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Renew the Voting Rights Act
It is the hot button item for the Civil Rights community in 2005 and 2006: renewal of the 1964 Voting Rights Act that outlawed poll taxes, Jim Crow and any number of techniques to prevent minorities from voting.
The law is still in use today. And many believe it is needed even more now, as jurisdictions apply more subtle means to discourage Latinos, Vietnamese Native Americans and other minorities from exercising the most fundamental right: the right to vote.
New Media Mill was commissioned to document four recent cases in which the Voting Rights Act was applied to secure the rights of minorities.
Our crews traveled to the Souix reservations of South Dakota, Little Saigon in Houston, Seguin Texas and Charleston South Carolina to talk with the candidates and voters who were at risk of losing their right to vote.
The videos are being distributed via streaming online video, CD and DVD to news outlets, congressional offices and activists.