[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RESTORE THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this Confederate flag, which is 
a symbol of systemic oppression and racial subjugation, was recently 
lowered in the State of South Carolina.
  But this same flag, which symbolizes so many inequities in our 
country, is still flying high in a figurative sense over our country.
  When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the heart of the Voting 
Rights Act, it signaled that African American voting rights would no 
longer be protected.
  Pretending that the legacy of poll taxes, literacy tests, and blatant 
discrimination was no longer taking place, the Supreme Court 
symbolically raised this flag when it gutted the Voting Rights Act.
  Now that this flag has come down from the halls of South Carolina, it 
is time that we lower this flag from its perch over the voting rights 
of African Americans by passing the legislation in the U.S. Congress to 
restore the Voting Rights Act.

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