[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 30 (Monday, July 31, 2006)]
[Pages 1391-1392]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 mic 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

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not hesitate to use. The images of policemen using night sticks on 
peaceful protestors 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 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 Party presidential 
candidate Rev. Alfred C. Sharpton; 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.