† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action
against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A.
Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the
Editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at
6 pm CST. The Year of the Vote by Nancy A. Heitzeg “In 1965,
when President Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act
into law, he proclaimed that, ‘the right to vote is the basic
right, without which all others are meaningless.’ Today, as
Attorney General, I have the privilege – and the solemn duty –
of enforcing this law, and the other civil rights reforms that
President Johnson championed. This work is among the Justice
Department’s most important priorities. And our efforts honor
the generations of Americans who have taken extraordinary risks,
and willingly confronted hatred, bias, and ignorance – as well
as billy clubs and fire hoses, bullets and bombs – to ensure
that their children, and all American citizens, would have the
chance to participate in