[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 94 (Thursday, June 27, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H4134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. CLEAVER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, my first babysitter was the Reverend Noah 
Albert Cleaver, my great-grandfather. He took care of me and my oldest 
sister every day after preschool. He lived to be 103 years old. I was 
in college when he died.
  My grandpa, born in Cherokee County, Texas, who died in Ellis County, 
Texas, never voted, not one time in 103 years because they had to pay 
$3.50 in a poll tax.
  When the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday saying that because of 
progress we don't need the voting rights any more, it's like having a 
cruise ship require everyone wear some kind of life vest. The ship goes 
down, everybody is saved, and they say, Well, because everybody was 
saved, we don't need life vests any more. It was the life vests that 
saved them. It was the Voting Rights Act that caused the voter 
participation to rise.
  I will not insult the death and life of my great-grandpa by not being 
as active as I can to reinstitute section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.

                          ____________________