[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4888-S4890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Voting Rights

  Madam President, more than 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches 
of Normandy on D-day. Among them were 2,000 African-American soldiers. 
Within that group was an even smaller band of brothers: 700 members of 
the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only--only--all Black combat 
unit to take part in D-day.
  Ten days ago, on the Fourth of July, Henry Parham--the last known 
living member of that historic African-American battalion--died at a 
veteran's hospital in Pittsburgh. He was 99 years old.
  He was one in a million, literally. He was one of the 1 million 
African-American men and women who served in the

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branches of the military that were still segregated for U.S. Armed 
Forces during World War II. Many of these Black patriots believed they 
were fighting for a double victory, to beat fascism and to beat 
segregation and racism at home.
  Another African-American soldier who took part in the Normandy 
invasion left high school at 17 to enlist in the Army. He served 2 
years in France and Germany.
  When he returned to Mississippi, Jim Crow was waiting for him with 
``Whites only'' water fountains, segregated public schools, 
discriminatory poll taxes, and literary tests when you showed up to 
vote. So this veteran of the U.S. Army, this Black veteran of the U.S. 
Army who risked his life to fight for democracy, had to return to 
America and fight for it again.
  In 1954, he became the first Mississippi field secretary for the 
NAACP. One of his first assignments was the 1955 killing of Emmett 
Till. He was asked to look into that for the NAACP. He organized 
boycotts of segregated businesses, and voter registration drives were 
established to help African Americans. For his efforts, he received 
countless death threats. His home was fire-bombed, and they tried to 
kill him more than once.
  On June 12, 1963, he arrived home after a midnight meeting, got out 
of his car, took a few steps, and was shot in the back by a White 
supremacist Klansman. The bullet pierced his heart and killed him. He 
was 37 years old.
  I remember the news reports on this. I was just a kid in college. The 
victim's name was Medgar Evers. When he was murdered, he was carrying 
in his arms NAACP T-shirts that read ``Jim Crow Must Go.''
  Sixty years later, I am afraid Jim Crow is still around. The 
invidious voting discrimination that Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Fannie 
Lou Hamer, and so many others sacrificed so much to end has not just 
returned in Mississippi, is not just returning to the South but across 
America. We are witnessing a coordinated, relentless, nationwide attack 
on voting rights and on free and fair elections in America.
  Already this year, 17 States have enacted 28 new laws to make it 
harder for Americans--especially people of color--to vote. A total of 
nearly 400 bills eliminating the right to vote have been introduced in 
48 States. These new voter suppression laws and proposed laws are the 
poisonous fruit of a dangerous, discredited lie, the Big Lie, the same 
one that brought a murderous mob from a Trump rally to this Capitol on 
January 6.
  An angry, insecure man with a fragile ego can't bear the thought of 
losing. He can't stand the notion of public rejection, so he summoned 
the mob to the Capitol on January 6 to try to overturn the Presidential 
election. They were on a mission for the President. As a result of 
their storming this Capitol, more than 140 Capitol Hill and other 
police officers were injured. One died defending this Capitol, 
defending us.
  The fact is, the 2020 election was free and fair, and Donald Trump 
lost. Despite all of his protests and lawsuits, there is no evidence 
other than that.
  A record number of Americans in that election braved a deadly 
pandemic to cast their votes. The Department of Homeland Security 
called the election ``the most secure in American history.'' More than 
80 judges, including many conservatives appointed by President Trump 
himself, threw out his claims in court that the election was stolen.
  When a voting machine company sued one of those lawyers for 
defamation over false claims of switched and stolen votes, the defense 
her lawyer offered was that ``no reasonable person'' would believe his 
client's voter fraud lies. Yet Republican lawmakers in nearly every 
State are now using those same lies and the Big Lie to wage a sweeping 
assault on voting rights.
  These new voter suppression laws would make it harder for millions of 
Americans to cast their votes. Many who are eligible to cast their 
votes would lose the opportunity because of these new laws. Even more 
alarming, in many States, new laws would make it easier for partisan 
election officials to simply throw out election results they don't 
like.
  Donald Trump used all the powers of his Presidency to try to force 
State election officials to overrule the will of their State's voters 
and he failed. The rule of law won. Remember the recording he had with 
the election official in Georgia? He did everything but threaten him 
with criminal action if he didn't change the final official vote tally. 
Now some Republicans State legislators want to change the laws to make 
voter nullification schemes legal. Never before in American history 
have we allowed anything like that.
  This is not democracy, and it must not be allowed to happen. This 
week, 51 lawmakers from the State of Texas took the extraordinary step 
of leaving their State to deny the Texas House a quorum and prevent it 
from passing yet another State voter suppression law. The Texas law, 
among other things, would end the very practices that made it possible 
for historic numbers of Americans to vote safely and securely last 
November, things like drive-through voting, 24-hour polling places, 
ballot drop boxes. Each one of these changes would make it harder for 
poor people and minorities to vote, and that is what this is all about.
  In fleeing their State and traveling to Washington, the Texas 
lawmakers are sending an SOS for American democracy. They are sending a 
distress signal for voting rights. They are pleading with the Senate, 
our Senate, to act, to end the Republican filibuster of the For the 
People Act and update and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act now. 
Only Federal action and Federal protections can stop this assault on 
America's voting rights.
  Madam President, there are solutions. This onslaught of attacks on 
voting rights and election independence would not be possible without 
two rulings from the conservative majority of the Supreme Court that 
have gutted the Voting Rights Act.
  Earlier today, the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the 
Constitution held a hearing on what it takes to restore the Voting 
Rights Act after the misguided Shelby County decision and Brnovich 
decision this month. I want to thank Senator Blumenthal for chairing 
that important hearing.

