[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 122 (Wednesday, October 4, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     EX-OFFENDER VOTING RIGHTS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 4, 2000

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, in Post-Civil War America, Congress passed 
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States 
Constitution to give African Americans the right to vote and to 
participate meaningfully in the governance of this country. While 22 
African-Americans were elected to Congress in the following years, the 
promise of these amendments was destroyed by Jim Crow laws. After 
decades of struggle, the sacrifices of nonviolent civil rights 
protesters spurred Congress to approve the Voting Rights Act in 1965. 
The passage of the Voting Rights Act was perhaps the most important 
victory won by the Civil Rights Movement led by the Reverend Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. All of these efforts were made with the recognition 
that the franchise is critical to the ultimate emancipation of the 
African American people.
  Unfortunately, as we approach the first national election of the new 
millennium, we are confronted with another challenge to the 
enfranchisement of millions of African-Americans. Mr. Speaker, there is 
simply no justification for the disenfranchisement of almost 3 million 
Americans who served their sentences for the commission of a felony 
crime. Let me repeat that point: over 3 million Americans have lost 
their right to vote even after they have paid their debt to society. 
Mr. Speaker, this issue is of great concern to my community, which 
already suffered so much from the so-called ``war on drugs.''
  The war on drugs is perhaps the single most ``effective'' tool in 
disenfanchising millions of African Americans since Jim Crow. Between 
1985 and 1995, there was a 707% increase in the number of African 
Americans in state prison for a drug offense, compared to a 306 percent 
increase for whites over the same period. In addition, since the advent 
in 1986 of mandatory minimum sentences for drug related offenses, the 
number of African Americans in prison on drug-related offenses has 
exploded. In fact, despite evidence that African Americans and 
Caucasians use drugs at roughly the same rate, African Americans have 
been especially hard hit by mandatory minimum sentences: African 
Americans comprise about 13 percent of the United States' population, 
15 percent of drug users, and 17 percent of cocaine users. However, 
thanks to the war on drugs being targeted against our communities, 
African Americans account for 33 percent of all federal drug 
convictions, 57 percent of Federal cocaine convictions and a staggering 
84 percent of all federal crack cocaine convictions. Once convicted, 
these individuals often lose their right to vote for life.
  The result? The combined effect of the war on drugs and mandatory 
minimum sentences being targeted at African Americans and other 
minorities is that these groups are losing their right to vote at 
staggering rates. That's why I come here today, to join my colleagues 
in demanding passage on vital legislation to make all persons released 
from prison automatically eligible to vote in federal elections. This, 
Mr. Speaker, is a necessary step in restoring the franchise to those 
Americans who have already suffered so much.

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