now known as “Bloody Sunday,” horrified the nation.

The individuals who marched that day changed our nation. Their bravery and activism led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which guaranteed millions of minority voters the opportunity to fairly and equally participate in elections. It ended literacy tests, poll taxes and other intentionally discriminatory mechanisms.

Because of the VRA, people of color could actually make it into the voting booth and cast their ballots for candidates who would actually represent their interests. The passage of the VRA led to a more diverse electorate and more elected officials who represent the diverse interests of that electorate.

But in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted an essential section of the Voting Rights Act. Since then, voting discrimination has flourished across the nation as states and localities rushed to push through laws that made it harder for minorities to vote. Before the 2014 election, we saw states pass laws that limited early voting, increasing barriers to voting and diluting minority voting strength through redistricting. The right to vote is more in danger now than at any time in the past 50 years.

This should scare every American, and that includes Asian Americans. It may be lesser known, but Asian Americans have also historically been pushed out of the electorate.

Federal policy barred immigrants of Asian descent from even becoming U.S. citizens until 1943, and racial criteria for naturalization remained until 1952, resulting in Asian Americans being denied their right to vote until the last 60 years or so.

But even though Asian Americans now have the ability to vote, it doesn’t come without challenges. Poll workers still see Asian Americans as the “perpetual foreigner,” especially when English is not our first language, leading to suspicions of our citizenship and our ability to cast a ballot. For example, in 2012, a poll worker at a precinct in Minnesota insisted that a group of elderly Hmong American voters provide identification, which is not required by law, while telling a white male in line behind them who had begun to get out his identification that he did not need to do so.

What’s most concerning is that states in which we are seeing the most rapidly growing Asian American population are also passing the most harmful attacks on voting in state legislatures, including those previously covered prior to the Court’s decision. For example, in North Carolina we saw the third-fastest growing Asian American population in the country between 2000 and 2010, with an 85 percent increase. North Carolina also passed in 2013 a multitude of strict voting restrictions.

The North Carolina law was enacted just one month after the Supreme Court’s decision to significantly weaken the section of the Voting Right Act that once would have prevented this state — which has a history of discrimination in voting — from enacting this law. While the law is currently being challenged in court, if it withstands, it certainly will impact the ability of growing Asian American population to access the ballot and have the political power to elect public officials who can make positive change for our community.

Today, in honor of those who marched 50 years ago and who changed our nation, let’s call on our members of Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act and fully protect voters from discrimination.

Written by Terry Ao Minnis