  I want to commend President Biden for speaking out so forcefully 
about protecting voting rights in his speech yesterday in Philadelphia. 
Like President Kennedy nearly 60 years ago, President Biden reminded us 
that voting rights are not just a political issue; they are a moral 
issue. It is not just merely a legal concern; it is a concern that goes 
to our values as Americans. I also strongly support Attorney General 
Garland's decision to double the size of the Justice Department's Civil 
Rights Division after years of attrition.
  But the only way to truly end this unprecedented assault on voting is 
for Congress to step up. It is our responsibility. The Big Lie that 
brought a deadly insurrection into this Chamber on January 6 has 
American democracy in its crosshairs. We have to act, and now is the 
time.
  The Senate must end the Republican filibuster of the For the People 
Act, stop voter suppression in States, get dark money out of politics, 
prevent billionaires from buying elections, and end partisan 
gerrymandering. We cannot stand on ceremony and tradition while the 
pillars of our democracy are destroyed. If we lose free and fair 
elections, we lose our democracy. We must also introduce and pass the 
John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and expand those 
rights and prevent voter suppression. I am working with Senator Leahy 
to that end.
  The right to vote is an American ideal. It shouldn't be a partisan 
battle. John Lewis told us so often--``The vote is precious,'' he said. 
``It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have 
in a democratic society. And we have to use it.''
  I will close with this story. Every year, John Lewis led a group of 
Congress Members and others on what he called a pilgrimage to some of 
the sacred places of the American civil rights movement. I had the 
privilege of attending one of those pilgrimages.
  In 2014, John Lewis led the pilgrimage to a different hallowed ground 
in American history. That year, the 50th anniversary of the Freedom 
Summer, John Lewis led groups to Money, MS, to the place where Emmett 
Till was murdered. Remember Emmett Till, the teenager from Chicago who 
was brutally murdered in the South in Mississippi? They went to 
Philadelphia, MS, as well, where three young civil rights activists--
names well known to my generation--James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and 
Michael Schwerner,

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were kidnapped and murdered during Freedom Summer because they were 
there to register Black voters. Then they traveled to Jackson, MS, to 
the house where Medgar Evers was cut down by an assassin's bullet.
  Standing on the spot where Medgar Evers fell, John's voice caught as 
he said:

       The night this man was shot and killed, something died in 
     all of us in the [civil rights] movement.

  John Lewis led his pilgrimage to Mississippi that year because he 
wanted us to never forget the terrible sacrifices of so many to fulfill 
the promise of our Nation and secure voting rights.
  This Saturday will mark the 1-year anniversary of John Lewis's 
passing. I miss him. He was a real friend. When he left us, something 
in all of us wept. We can keep the spirit of John Lewis alive by 
defending the greatest cause of his life, the cause for which he nearly 
died as a young man on that bridge in Selma: the right of every 
American to vote.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I complete 
my remarks before the vote is called.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.