[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDMARK VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 
                                  1965

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 28, 2005

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in full support of H. Con. Res. 
216, which seeks to advance the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 
1965.
  Ninety-five years after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, 
African Americans in the South still faced tremendous obstacles to 
voting, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic 
restrictions designed to disenfranchise them. In addition, they risked 
harassment, intimidation, economic reprisals, and physical violence 
when they tried to register or vote. As a result, few African Americans 
were registered voters, and consequently wielded little, if any, local 
or national political power.
  In the aftermath of ``Bloody Sunday'', where the rights of nonviolent 
civil rights marchers were brutally abridged, our nation recognized 
that democracy was not yet fulfilled for African-Americans. President 
Lyndon B. Johnson was then prompted to encourage Congress to draft a 
comprehensive voting rights bill. The outcome was the Voting Rights 
Bill of 1965, enacted on August 6, 1965. It took direct aim at black 
disenfranchisement in the South by targeting areas, such as Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Virginia, where fewer than 50 percent of eligible voters participated 
in the election. In these areas, the Federal Government was then 
authorized to appoint examiners to conduct the registration process, in 
the place of local officials. It has been argued, by the Department of 
Justice, that the influx of ``federal registrars represented the 
ultimate triumph of national policy toward minorities over state and 
local policies.'' Mr. Speaker, I contend that it was the long overdue 
enforcement of the rights provided in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
Amendments.
  It is clear that the effects of the voting rights law were immediate 
and extensive. By 1967 black voter registration in six southern states 
had increased from 30 percent to more than 50 percent. There was also a 
correspondingly sharp increase in the number of blacks elected to 
political office in the South. Furthermore, in 1976, when Democrat 
Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States by a narrow 
margin, the ``newly-enfranchised southern blacks'' were deemed to be 
largely responsible.
  Although this legislation is of particular significance to African 
Americans, it is truly a landmark law, which secures the franchise for 
all Americans regardless of ``race, color, or previous condition of 
servitude.'' As we approach the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Right 
Act, it is important that we remember to uphold and strengthen the 
tenets of this Act and in doing so preserve our constitutional rights.
  We should never forget the sacrifices made by the activists of the 
Civil Rights Movement, and therefore strive to continually advance 
their legacy in this era.

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