[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 106 (Friday, July 29, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 29, 2005

  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, 40 years ago, on August 6, 1965, 
President Lyndon Johnson signed a landmark piece of legislation, a 
turning point in our Nation's continuing struggle for equality, the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965. I rise today in honor of that momentous 
occasion.
  Aristotle once wrote that ``if liberty and equality . . . are chiefly 
to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons 
alike share in the government to the utmost.'' More than 2,000 years 
after Aristotle's death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that ``all 
men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.'' In 1965, this 
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to ensure that all Americans, 
regardless of race or ethnicity, would be able to share in our 
government, to mutually enjoy the blessings of liberty and democracy.
  Nevertheless, despite a constitutional guarantee of the right to 
vote, before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became the law of the land, 
African Americans and other minority citizens were often forced to take 
a literacy test, pay a poll tax or overcome other often insurmountable 
barriers before they could vote. Those who could not pass the tests--
which were, for the most part, absurdly unfair--or were too poor to pay 
the poll tax were denied the most basic right of all Americans: the 
right to take part in the selection of their Nation's leaders. 
President John F. Kennedy once said, ``Let us not seek the Republican 
answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek 
to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for 
the future.''
  It was the hope of the Johnson administration and this body that the 
Voting Rights Act would be a solution and bring to an end these and 
other measures that compromised the legitimacy of our democracy. 
President Johnson told his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, that he 
wanted for all citizens ``the right to vote with no ifs, ands, or 
buts--that's the key.'' It was his dream--and that of American men and 
women from every walk of life--to unquestionably ensure the benefits 
and responsibilities of citizenship to all Americans.
  For the most part, the bill has been successful. Under Section 2 of 
the Act, for example, Congress prohibited the use of literacy tests 
throughout the country. They also identified those parts of the Nation 
with the greatest potential for discriminatory activity and mandated 
Federal oversight of these locations. With these measures and others, 
the Voting Rights Act became perhaps the most effective piece of civil 
rights legislation in history.
  In my home state of Louisiana, 31.6 percent of African Americans were 
registered to vote in 1965, compared to 80.5 percent of whites. A 
little more than 30 years later, registration rates among African 
Americans climbed to 77.1 percent in the State, a jump of almost 50 
percent and fully 2 percent higher than the rate of registration for 
whites. Such change in a comparatively short period is remarkable by a 
number of measures, not only making our democracy more inclusive, but 
also changing the face of our government.
  The legislation also brought to fruition a government that more 
closely resembles the makeup of our population. The Civil Rights 
Coalition reports that ``in 1964, there were only approximately 300 
African Americans in public office nationwide, including just three in 
Congress. There are now more than 9,100 black elected officials, 
including 43 members of Congress, the largest number ever.''
  Despite these encouraging numbers, the VRA remains necessary to the 
continuing struggle to truly open our great experiment in Democracy to 
all. The results of the 2000 election proved to our country that we 
have yet to achieve the equality and democracy necessary, as Dr. King 
put it, to ``live out the true meaning of our creed.'' Every American 
citizen who wishes to do so is entitled to have their voice heard and 
their vote counted--when that right is so blatantly ignored, we appear 
to regress to a time when the decision making process was reserved for 
the few and the powerful.
  The passage of the Voting Rights Act 40 years ago today was a 
milestone in legislative history. This Congress defended the civil 
liberties of every American citizen, regardless of race or ethnicity. 
However, we cannot let our progress overshadow the very hard work that 
remains. Forty years on, every election still brings stories of voter 
intimidation, suppression and discrimination. It is incumbent upon us 
to secure the franchise, the most fundamental right of every American, 
and its exercise. Accordingly, we must continue to build on the 
sacrifices of ordinary men and women who became the heroes of equality 
and to uphold our promise to guarantee voting rights to every American 
citizen and ensure that it is carried out to the fullest.
  Mr. Speaker, on this anniversary, I urge my colleagues to renew our 
collective commitment to the fundamental American principles that 
underlie the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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