{"id":42220,"date":"2015-08-13T01:37:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T01:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42220"},"modified":"2015-08-13T02:04:05","modified_gmt":"2015-08-13T02:04:05","slug":"president-obamas-letter-to-the-editor%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42220","title":{"rendered":"President Obama\u2019s Letter to the Editor\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama\u2019s Letter to the Editor<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times Magazine<\/a>
\n2015-08-12<\/p>\n

Barack Obama<\/a><\/strong>, President of the United States
\nWashington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIllustration by Ben Wiseman<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

For the cover story of our Aug. 2 issue, Jim Rutenberg<\/a> wrote about efforts over the last 50 years to dismantle the protections in the Voting Rights Act of 1965<\/a>, the landmark piece of legislation that cleared barriers between black voters and the ballot. The story surveyed a broad sweep of history and characters, from United States Chief Justice John Roberts<\/a> to ordinary citizens like 94-year-old Rosanell Eaton<\/a>, a plaintiff in the current North Carolina<\/a> case arguing to repeal voting restrictions enacted in 2013. The magazine received an unusual volume of responses to this article, most notably from President Barack Obama.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was inspired to read about unsung American heroes like Rosanell Eaton in Jim Rutenberg\u2019s \u201cA Dream Undone: Inside the 50-year campaign to roll back the Voting Rights Act<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union. …\u201d It\u2019s a cruel irony that the words that set our democracy in motion were used as part of the so-called literacy test designed to deny Rosanell and so many other African-Americans the right to vote<\/a>. Yet more than 70 years ago, as she defiantly delivered the Preamble to our Constitution<\/a>, Rosanell also reaffirmed its fundamental truth. What makes our country great is not that we are perfect, but that with time, courage and effort, we can become more perfect. What makes America special is our capacity to change…<\/p>\n

…I am where I am today only because men and women like Rosanell Eaton refused to accept anything less than a full measure of equality. Their efforts made our country a better place. It is now up to us to continue those efforts. Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act<\/a>. Our state leaders and legislatures must make it easier \u2014 not harder \u2014 for more Americans to have their voices heard. Above all, we must exercise our right as citizens to vote, for the truth is that too often we disenfranchise ourselves…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama\u2019s Letter to the Editor The New York Times Magazine 2015-08-12 Barack Obama, President of the United States Washington, D.C. Illustration by Ben Wiseman For the cover story of our Aug. 2 issue, Jim Rutenberg wrote about efforts over the last 50 years to dismantle the protections in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,1467,8,26,20],"tags":[12659,2640,8894,879,20680,2327,13109],"class_list":["post-42220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-law","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-jim-rutenberg","tag-new-york-times","tag-new-york-times-magazine","tag-north-carolina","tag-rosanell-eaton","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42220"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42223,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42220\/revisions\/42223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}