Project 21 Launches Effort To Scrap Part Of Voting Rights Act

Cherylyn Harley LeBon

Booker Rising has covered Project 21's position for a few months now. I'd argue that there are far bigger fish to fry (e.g., increasing the black entrepreneurship rate, tackling black fatherlessness, tackling black-on-black crime as a civil rights issue for black crime victims, increasing black academic achievement). From The Guardian (UK), about the black conservative organization: "Project 21's argument focuses on the part of the Voting Rights Act called Section 5, which holds that certain areas of the country with a history of racial discrimination when it comes to voting rights need to get federal approval before changing any of their voting procedures."

More: "Cherylyn Harley LeBon, a former senior counsel for the US Senate judiciary committee and a co-founder of Project 21, told the Guardian that her group — which represents numerous high-profile black conservatives — supports the scrapping of Section 5 because she believes America had changed so much since the law was signed."

The article continues: "'Now we are in 2013, and the Voting Rights Act was something that came from a historical context. We need to update the law and this part of it is no longer needed,' Harley LeBon said. She said her own father had hailed from the deep south and had left the region at times to get away from racial discrimination, but she insisted changing the act now was still the right thing to do. 'Just because issues may be difficult to deal with does not mean they should not be dealt with,' she said."