Black History Month: Lawyer Fighting To Protect Voting Rights

Note: This is the 19th installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series. For other articles, click here.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Today, 50 years after the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, attorney Barbara Arnwine says voting rights are under siege.

"There are people who are, in fact, working overtime to try to block the right to vote," Arnwine told WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving. "That's not a conspiracy theory. That's a reality."

Arnwine heads the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, founded at the suggestion of President John F. Kennedy.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down some key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which Arnwine says made it more difficult to fight discrimination.

"We have to go to court and file a lawsuit and try to invalidate the procedure after the fact," Arnwine said.

Congress could rewrite the law and restore the previous protections. Arnwine said her organization is ready for a long fight.