Editorial: A living legend came to UF, but where were the students?
Oct. 18, 2015Last Friday, civil rights activist and living legend Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) spoke at the University Auditorium to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965, as well as raise awareness about its uncertain future. The act, which was passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson following several unprovoked attacks and deaths of civil rights activists, abolished literacy tests and similar tactics aimed at keeping black Americans from voting. The act’s very existence can be traced to the efforts of Lewis and his colleagues, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and A. Philip Randolph; to have Lewis in UF’s halls is to have a giant in our midst.