[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              COMMEMORATING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

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                          HON. DANNY K. DAVIS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 30, 2009

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, as we enter into the month of 
August, I would like to take this opportunity to commemorate the 
anniversary of The Voting Rights Act of 1965. On August 6, 1965, 
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The 
date marks a pivotal moment in our country's progress in extending 
equal membership in the political processes to every American. The 
right to vote is a fundamental principle of all democracies. Yet, in 
our great nation whose founding fathers and documents boasted of its 
creation to promote equality, there was a substantial period of history 
during which minority men and women were barred from that very right. 
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right to 
vote for every citizen, but the discriminatory practices of Jim Crow in 
the antebellum south used taxes, literacy tests, gerrymandering, and 
language discrimination to prevent Blacks from voting and taking part 
in the government. Without the right to vote, many African Americans 
were subject to intolerable injustices and appalling prejudice.
  The Voting Rights Act represents a culmination of the great efforts 
of civil rights organizations and activists to inform the nation of the 
extensive disenfranchisement taking place throughout the country. The 
anniversary of the enactment of this historic law provides an 
opportunity to acknowledge these activists. Most notably, their 
tremendous dedication and uncompromising pursuit of equality took the 
form of peaceful marches from Selma to Montgomery that were met with 
vicious attacks by state and local police forces. These events caught 
the attention of the President and Congress, contributing to a 
commitment to new civil rights legislation to counter the resistance 
and discrimination laws within the states. The enactment of the Voting 
Rights Act in 1965 allowed African-Americans across the country to 
finally have a say in the functioning of the country. Today, I 
celebrate the anniversary of this law as a reflection of what our 
country represents: a nation pledged to representing the views, values, 
and beliefs of all the people it serves.

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