[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 175 (Monday, November 17, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10548-S10549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      AMERICA: A WORK IN PROGRESS

  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate this historic 
time in the history of the United States of America.
  I give my accolades to President-elect Obama and to Vice President-
elect Biden for their transformative and historic campaign and 
election.
  I also recognize Senator John McCain as a friend and for his 
extraordinary contributions to our Nation. I am certain Senator McCain 
will continue to serve as a force for good on the floor of this 
Chamber, as he has for so many years. I look forward to working with 
him.
  Just a few short years ago, President-elect Barack Obama arrived in 
the Senate in the 109th Congress as an unlikely occupant from the 
Illinois State Senate.
  President-elect Obama's story is an American story. The son of a 
mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, he learned the values of 
hard work and service to others. He studied at some of our Nation's 
finest schools but chose to apply his immeasurable talents to serving 
the people: a community organizer, an Illinois State senator, a U.S. 
Senator, and soon to be the President of these United States of 
America.
  President-elect Obama is, in fact, the personification of the 
American dream and the idea of what it is to be an American. His 
election is also a reminder of just how far our country has come.
  America has always been a work in progress--an idea that generation 
after generation has worked to perfect. We must never forget that for 
over 250 years on this continent, and through the first century of this 
Nation, we lived in a society where slavery was allowed.
  It took the bloodiest war of our country's history--the Civil War--
where over a half million Americans were killed on our own soil, to 
bring about an end to slavery and to usher in the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
amendments of our Constitution. These three amendments, in my view, are 
a significant part of the bedrock proposition that all constitutional 
liberties are endowed upon all Americans without exception.
  Unfortunately, neither the Civil War nor these amendments brought an 
end to the division or discrimination that were a part of our Nation's 
past.
  In 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, our U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned a 
system of segregation under the law. The Court upheld an 1890 Louisiana 
law which mandated racially segregated but equal railroad carriages. It 
was a dark period in our Nation's history.
  ``Jim Crow'' laws extended across the South. In the Southwest, 
Mexican Americans were also systematically denied access to ``White 
Only'' restrooms and other public places. In the South, the signs read: 
``No Blacks Allowed.'' In the Southwest in many places the signs read: 
``No Mexicans Allowed.''
  There were, however, many voices who knew that an America divided by 
race was an America which could not stand. In the now infamous Plessy 
case, Justice Harlan, in the dissent to that case that sanctioned 
segregation under the laws, said the following:

       The destinies of the races, in this country, are 
     indissolubly linked together and the interests of both 
     require that the common government law shall not permit the 
     seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law.

  It took more than a half century of an America in progress to revisit 
its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson and to begin achieving the vision of 
Justice Harlan. It was not until 1920 that our Constitution guaranteed 
the right to vote to women. In fact, for the first several hundred 
years women were not entitled to vote in the United States of America. 
It was not until 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, that the Supreme 
Court, under the able leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, struck 
down the ``separate but equal'' doctrine as unconstitutional under the 
14th amendment. Thurgood Marshall, another American hero of ours who 
gave his life for equal opportunity for all Americans, argued that case 
before the U.S. Supreme Court.
  But even after the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 
there was much more work to do. The 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, 
guaranteed all citizens the right to vote regardless of race. But 
almost a century later--in 1965--only a very small percentage of 
African Americans were registered to vote in States such as Mississippi 
and Alabama.
  In 1965, for example, in Mississippi, only 6.7 percent--6.7 percent--
of African Americans were registered to vote. In Alabama, less than 20 
percent of African Americans were registered to vote.
  To prevent people from voting, there were literacy tests, poll taxes, 
and language barriers, not to mention voter intimidation and 
harassment, which occurred in those days in the 1960s.
  But the 1960s also brought change to America and ensured that we 
continued as an America in progress. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson 
signed the Civil Rights Act. In signing that law, he said:

       We believe that all men are created equal, yet many are 
     denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain 
     unalienable rights, yet many Americans do not enjoy those 
     rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings 
     of liberty, yet millions are being deprived of those 
     blessings, not because of their own failures, but because of 
     color of the skin.

  Our work, President Johnson said that day, was not done. He was 
right.
  In early 1965, Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot by a State trooper during a 
civil rights demonstration.
  On March 7, in Selma, AL, more than 500 nonviolent civil rights 
marchers attempting a 54-mile march to the State capital to call for 
voting rights were confronted by an aggressive assault by authorities. 
That day, still known and remembered as Bloody Sunday, stirred a nation 
to do what it knew was right.
  President Johnson, in those days, called for the country to summon 
its better angels. He said:

       At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single 
     place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for 
     freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a 
     century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, 
     Alabama.

  President Johnson continued:

       This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no 
     hesitation and no compromise with our purpose. We cannot, we 
     must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to

[[Page S10549]]

     vote in every election that he may desire to participate in.

  On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark 
legislation--the Voting Rights Act--that opened the doors of democracy 
to all Americans.
  In our country's history, yes, we have stumbled. But yet at each 
stumble, leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Cesar 
Chavez, and many others, have encouraged us to get up, to stand up, to 
move America forward.
  We, like them, believe America truly is an America in progress. 
Today, thanks in large measure to their work, we are at the dawn of a 
new America, an era in which doors of democracy and opportunity are 
open to all Americans.
  We are waiting today for the inauguration of the first African-
American President in the history of the United States. That in itself 
is history. But what is also historic about this reality is that as 
President he will be President for all 325 million people of America.
  In his election, I think you see the statement that is truly the 
American ideal: that no matter who you are, no matter where you are 
from, anything is possible in this America of ours. That is what makes 
us a great nation. That is what we have seen as an America in progress 
which has brought us to this point in our Nation's history.
  We have much work to do ahead. But I am very confident that America's 
best days are still ahead, as we continue to be the beacon of hope and 
opportunity and human possibilities for the entire globe.
  Mr. President, I thank you and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized.

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