[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 9, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1125-H1126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THANK YOU, JOHN LEWIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Demings). The Chair recognizes the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, this past Sunday was Bloody Sunday. 
For some who are not familiar with that terminology, the Congressional 
Black Caucus did a special tribute last evening. But I think it is also 
a recognition that elections count, determination counts, conscience 
counts.
  So this morning I want to emphasize Bloody Sunday and what it really 
meant. It was, in fact, to restore or to initiate or to give Americans 
the free and equal right to vote. The late John Lewis, our friend, our 
brother, the conscience of the Congress, may not have known what 
historical steps he was walking in when he stared down the Alabama 
State Troopers standing with Hosea Williams and Albert Turner and other 
foot soldiers, staring them down because voting counts.

[[Page H1126]]

  I rise to pay tribute to that kind of determination. As we proceed to 
debate the American rescue package, I want the Members, my friends on 
the other side of the aisle, to recognize that elections count, that 
people are looking for us to stare down the devastation of COVID-19, 
the devastation of poverty, and the devastation of lack of jobs.
  They are looking for diversity in terms of vaccinations, reaching out 
to neighborhoods. They are looking for the child tax credit, the earned 
income tax credit, and that is because John Lewis stood tall for the 
1965 Voting Rights Act.
  In fact, after that Bloody Sunday, President Johnson rose to this 
podium and said: ``I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the 
destiny of democracy. . . . 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.''
  So when we debate, I want us to be reminded that people died for the 
Voting Rights Act because elections count: people like Jimmie Lee 
Jackson, who was shot by a State trooper in Marion, Alabama, after a 
peaceful rally to vote; women like Viola Liuzzo, a Detroit housewife 
who was driving people back and forth between Montgomery and Selma. 
She, a mother of 5, was shot to death.
  So today I rise to emphasize that Bloody Sunday is not just Bloody 
Sunday. It is a continuation of the fight for justice and the fight for 
voting rights. It is what we will do tomorrow. It is the PRO Act. It is 
the Violence Against Women Act. It is the vote for the American rescue 
package that does not disallow the fact that all Americans, those 
impoverished, those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, those 
teachers who want to get in the classroom and teach. All of this will 
be part of the American rescue package.
  Thank you, John Lewis, for beginning to tell us what America should 
be and what America can be. It is because of that kind of strength that 
we are here today. To John Lewis, we commit to you to pass H.R. 1 in 
the Senate, to pass the Voting Rights Act enhancement number four, 
after Shelby, Alabama, destroyed and undermined the very strength of 
the Voting Rights Act. Because we would not be here today; we would not 
have the opportunity to have the American rescue package; we would not 
have the opportunity to have the Violence Against Women Act; we would 
not have the opportunity to have the George Floyd Justice in Policing 
Act, whose family was here last week when we debated it, if we did not 
have the right to vote.
  So it is my belief today that, as we go into this debate, as we go 
into the rest of the week, as we vote for the universal background 
checks and the Charleston, South Carolina, closing the loophole, it is 
not a frivolous authority or power that we utilize. It is because 
people were willing to be beaten and to be almost killed, but certainly 
unbowed, as Shirley Chisholm said, for the precious right to vote.
  Bloody Sunday may be one day, March 7, but all the years that I have 
gone and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, chosen to highlight a 
Confederate segregationist, but we turned that lemon into lemonade. 
When thousands and thousands and thousands every year marched across 
that Edmund Pettus Bridge, we weren't marching for segregation, we 
weren't marching for the violence that was perpetrated against the foot 
soldiers year after year. We were marching for freedom and the right to 
vote.
  So this right to vote will be exercised on the floor of the House 
this week. I ask and beg my colleagues to join us in what is good. Join 
us in the American rescue package. Join us in the PRO Act. Join us in 
the universal background checks. Join us in closing the Charleston 
loophole. Join us next week in the Violence Against Women Act. Join us 
to make America the country of John Robert Lewis, standing for what is 
good.
  Madam Speaker, I know we will do good and get into good trouble.

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