[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 102 (Friday, July 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PRAISE OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT PASSAGE

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                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 28, 2006

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in praise of the 
hard work of our colleagues here in the House and the Senate for 
extending for another twenty-five years the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa 
Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and 
Amendments Act. I thank the President for signing the bill into law 
yesterday. In addition, I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of 
those individuals whose work has ensured that the tradition of its 
creators is not forgotten.
  It was the combined efforts of civil rights leaders--activists like 
Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and both Coretta Scott King and Martin 
Luther King Jr.; political leaders in the Kennedy and Johnson 
Administrations; and our esteemed colleague, John Lewis, who put his 
life on the line when he crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, 
Alabama on Bloody Sunday--these are some of the people who made the 
Voting Rights Act a reality. It is in the memory of their political 
courage and stewardship of democracy that I joined with my colleagues 
to ensure its continuation.
  What we have seen in the past months is another pivotal step toward 
the realization of Dr. King's dream for an equal America. From my own 
work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, I understand many of the 
obstacles Dr. King faced in overcoming adversity for the 
disenfranchised. I am honored and humbled to be one of many to continue 
what he worked so hard to begin.
  The right to vote is among the most sacred of freedoms. Dr. King is 
just one of many Americans who paid the ultimate price, so that all can 
have a voice. The Voting Rights Act honors that tradition by ensuring 
that all Americans have equal access to the ballot box and refusing to 
allow discrimination of the past to be a part of our future.
  Mr. Speaker, the Congress has made its will and that of the country 
known. We have ensured that all Americans will continue to have a voice 
and generations to come will go on to make Dr. King's dream of an equal 
America a reality.

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