Civil rights activist clergy see new generation rising for voting rights

(The Christian Science Monitor) Fifty years after the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, two legends of the civil rights movement suggested that the fight for voting rights continues—and is gaining momentum.

James Lawson and C.T. Vivian, both ordained clergy, went to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro Thursday to support students in their quest to change the state's voter identification laws. The men, Tennesseans and friends of Martin Luther King Jr., worked for decades to bring about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Now, with the United States Supreme Court in 2013 striking down key provisions of the act and states passing voter ID laws that critics say infringe on minorities’ ability to vote, the time is ripe for fresh activism, the men told the Associated Press.