Event highlight: Representative Terri Sewell and Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock on the fight for voting rights

MIA YOUNG: On November 17th, Georgetown’s new Center on Faith and Justice held its inaugural event focused on racial justice and voting rights. Students and other members of the Georgetown community packed Lohrfink Auditorium to welcome two special guests to campus: Representative Terri Sewell and Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock. Both leaders of the modern voting rights movement, Sen. Warnock and Rep. Sewell had an insightful conversation about the attack on voting rights going on across the country and the intersection of faith and justice in the fight to restore and preserve them. The conversation was moderated by Jim Wallace, the newly named Director of the Center on Faith and Justice. Wallace is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy who focuses on the intersection of faith, race and politics and his expertise added competency and ease to the conversation. 

The event, entitled “Race, Religion, and the Assault on Voting Rights,” started with remarks from President DeGioia who discussed the goals of the Center on Faith and Justice and conveyed excitement about the prospect of facilitating dialogue on issues central to Georgetown’s Jesuit values. Rep. Sewell, Sen. Warnock and Jim Wallace were then introduced and welcomed to the stage to begin their discussion.

The conversation covered a variety of important issues related to voting rights and racial justice. Rep. Sewell talked about her upbringing surrounded by civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama and how that has influenced her resolve to fight for voting rights. She characterized the current attack on voting rights as consisting of three distinct threats: voter suppression, voter apathy and lack of political will. She vocalized her support for eliminating the filibuster, a Senate procedure which is currently holding up voting rights legislation. 

Sen. Warnock talked about the particular importance of passing two bills currently being negotiated: the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. He voiced his fears that not passing these would constitute passing a rubicon; our democracy at a critical inflection point, he said. As the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the former pulpit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. Warnock sees the fight for voting rights as deeply moral and religious. He described a vote as “a prayer for the kind of world we desire for ourselves and our children” and pointed to some of the faith-based reasons that he is such a vocal advocate for voting rights. Sen. Warnock expressed concern about some of the voting restrictions being implemented in his home state of Georgia and discussed his efforts in the Senate to get these two bills passed which would override the effects of these suppressive laws.

Both panelists emphasized that protecting the right to vote should not be a partisan issue and indeed has not been in the past; in 2006, under Republican president George W. Bush, the Senate voted to extend the Voting Rights Act by a vote of 98-0. Rep. Sewell argued that elected officials should want their constituents to be able to vote - it is the most fundamental aspect of the democracy which they are called to serve. 

With 425 laws having been introduced in 49 states in 2021 that restrict voting, voting rights have come to the forefront of discussions about the preservation of democracy. Having the moral voices of Sen. Warnock and Rep. Sewell in congress should be comforting to all of those who recognize this existential threat to our democracy.

Mia Young is a junior in the School of Nursing and Health Studies studying global health with a minor in government. She is from Washington, DC.