[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         PROTECT VOTER RIGHTS BY PASSING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. CLYBURN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, the genesis of the Voting Rights Act lies 
in that period of American history just after the Civil War when 
various creative devices were put in place to prevent and dilute the 
impact of black voters and votes.
  The 1965 act did away with many of those devices, many of which were 
used in my home State, devices such as full-slate voting, where in 
order for your vote to count, you had to vote for your choice once and 
against that choice for as many times as there were vacancies on the 
ballot, numbered posts which set up racially polarized voting, at-large 
voting which diluted the impact of black votes. All of these creative 
devices were gotten rid of with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I used to teach history, and I always told my 
students that if a thing has happened before, it can happen again. And 
I do know that if we do not have the protection of the Voting Rights 
Act, we can see our States revisiting many of those creative devices.

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