    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [July 27, 2006]
    [Pages 1448-1449]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott
    King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006
    July 27, 2006

        Thank you. Good morning. Welcome. Thanks for being here on this
    special day. Please be seated. America began with a declaration that all
    men are created equal. This declaration marked a tremendous advance in
    the story of freedom, yet it also contained a contradiction: Some of the
    same men who signed their names to this self-evident truth owned other
    men as property. By reauthorizing this act, Congress has reaffirmed its
    belief that all men are created equal, its belief that the new founding
    started by the signing of the bill by President Johnson is worthy of our
    great Nation to continue.
        I'm proud to be here with our Attorney General, members of my Cabinet, leaders of the United States Senate
    and House of Representatives. I thank the bill sponsors. I thank the
    members of the Judiciary Committee. I appreciate so very much
    representatives of the Hamer family who have joined us, representatives
    of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute who have joined us, and members
    of the King family, in particular Reverend Bernice King and Martin Luther King. Thank you all for coming.
        I'm honored to be here with civil rights leaders like Dr. Dorothy
    Height, Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP. Bruce Gordon--thank you, Bruce. Reverend Lowery--it's good to see you again, sir--fortunately, I
    got the mike this time. [Laughter] I'm proud to be here with Marc
    Morial. Thanks for coming, Marc. Juanita
    Abernathy is with us today. Jesse Jackson--good to see you, Jesse. Al
    Sharpton, Dr. Benjamin Hooks and Frances are with
    us. A lot of other folks who care deeply about this issue, we welcome
    you here.
        It's good to welcome the mayor. Mr. Mayor, good to see you. Thanks
    for coming--Tony Williams. Everything is
    fine in the neighborhood; I appreciate it. [Laughter] And the mayor of
    Selma, Alabama, James Perkins, is with
    us. Mr. Mayor, proud you're here. Welcome, sir.
        The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own political
    future lies at the heart of the American experiment, and it is a right
    that has been won by the sacrifice of patriots. The Declaration of
    Independence was born on the stand for liberty taken at Lexington and
    Concord. The amendments to our Constitution that outlawed slavery and
    guaranteed the right to vote came at the price of a terrible civil war.
        The Voting Rights Act that broke the segregationist lock on the
    ballot box rose from the courage shown on a Selma bridge one Sunday
    afternoon in March of 1965. On that day, African Americans, including a
    Member of the United States Congress, John Lewis, marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a protest
    intended to highlight the unfair practices that kept them off the voter
    rolls.
        The brutal response showed America why a march was necessary. When
    the marchers reached the far side of the bridge, they were met by State
    troopers and civilian posse bearing billy clubs and whips, weapons they
    did not hesitate to use. The images of policemen using night sticks on
    peaceful protesters were carried on television screens across the
    country, and they stung the conscience of a slumbering America.
        One week after Selma, President Lyndon Johnson took to the airwaves
    to announce that he planned to submit legislation that would bring
    African Americans into the civic life of our Nation. Five months after
    Selma, he signed the Voting Rights Act into law in the rotunda of our
    Nation's Capitol. In a little more than a year after Selma, a newly
    enfranchised black community used

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    their power at the ballot box to help defeat the sheriff who had sent
    men with whips and clubs to the Edmund Pettus Bridge on that bloody
    Sunday.
        For some parts of our country, the Voting Rights Act marked the
    first appearance of African Americans on the voting rolls since
    Reconstruction. And in the primaries and elections that followed the
    signing of this act, many African Americans pulled the voting lever for
    the first time in their lives.
        Eighty-one-year-old Willie Bolden was the grandson of slaves, and in
    the spring of 1966, he cast his first ballot in Alabama's Democratic
    primary. He told a reporter, ``It felt good to me. It made me think I
    was sort of somebody.'' In the America promised by our Founders, every
    citizen is a somebody, and every generation has a responsibility to add
    its own chapter to the unfolding story of freedom.
        In four decades since the Voting Rights Act was first passed, we've
    made progress toward equality, yet the work for a more perfect union is
    never ending. We'll continue to build on the legal equality won by the
    civil rights movement to help ensure that every person enjoys the
    opportunity that this great land of liberty offers. And that means a
    decent education and a good school for every child, a chance to own
    their own home or business, and the hope that comes from knowing that
    you can rise in our society by hard work and God-given talents.
        Today we renew a bill that helped bring a community on the margins
    into the life of American democracy. My administration will vigorously
    enforce the provisions of this law, and we will defend it in court. This
    legislation is named in honor of three heroes of American history who
    devoted their lives to the struggle of civil rights: Fannie Lou Hamer,
    Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King. And in honor of their memory and
    their contributions to the cause of freedom, I am proud to sign the
    Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:34 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Bruce S. Gordon, president and
    chief executive officer, National Association for the Advancement of
    Colored People (NAACP); civil rights leader Rev. Joseph E. Lowery; Marc
    H. Morial, president and chief executive officer, National Urban League;
    Juanita Abernathy, wife of deceased civil rights leader Rev. Ralph D.
    Abernathy; civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and
    president, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; 2004 Democratic Presidential
    candidate Rev. Alfred C. Sharpton, Jr.; Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, National
    Civil Rights Museum board chairman, and his wife, Frances; and Mayor
    Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC. H.R. 9, approved July 27, was
    assigned Public Law No. 109-246.