[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FOR THE PEOPLE ACT OF 2021

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I watched television Sunday night with 
my wife. There was a movie called ``Selma.'' Oprah Winfrey had 
something to do with it because she was in it, and it was, as you might 
expect, a quality production.
  It told the story of what happened in 1965 in Selma, AL. It showed 
the horrific images of Americans being beaten and brutalized in Selma 
for daring to protest peacefully. For what? For the right to vote.
  Fewer people know about Turnaround Tuesday. That was the day, 2 days 
after Bloody Sunday, when many of the same people who had been beaten 
on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday went back to that bridge 
to make it plain that they were going to come back again and again 
until every right of every citizen to vote was secured. That was 
Turnaround Tuesday.
  I had a lucky experience. The late John Lewis, who marched across 
that Edmund Pettus Bridge and almost gave his life in the process, took 
me, one foggy Sunday morning, for a walk across the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge, and he told me what he remembered from that day.
  I have seen pictures over and over again. There he is in his white 
raincoat, with a backpack, marching in the front of the line, and how 
he was bashed in the head by either a trooper or someone who came along 
trying to stop them from marching. He almost died as a result of it. It 
was something I will never forget. I feel blessed that I had that 
experience.
  And then there was the vote on the floor yesterday. What a 
disappointment. Today, I want to say it is ``welcome back'' Wednesday. 
Welcome back to the fight to preserve voting rights that has never 
ended.
  It didn't start on that bridge in Selma, and it won't end in this 
Chamber in Washington. This battle is going to continue because there 
are those people who know that if you want to control America 
politically, you have got to control those who vote.
  We saw it after the Civil War, when we ended slavery and African 
Americans initially had an opportunity to vote and lead in Southern 
States. And then, sad to report, my political party, the Democratic 
Party at that time, was part of initiating the Jim Crow laws, which 
made it difficult, if not impossible, to vote.
  And the battle was on, and it is being waged to this day, about 
whether or not African Americans have a right to vote. Make no mistake. 
When Republicans come to the floor and go through these long, elaborate 
explanations of why a coordinated effort by Republican legislatures in 
20 different States is just good government, I think they know better. 
It is not good government, and it is not good for the people of those 
States, particularly if you are a minority.
  Well, this fight to prevent billionaires from buying elections and 
root out corruption in government didn't end with that filibuster 
yesterday. Republicans succeeded in delaying this debate for a time, 
but they are not going to derail it. This is too important. Our 
democracy is on the line.

  Five months ago--I am sure Madam President will never forget it, as I 
won't--a murderous mob--five people died--a murderous mob attacked this 
Capitol and tried to overturn the Presidential election.
  Who sent them? Well, it is clear to me who sent them: a vain, self-
pitying former President who couldn't accept defeat or the will of the 
American people. So Donald Trump created a Big Lie that the election 
was stolen. He used that lie to incite that mob to attack this Capitol. 
He continues to peddle the Big Lie from his exile at some country club.
  Now the party that coddled that failed President when he was in power 
is weaponizing the Big Lie and using it to justify a relentless attack 
on voting rights across America.
  Three weeks ago, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to kill a 
bill creating an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate who 
was behind this January 6 insurrection. They killed it with the 
filibuster, just as they tried to kill the voting rights bill 
yesterday. That filibuster is an echo, sadly, of how it has been used 
in the area of civil rights for as long as it has been in the Senate.
  This Big Lie is metastasizing; it is growing. Instead of stopping it, 
Republicans are using all their leverage to prevent us from confronting 
it. The filibuster yesterday was day one of this fight. It wasn't the 
end of the story.
  Welcome to day two. We mean to keep marching until we cross that 
bridge and stop this assault on our democracy and put an end to the Big 
Lie once and for all.
  I yield the floor.

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