[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1717-E1718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 29, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the Fortieth 
anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. This historic piece 
of legislation has helped significantly to restore and secure the 
voting rights of all Americans.
  The 40-year legacy of the Voting Rights Act, which will be celebrated 
in a major national march and demonstration in Atlanta in which I will 
participate, on August 6, 2005, stems from the hard-won victories of 
the non-violent Civil Rights Movement. During the modern Civil Rights 
Movement, Blacks fought against the systematic and social oppressions 
of segregation. Many blacks, especially in the South, were denied the 
very rights and privileges given and implied by the Constitution. The 
right to vote was no exception.
  Full participation in government and society has been a basic right 
of the country symbolizing the full citizenship and equal protection of 
all. The right to vote played an important role in ending the 
oppressive environment of segregation. Because of this, many Black 
Americans protested and died for full access to a government and a 
promise of equal treatment that had been denied to them. This was 
especially exemplified on March 7, 1965, known as ``Bloody Sunday'', 
which ushered in this enactment.
  As with the brutal murder of Emmett Till, ``Bloody Sunday'' 
reinforced the new consciousness about the plight of Black Americans in 
this country, especially in the South. Six hundred Civil Rights 
marchers marched from Selma, Alabama heading east in protest for their 
rights as citizens to vote. Six blocks later they were met by awaiting 
law enforcement and were severely beaten with billy clubs and bombed 
with tear gas. They were subsequently pushed back into Selma. Although 
this was seemingly a defeat for the progression of the Movement, the 
incident caught national attention, including that of President Lyndon 
Johnson.
  On August 6, 1965, President Johnson introduced legislation, giving 
rise to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In an address to Congress, 
President Johnson supported this Act by saying ``At times, history and 
fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point 
in man's unending search for freedom . . . about this there can be and 
should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to 
vote.''
  In subsequent years the VRA has been modified and evolved to include 
more and more disenfranchised groups. In 1970, Congress added 
provisions that extended the right to vote for 18 year olds. In 1975, 
provisions were added protecting the voting rights of citizens whose 
primary languages were of other languages. Lastly, the 1982 provisions 
created Congressional districts creating a more accessible minority 
voting pool. Through this, Congress has added amendments to the Act 
that support and secure the future of this most valuable tool for a 
true democracy.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was indeed a vital instrument of 
democracy, ensuring the integrity and reliability of a democratic 
process that we as a Country hold so dear.
  As we shortly begin to rethink the questions of the previous 
provisions previously added to this Act in 2007, remember that our work 
does not end here. We must continue to uphold the basic principles and 
sentiments that created this most important and much needed body of 
legislation.
  I submit this article from the current addition of the Carib News 
concerning the need and importance of securing further protections of 
the Voting Rights Act in 2007. It is evident, given the voting 
environment of the election of 2000, that there are still issues of 
denial that can compromise the voting rights of our constituents.

[[Page E1718]]

                         [From the Carib News]

             The Voting Rights Act--Instrument Of Democracy

                          (By Marc H. Morial)

       ``While we have made progress and curtailed injustices 
     thanks to the Voting Rights Act, our work is not yet 
     complete. We cannot let discriminatory practices of the past 
     resurface to threaten future gains. The Voting Rights Act 
     must continue to exist in its current form.''
       So said Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Republican, of 
     Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in 
     a recent speech to the National Association for the 
     Advancement of Colored People at its annual convention in 
     Milwaukee.
       We at the National Urban League couldn't agree more. We 
     made the renewal and strengthening of the Voting Rights Act 
     of 1965, which must be accomplished by 2007, a focus of our 
     recent annual Legislative Policy Conference in Washington, 
     and a top recommendation of our annual scholarly volume, The 
     State of Black America 2005.
       And we've got plenty of company among the broad coalition 
     of civil rights groups-including the NAACP, the NAACP Legal 
     Defense Fund, RainbowPUSH, and such members of Congress as 
     Rep. John Conyers, of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the 
     House Judiciary Committee, and the Congressional Black 
     Caucus--who've also long vigorously publicized the continuing 
     need for voting rights protections.
       So, we welcome Rep. Sensenbrenner's vigorous expression of 
     support--which he said he'll soon back up with legislation--
     and his bringing word that Speaker of the House, Dennis 
     Hastert, Republican, of Illinois, has put the renewal ``high 
     on list of issues the House will address this congress.''
       Such words are further evidence that it's impossible to 
     overstate the Voting Rights Act's importance. For, by 
     granting the Federal government specific powers to ensure 
     that Americans of African descent in the South could register 
     to vote and vote, the Voting Rights Act made the word 
     ``democracy'' an accurate description of American Society.
       Its enactment was a hard-won victory for the nonviolent 
     Civil Rights Movement, one that had produced casualties in 
     the South literally up to the moment (and beyond) President 
     Lyndon Johnson personally introduced the legislation to 
     Congress on March 15, 1965--against the backdrop of the 
     Bloody Sunday'' beating of civil rights demonstrators in 
     Selma, Alabama to previous week.
       His words then were equal to the moment: ``At times history 
     and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a 
     turning point in man's unending search for freedom,'' he 
     said. ``About this there can be and should be no argument. 
     Every American citizen must have the right to vote.''
       With token opposition the law quickly passed the House and 
     the Senate and President Johnson signed it on August 6, 1965.
       The political impact was immediate, according to Dianne 
     Pinderhughes, of the University of Illinois, who wrote about 
     the Voting Rights Act in the State of Black America 2005. 
     Within a year, more than 250,000 African Americans had 
     registered in the thirteen states covered under the Act; and 
     Mississippi, which had harbored the fiercest resistance to 
     civil rights for blacks, recorded the nation's highest black 
     voter turnout--74 percent.
       A similar response in the other states ultimately produced 
     enormous growth in the number of blacks holding elective 
     office throughout the country--from about 350 in 1965 to more 
     than 1,400 just five years later. Now, there are more than 
     9,000 black elected officeholders, including 42 members of 
     Congress, according to the Joint Center for Political and 
     Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
       In the intervening four decades the Act has been extended 
     three times, and new previsions added extending the right to 
     vote to 18-year-olds (1970), protecting the voting rights of 
     Spanish and other language speakers (1975), and most 
     contentious of all, allowing the creation of Congressional 
     districts in which the majority of voters would be members of 
     a minority group (1982).
       The consequences of these amendments underscore the 
     powerful democratizing dynamic the Civil Rights Movement as a 
     whole injected into American Society.
       Now, as the date for renewal looms, it's clear the Act is 
     still necessary. The vote-related controversies of the past 
     two presidential elections, which led to some significant 
     number of voters in some districts not being able to vote or 
     not having their votes counted have made that clear--as have 
     continuing debates regarding voter registration, the purging 
     of voter rolls, access to the polls and reliability of 
     election equipment, and the impact of state laws which bar 
     ex-felons and those on probation from voting.
       Thus, Professor Pinderhughes concluded in The State of 
     Black America 2005, this new landscape ``demands that the 
     civil rights lobby educate its mass constituency and the 
     broader American public about these issues which are now 
     wreathed in complexity.''
       That's another reason the NAACP invitation to 
     Representative Sensenbrenner and his speech to them are 
     noteworthy: they move us further toward the renewal of that 
     instrument of democracy, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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