[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       IN SUPPORT OF THE REAUTHORIZATION OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. I believe that this is a 
high-stakes test for the world's democracy that is the focus of efforts 
all around the globe to promote democracy. Right here at home, we still 
need to move towards a more perfect Union.
  In my home city of Philadelphia, where the Constitution was written, 
we, some 150 years after that, saw the death of a young African 
American male, Octavius Catto, who was just going to go vote and was 
beaten to death by a white mob that was upset about his exercising his 
franchise.
  The question of the Voting Rights Act is not just a question for the 
South; it is a question across our Nation. And the benefits and the 
protections of the Voting Rights Act, as we seek its reauthorization, 
and we seek it today, suggests to the world whether this is a democracy 
truly that the world should seek to emulate.

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