[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, today marks the 50th anniversary of one 
of the most important civil rights bills we have ever come together as 
a nation to pass: the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  I am proud to commemorate this anniversary as the Senator for 
Maryland. Marylanders have a rich history of battling discrimination, 
going back to the darkest days of slavery. The brilliant Frederick 
Douglass was the voice of the voiceless in the struggle against 
slavery. The courageous Harriet Tubman delivered 300 slaves to freedom 
on her Underground Railroad. And the great Thurgood Marshall went from 
arguing Brown v. Board of Education to serving as a Supreme Court 
Justice. All were Marylanders.
  Not just Marylanders but civil rights leaders and activists from all 
over this country fought hard for the right to vote. Over 600 people 
marched from Selma to Montgomery. They were stopped and beaten but not 
defeated. These brave men and women continued to march, continued to 
fight until they got the right to vote. They had to challenge the 
establishment and to say ``now'' when others told them to ``wait''.
  Their fight and their struggle culminated in the passage of the 
Voting Rights Act. This legislation guaranteed one of our most 
important civil rights and reflected one of our most fundamental 
values: that all men and women have the right to vote.
  The struggle to truly fulfill this fundamental value--this 
fundamental right--is far from over. There are too many neighborhoods 
in this country, particularly in minority communities, that are the 
target of voter intimidation, barriers to access, and ever-changing 
requirements.
  The Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder only made 
this problem worse by stripping the Federal Government of its ability 
to protect voters from this kind of disenfranchisement--whether it was 
the old-fashioned kind or the new-fashioned kind.
  The fight for equal access to the ballot continues today, and like 
those who came before us, we cannot take ``no'' for an answer. We must 
ensure that any and all undue barriers to participation in our 
democracy are broken down. We must restore the protections of the 
Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court so that 
the promise of the right to vote is extended to all men and women.
  So while we look back proudly on the passage of the Voting Rights 
Act, we must recognize that the need for its protections is as great 
today as it was 50 years ago. The words of Justice Thurgood Marshall 
still ring true:
  ``I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant 
memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from 
the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. 
. . . We must dissent because America can do better, because America 
has no choice but to do better.''
  Today marks an important milestone in our history. As we come 
together to celebrate this anniversary, we must come together to defend 
the rights that this legislation was enacted to protect because if 
discrimination of any kind exists anywhere in America, we can and we 
must do better.

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