[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RENEW VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. WATT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WATT. Mr. Speaker, the rules of the House won't allow me to do 
what George H. White did in 1901 when he rose to address an agriculture 
bill for 5 minutes and ended up speaking for an hour and a half, giving 
his farewell to Congress and saying these words: ``Mr. Speaker, this 
perhaps may be the temporary farewell of minorities and African 
Americans from this body, but some day we will rise up and come 
again.''
  Well, it took 92 years from that point in 1901 until 1993 when Eva 
Clayton and I returned to Congress as African American Members from 
North Carolina.
  And thank God the laws won't allow the exclusion of African Americans 
and other minorities from this democracy any longer because of the 
Voting Rights Act.
  We have got to renew it and extend it. We need to do it today in the 
House.

                          ____________________