We must commit to reclaiming the ballot box for the many Americans who are now losing access as the result of a decades-long campaign to erase the Voting Rights Act.

Only 36 percent of US citizens bothered to vote in the 2014 mid-term elections, according to data compiled by the US Election Project. While the Texas law, signed by former governor and current GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry, was perhaps the strictest in the country, Wednesday’s ruling could fuel legal challenges to other ID requirements enacted. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has reported 50 cases of voter ID fraud in the state since 2002, said he was determined to fight the ruling.

President Barack Obama also criticized voter ID laws in a Thursday afternoon speech, though he didn’t single out Texas.

Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the NAACP Tennessee State Conference, said the Voting Rights Act impacted people of color more than any other civil rights law, but the struggle for justice still lies ahead.

AP In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged the passing of the Voting Rights Act during a joint session of Congress. He says without them, the Voting Rights Act wouldn’t have been signed into law 50 years ago Thursday. “In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a core provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, just as numerous states like North Carolina are passing restrictive voter identification laws to suppress the turnout of young people, students, poor citizens, the elderly and African-Americans”.

“Protecting every American’s constitutional right to vote is a fundamental value of our society”.

In June 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, a law that is designed to ensure minority voters across the country are able to participate equally in the electoral process by prohibiting discriminatory voting practices and removing barriers to voting. It allowed millions of minorities to exercise their right to vote in states that had previously hindered them through a range of tactics, including poll taxes, literacy tests, civics quizzes, violence and intimidation.

Obama will discuss the landmark voting law at a national teleconference in the afternoon with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and voting rights advocates.