At Lewis Funeral, Obama Calls Filibuster a ‘Jim Crow Relic’

Former President Barack Obama called for sweeping changes to voting laws on Thursday, including making Election Day a national holiday and implementing automatic voter registration, and he embraced eliminating the filibuster if necessary to enact those changes, calling the legislative tool a “Jim Crow relic.”

In a 40-minute speech eulogizing Representative John Lewis, Mr. Obama drew parallels between the police violence that Mr. Lewis endured as a civil-rights leader in the 1960s and the recent wave of racial-justice protests and police clashes that have spread across the nation.

“Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans,” Mr. Obama said, speaking from the same pulpit once used by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.”

The speech was the latest and most public example of how Mr. Obama, who had sought to avoid the political scrum early in his post-presidency, has turned his focus to the 2020 election with greater intensity, even as he races to finish writing a book. He helped bring about a swifter end to the Democratic primary; has raised more than $24 million since June for his former vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee; and has lent his name to the party’s and Mr. Biden’s digital fund-raising and organizing efforts.