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Jerry H. Goldfeder and Frederick A. Davie, Opinion contributors Published 3:39 p.m. ET July 31, 2020 | Updated 3:56 p.m. ET July 31, 2020

The loss of Rep. John Lewis a civil rights leader who spent his life making "good trouble" brings to mind the death of Maceo Snipes, unknown by most Americans.

On July 17, 1946, the war veteran cast a vote in hisstates Democratic primary the only African American in Taylor County, Georgia to do so. Believing that recent court decisions abolishing all-white-voterprimaries had paved his way, Snipes was undeterred by the KKK and the overt racism of Georgia officials. The very next day,white men showed up at his house, and one shot him. He died two days laterafter thelocal hospital refused to give him a blood transfusion because it had no Black blood.

Professor Carol Anderson, chair of African American studies at Atlantas Emory University and author of the recently acclaimed book "One Person, No Vote," said that Snipes essentially signed his death warrantby voting.

A young John Lewis led the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus bridge, which was broken up by Alabama state troopers who assaulted Lewis and other demonstrators with nightsticks, clubs and whips.(Photo: AP)

The man who killed Snipes wastriedand acquitted. The FBI investigated at the time, and determined that the shooting was unrelated to voting and instead was over a debt.Unabashed, an editorialin New Yorks "Amsterdam News" called Snipes a new martyr to the cause of Democracy and freedom in America, and urged New Yorkers to honor his memory by registering to vote.

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In 2008, pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act,the case wasre-opened,only to beclosedagain two years later.It's unclear why the Department of Justice closed the case because the legal analysis in the DOJ documentation has been redacted. There may not have been any iPhones to record Snipes death in 1946, but the climate of fear and violence in Georgia led those who knew him to conclude that he was killed for voting.

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African Americans are no longer shot to death or lynched for voting, and brazenly racist Jim Crow laws have been eradicated. But as our presidential election looms, aggressively restrictive voting laws have been enacted in many states. These hurdles arenot lethal, but they are destructive to the life of our republic. One federal judge in a North Carolina voting rights case recently opined that white legislators "target African Americans with surgical precision"in their efforts to restrict voting. And to paraphrase the Rev. Al Sharpton, many states have their knees on the necks of Black voters.

In the monthsafter George Floyd's death, the movement for criminal justice reform and its concurrent demand to eliminate institutional racism is a welcome populist surge: Activists include a broad swath of diverse Americans demanding a restructuring of values and laws. Lewis, before he died, praised these efforts and hoped for their persistence: "you must be able and prepared to give until you cannot give any more."

Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign and one of Lewiss many political heirs, has emphasized howthe broader Black Lives Matter movement also encompasses the fight forvoting rights. Imagine, then, if the movement generated byFloyd's death is further influenced by that of Lewis and the memory of Snipes (and the many other Blacks and whites who died fighting for voting rights) to prompt thousands of Americans to converge on Capitol Hill and state capitals around the country with a clear and unequivocal message:Let Americans vote!

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A good starting point is to demand enactment of H.R.1, the voting rights bill passed by the House of Representatives that languishes on Sen.Mitch McConnells desk. Another is Sen.Amy Klobuchars bill for mail-in voting. A sustained and focused effort in Washington and throughout the country could open up the democratic process for voters whose rights are obstructed by unnecessary barriers.

It is not too late to clean up our electoral rules in time for the presidential election, and, as Lewis would attest, without such popular action, the likelihood of voting rights reform is remote. This is the perfect time for getting into good trouble to save Americas constitutional democracy.

Jerry Goldfeder is an election lawyer at Stroock in New York, teaches election law at the Fordham law school and is the author of "Goldfeders Modern Election Law."

Fred Davie is executive vice president of New York'sUnion Theological Seminary, chair of the New York CityCivilian Complaint Review Board for the city's police departmentand was a member of President Barack Obamas White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

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Before John Lewis, was the bold life and unjust death of Maceo Snipes - USA TODAY