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Fifty years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law — a landmark piece of legislation breaking down barriers across the South that prevented countless African Americans from voting.

This afternoon, President Obama hosted a discussion here at the White House to mark the Act's 50th anniversary, featuring Congressman John Lewis, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, and others.

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This morning, Congressman John Lewis sent the following message to the White House email list, reflecting on the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and highlighting the barriers to the vote that are still present today.

Tune in at 2 p.m. ET today as President Obama leads a conversation in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act — followed by a discussion featuring Congressman John Lewis and Melissa Harris-Perry.

And if you didn't get the email, sign up for email updates here.

Every year, I head back to the birthplace of a new America — Selma, Alabama — where a determined struggle for voting rights transformed our democracy 50 years ago.

On March 7, 1965, Hosea Williams and I led a band of silent witnesses, 600 nonviolent crusaders, intending to march 50 miles to Montgomery — Alabama's capital — to demonstrate the need for voting rights in America.

At the foot of the bridge, we were met by Alabama state troopers who trampled peaceful protestors with horses and shot tear gas into the crowd. I was hit on the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge.

I thought that was going to be my last demonstration. I thought I might die that day.

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Ed. note: This is cross-posted on Medium.

The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights of any democracy.

Fifty years ago today, because of the sacrifice of countless men and women, that right was secured for more Americans.

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law — breaking down legal barriers at the state and local level that had prevented African Americans and others from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

Because of that law — one of our nation's most influential pieces of legislation — Americans who were previously disenfranchised and left out of the democratic process were finally able to cast a ballot. The law was designed to ensure that all American citizens, regardless of the color of their skin, had an equal opportunity to make their voices heard.

But that law didn’t come to pass because folks suddenly decided it was the right thing to do.

This past March, I had the honor of traveling to Selma, Alabama for the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma to Montgomery. Those who marched over the course of those five days in 1965 were fighting to ensure that African Americans could exercise their right to vote under the 15th Amendment of our Constitution. They were marching in the face of a segregationist system that wanted to deny them that right. 

And on one afternoon, two visions of America met on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Those nonviolent marchers, representing the idea that all men and women are created equal and deserved to be treated as such, stared into the faces of those who represented a South that stood for the racial segregation and oppression of Jim Crow.

Roughly 600 people stood on the right side of history that day — armed only with their faith, and the conviction that we could be better. They were willing to sacrifice their own bodies in order to help bring America closer to its ideals of equality and justice for all.

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Yesterday, President Obama spoke on the Iran deal at American University's School of International Service.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy also delivered a historic foreign policy speech at American University. Just eight months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy had boldly entered into a diplomatic agreement with an adversary of the United States — the Soviet Union. He faced criticism at home for choosing to pursue a peaceful weapons agreement with a country no one trusted.

President Kennedy addresses the American University Commencement, recieves honorary degree. 

 

President Kennedy's diplomatic approach succeeded in advancing the national security interests of the United States — and the Iran deal does the same. 

 

50 years ago, JFK spoke of peace in a nuclear age at @AmericanU. Today, @POTUS will too. Read JFK's speech: http://t.co/Vk6SI5hkiF #IranDeal

— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) August 5, 2015

 

Both Presidents believed that a peaceful agreement was preferable to alternatives which would likely lead to military confrontation. 

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The loss of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion has dominated recent news coverage. What has received less attention is that five elephants were killed in Tsavo West National Park in Kenya as well last week.

These incidents raise the question of how to best protect treasured wildlife. Poaching is a global problem and a focused effort is required to combat it, even when it's not in the headlines. And that's what we're committed to do.

Poachers kill one elephant about every 15 minutes, and it's led northern white rhinos to the brink of extinction. Poaching doesn't just hurt animals, but everyday people. Ivory and other wildlife goods fuel a network of wildlife traffickers and armed groups that create instability around the world.  

President Obama is making sure that, when it comes to ending poaching, the United States takes the lead.  While in Kenya last month, he announced the latest in a series of American steps to stop this deadly practice — a new proposed rule, which would prohibit most interstate commerce of African elephant ivory and beef up commercial exports. Put together with other actions under the President's 2013 Executive Order, the proposed rule would create a near-total ban on domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory.  

The President also announced other new steps to support international efforts against poaching:

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Today, as part of White House Demo Day, we’re excited to announce the 25 cities and two Native American communities who won the Small Business Administration (SBA) Startup in a Day competition launched in June. The prizes of $50,000 each will help these communities streamline the licensing, permitting, and other requirements needed to start a business in their areas, with the goal of enabling entrepreneurs to initiate all necessary steps within one business day. The SBA is also awarding a $250,000 cash prize to the city of Los Angeles to create an open-source solution that will be replicable and scalable on a broad basis.

Here are four things you should know about today’s announcement:

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