The conversation featured President and Executive Director Damon Hewitt and Rep. Jamie Raskin. MS NOW political analyst and The 19th’s Editor in Chief Errin Haines served as moderator.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law commemorated the 63rd anniversary of its founding with a Founders Day event on Thursday, June 25, at The Hamilton Live in Washington, D.C. The evening brought together Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee, for a candid conversation moderated by Errin Haines, MS NOW political analyst and Editor-at-Large of The 19th.
“Voting rights are the gateway to all other forms of influence, self-determination, power, and control. They are how people access greater democracy — how they have a voice, have their say, and have the opportunity to be heard,” said Hewitt. “When our voting rights are curtailed, we lose our ability to shape the decisions that affect our lives, from how our schools are run to the leaders who represent us and the courts that serve our communities. If people have no voice and no power, then we have no real democracy. We must give democracy meaning beyond words on paper.”
As voting rights face their most serious rollbacks in generations and underserved communities confront coordinated attacks on their political power, the Founders Day conversation addressed the need for resolve, unity, and deep commitment to a democratic future where Black people and other people of color have an equal voice needed in this moment. The discussion charted the path forward in the fight to ensure every eligible vote counts and every American has a voice in the midterms and beyond.
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. The Lawyers’ Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy, advocacy and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights.
