Texas Democratic lawmaker: We fled Texas, risked our lives to restore voting rights

One year ago, the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis wrote a valedictory essay just before his death:

“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”

To Lewis, “good trouble, necessary trouble” meant risking his life to lead the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in Alabama on March 7, 1965. That’s when a large force of sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and deputized “possemen,” authorized by segregationist Gov. George Wallace to “use whatever measures are necessary” to stop the march, brutally assaulted the marchers.

Despite suffering a fractured skull, Lewis spoke to reporters before going to the hospital and called on President Lyndon Johnson to take action in Alabama. The news coverage inspired protests in 80 cities nationwide. The result: President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on Aug. 6, 1965, after Congress passed it.

The fight for voting rights continues

Today, I’m one of the members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus and Texas Legislative Black Caucus risking our lives to protect voting rights by leaving our state on July 12 to prevent the passage of Republicans’ legislative assault on access to the ballot box.

As an Associated Press analysis explained:

“If the proposals pass, it will become harder – and even, sometimes, legally riskier – to cast a ballot in Texas, a state that already has some of the most restrictive election laws in the country. … The state’s Republican attorney general dedicated millions of dollars to voter fraud investigations since last year but has only turned up a handful of cases in a state where more than 11 million people voted in November.”

After we first arrived in Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and For the People Act to preempt the voting rights suppression bill in Texas and voting rights restriction laws enacted in at least 18 other states, my office received about 20 death threats before I advised my staff to stop forwarding them to me.

Voting rights fight: Our dad, Lyndon Johnson, showed that civil rights could be bipartisan. Where is that now?

Here is just a sample: I was called the N-word repeatedly. One person wrote he hopes my plane crashes. I was told to eat excrement and die. Another person threatened to come after me and lynch me. 

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told a Texas TV station:

“What the House of Representatives can do, what the speaker can do, is issue a call to have these members arrested. In addition to that, however, I can and I will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until (the) election next year. … As soon as they come back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.”       

I`m very fearful that my 20-year-old son, who shares my name and often drives my car with state plates on it when I’m away, may get pulled over because the police officers are looking for me. A routine traffic stop in America is never routine when it comes to Black men, so I have told him to stop driving my car to ensure his safety.

A voting suppression agenda

In addition, Texas Democrats staying with me in a hotel in Washington, D.C., are suffering financially because we maintain separate full-time jobs to support our families. Unfortunately, many of us cannot work remotely because our jobs or profession won’t allow it. (If you believe in our fight to protect every American’s and every Texan's right to vote, you can donate to us.) 

Opinions in your inbox: Get the best insights and analysis delivered to your inbox

The U.S. House of Representatives already passed the For the People Act in March, but Republicans filibustered the bill in June to prevent the Senate from passing it. However, the Senate could still pass it if Democrats vote to eliminate the filibuster or make an exception to it.

Ironically, for the more than 50 years between 1891 and 1942, Southern Democrats used the filibuster to block voting reform, anti-lynching and anti-poll tax bills designed to provide Black Americans with access to the ballot.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, after I was elected to the Texas House in 2016, I made a point to sit next to a Republican member on the House floor, Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Waller County, rather than a fellow Democrat, so I could get to know him and understand his point of view.

Donna Brazile: Republicans crush voting rights, making a mockery of their support for Juneteenth

But I can never accept the voting suppression agenda of Republicans with blind loyalty to Donald Trump, whose slogan “America First” is clearly a dog whistle to white supremacists. In fact, Ku Klux Klan members marched with an “America First” banner in the 1920s, and the Klan created a coin bearing the slogans “America First” and “Preserve Racial Purity” on its face to celebrate the centennial of its founding in 1965.

I urge the Senate to pass the For the People Act before its summer recess starts this month. It would be a great way to celebrate Friday's anniversary of the Voting Rights Act if President Joe Biden could sign a voting rights restoration bill on the same date 56 years later.

If that doesn’t happen, we will go to another location outside of Texas and return to Washington, D.C., when Congress does in September to honor John Lewis’ voting rights legacy by continuing to make “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, is a Texas state representative and the treasurer of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.