Post by bot on Jul 31, 2015 19:36:53 GMT -5
Hoyer: Voting Rights Act Was One of the Most Important Achievements in the Twentieth Century and in All of American History
WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered the following remarks today at a press conference with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-SC), and Members of the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law on August 6, 1965:
“When the Voting Rights Act was passed, [Senator] Patrick Leahy and I were in law school just a few blocks from here at Georgetown Law School. And we were learning about the central facts of our democracy. The vote is the citizen’s voice in a democracy, and it ought to be sanctified by those of us who serve in this House, and that Senate, and that [Supreme] Court. And in 2006, we adopted, overwhelmingly in a bipartisan fashion, under – in the House of Representatives – a Republican Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, [Rep.] Jim Sensenbrenner, and a Republican Senate, and signed by a Republican president [George W. Bush], the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act adopted in 1965.
“That law was the product of so much blood, sweat, life, and suffering by heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., by our own colleague [Rep.] John Lewis, and [Rep.] Jim Clyburn, a leader in the civil rights movement, and Jimmie Lee Jackson, beaten and shot by state troopers; his death led to the Selma march. Reverend James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister from Boston; beaten to death by vigilantes while walking down the streets in Selma for voting rights. Viola Liuzzo, mother and housewife from Detroit who was shot by KKK members while she drove activists between Selma and Montgomery to redeem the right to vote – the citizen’s voice. They marched, sang, sat-in, boycotted, made freedom rides, and risked violence, and many suffered violence, to register voters and demand an equal voice for all Americans. It was one of the most important achievements in the twentieth century, and, indeed, all of American history.
“Two years ago, the Supreme Court, by 5-4 vote, undermined the Act’s effectiveness and protections by striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that enables the Justice Department to prevent discriminatory practices before they occur. And since the Shelby v. Holder ruling, and I might say we have the Representative of Selma [Terri Sewell] here with us today, states and local governments have moved quickly since that decision to implement voting rules that wouldn’t pass muster under the preclearance requirement in the original Voting Rights Act or its bipartisan, as the Leader [Pelosi] pointed out, reauthorization in 2006 signed by President Bush. Many of these rules have effectively disenfranchised African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, students, and seniors. Congress must, it should, it has a moral obligation to act to prevent states and counties from restricting ballot access or diluting the voting priorities of minority communities.
“Let’s observe this milestone by restoring the voting rights protections that were achieved through the great struggle of the civil rights movement and wrongly unraveled by the Supreme Court in 2013. We are here, all of us, all of my colleagues, and all of the Democratic colleagues with whom I serve, and I suspect many Republicans who want to see the Congress restore this critical protection for the citizen’s voice in America. Now, I’m pleased to yield to the Assistant [Democratic] Leader, a great leader in the civil rights movement in his own right, [Rep.] Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.”
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