Today, the U.S. Department of Justice blocked a Texas law requiring voters to present photo IDs, saying it would disproportionately affect Latinos. A letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to Texas election officials said data from the state show:

...a Hispanic registered voter is at least 46.5 percent, and potentially 120.0 percent, more likely than a non-Hispanic registered voter to lack this identification. Even using the data most favorable to the state, Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card issued by DPS, and that disparity is statistically significant.

Rev. Al Sharpton’s statement fired up a crowd of thousands standing in front of the steps of the Alabama State Capitol building in downtown Montgomery early Friday afternoon: "These laws in Alabama aren't immigration laws. They're Jim Crow laws."

Mrs. Gardner still has a firm grip when she shakes your hand. She stood at the edge of the property she and her husband, Robert, had opened up to participants in the Selma to Montgomery, Ala., marches back in 1965, as a new generation recognized her contributions while drawing attention to new injustices.

It’s very interesting how 40 years later, we’re fighting for some of the same rights that were originally fought for—fighting for workers' rights, fighting for the 99 percent, fighting for everybody to do their equal share, against corporate greed.

More than 1,000 participants in the five-day Selma to Montgomery, Ala., march are carrying on their journey today, focusing on the renewed threat to workers’ rights and voting rights around the nation. The crowd began their march at the Viola Liuzzo memorial, some 24 miles outside Selma.

Jennifer Angarita, AFL-CIO National Worker Center coordinator, sends us this report.

Since 2008, states across the country have witnessed a wave of restrictive voting changes, which limit individuals’ access to the polls and the ease with which they can register to vote. Advocates, community members and working people gathered this week at an advocacy roundtable at the Center for American Progress to learn about efforts to suppress voting rights on the state level.

The AFL-CIO is joining with civil rights, community and labor partners in the re-enactment of the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Ala., civil rights march that will focus attention on new attacks on voting rights, immigrants, workers’ rights and education.

Laura Markwardt, senior communications associate at the Alliance for Retired Americans, sends us this.

Hundreds of Florida seniors and others turned out for a rally in Tampa Friday against voter suppression. The rally was followed by a hearing inside the courthouse about the new law chaired by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who came to investigate whether the state law denies voters their constitutional rights. Durbin is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.

In Detroit—a historic crossroads for both the labor and civil rights movements—more than 550 activists and leaders of those movements will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the AFL-CIO’s  annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference.

With the state legislative season set to get under way next month, Virginia offers us a preview of what working family activists are up against. A story  in today’s The Washington Post explores some of the more than 50 bills “ghostwritten” for Republican state legislators by the extreme conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).