[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 93 (Monday, July 17, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT 
               REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 13, 2006

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 9) to amend 
     the Voting Rights Act of 1965:

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, speaking of the Emancipation 
Proclamation, Martin Luther King declared that: ``This momentous decree 
came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who 
had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a 
joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.'' I say to you 
today that the Voting Rights Act, like the Emancipation Proclamation 
that preceded it a century before, was also a momentous decree which 
came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Americans who for 
decades had been subjected to the withering injustice of racial 
discrimination and electoral disenfranchisement.
  The Gohmert amendment seeks to diminish the light of continued hope 
offered by the VRA. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is no ordinary piece 
of legislation. For millions of Americans and myself, the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965 is a sacred treasure, earned by the sweat and toil and 
tears and blood of ordinary yet heroic Americans who showed the world 
it was possible to transform their society by having the courage to 
defy entrenched and systematic racial discrimination and 
disenfranchisement.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, which we MUST vote to 
reauthorize today was enacted to remedy a history of systemic and 
widespread discrimination in certain areas of the country. Presented 
with a record of systematic defiance by certain States and 
jurisdictions that could not be overcome by litigation, this Congress--
led by President Lyndon Johnson, from my own home state of Texas--took 
the steps necessary to stop it. It is instructive to recall the words 
of President Johnson when he proposed the Voting Rights Act to the 
Congress in 1965:

       Rarely are we met with a challenge . . . to the values and 
     the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation. The issue 
     of equal rights for American Negroes is such as an issue . . 
     . the command of the Constitution is plain. It is wrong--
     deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right 
     to vote in this country.

  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 represents our country and this 
Congress at its best because it matches our words to our deeds, our 
actions to our values. Martin Luther King said that, ``When the 
architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the 
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a 
promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. . . . It is 
obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note 
insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. . . . But we refuse to 
believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.''
  Fortunately, this country has come a long way in the past four 
decades since the assassination of Dr. King. However, as the massive 
voting irregularities that occurred in 2000 and 2004 clearly 
illustrate, we have not come far enough. That is why we must defeat the 
Gohmert Amendment which seeks to reduce the reauthorization period for 
the VRA from 25 years to 10 years.
  The considerable evidence presented in 10 hearings in the Judiciary 
Committee demonstrate clearly that the level and patterns of 
discrimination and electoral disenfranchisement present today are 
extremely unlikely to be eradicated in 10 years. Moreover, if covered 
jurisdictions want to bail out of provisions of the VRA, they can.
  In the past, when Congress reauthorized the VRA for short periods of 
time, it created an incentive for covered jurisdictions to wait out 
their obligations rather than comply, thus contributing to the 
widespread non-compliance with the statute that occurred throughout the 
1970s. A 10 year renewal of the VRA would be inadequate. In order for 
Congress to assess whether a pattern of discriminatory conduct remains, 
it must be able to review voting changes through multiple redistricting 
cycles. The three years following the decennial Census are a time of 
the highest volume of voting changes and the greatest opportunity for 
discrimination. Accordingly, we must maintain the 25 year renewal 
period.
  Furthermore, if we observe Congressional history, our own experience 
with the renewal of the VRA demonstrates a pattern of lengthening the 
period of coverage due to the level of entrenchment and intractability 
of voting discrimination. Given the extensive investment of 
Congressional resources expended by the Judiciary Committee in 
compiling and considering the detailed record necessary for 
reauthorization, reenacting the VRA for only 10 years is inefficient 
and unacceptable.
  Without exaggeration, the Voting Rights Act has been one of the most 
effective civil rights laws passed by Congress. In 1964, there were 
only approximately 300 African-Americans in public office, including 
just three in Congress. Few, if any, black elected officials were 
elected anywhere in the South. Today there are more than 9,100 black 
elected officials, including 43 members of Congress, the largest number 
ever. The act has opened the political process for many of the 
approximately 6,000 Latino public officials that have been elected and 
appointed nationwide, including 263 at the state or federal level, 27 
of whom serve in Congress. Native Americans, Asians and others who have 
historically encountered harsh barriers to full political participation 
also have benefited greatly.
  I hail from the great State of Texas, the Lone Star State. A state 
that, sadly, had one of the most egregious records of voting 
discrimination against racial and language minorities. Texas is one of 
the Voting Rights Act's ``covered jurisdictions.'' In all of its 
history, I am only one of three African-American woman from Texas to 
serve in the Congress of the United States, and one of only two to sit 
on this famed Committee. I hold the seat once held by the late Barbara 
Jordan, who won her seat thanks to the Voting Rights Act. From her 
perch on this committee, Barbara Jordan once said:

       I believe hyperbole would not be fictional and would not 
     overstate the solemness that I feel right now. My faith in 
     the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total.

  I sit here today an heir of the Civil Rights Movement, a beneficiary 
of the Voting Rights Act. My faith in the Constitution and the Voting 
Rights Act too is whole, it is complete, it is total. I would be 
breaking faith with those who risked all and gave all to secure for my 
generation the right to vote if I did not do all I can to strengthen 
the Voting Rights Act so that it will forever keep open doors that shut 
out so many for so long.
  Consequently, we must honor the legacies of those who sacrificed 
their lives so that we may be able to exercise our constitutionally 
protected right to vote by renewing the Voting Rights Act for 25 more 
years.

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