Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006
FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 13, 2006)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate having the opportunity to share with you my thoughts on the Extension Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the enormously positive impact it has had on our Nation. I am very gratified to know the strong support for reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and appreciate your leadership on this important issue.
The importance and necessity of the Voting Rights Act cannot be overemphasized. We have learned through experience what a difference the vote makes to us. In 1964, the year before President Johnson signed the Act into law there were only 300 African American elected officials in the entire country. Today, there are more than 9,100 black elected officials including 43 members of Congress.
Let me be clear: expanding the opportunity to vote in America goes far beyond simply ensuring that minority voters have a voice or that African American politicians get elected. The Voting Rights Act has enhanced the lives of all Americans, not just Black Americans, not just minorities. By opening up the political process, the Voting Rights Act has made available a broader pool of political talent, greatly improving the quality of representation for all voters. Just as important, the Voting Rights Act has been instrumental in moving America closer to its true promise and, thus, has significantly benefited every single American, regardless of their race, economic status, national origin or political party.
I've heard it suggested that the Voting Rights Acts--or certain key provisions--need not be reauthorized because its very success has rendered it obsolete. This is a fallacy--and I urge you in the strongest possible terms not to fall for it. The Voting Rights Act must be reauthorized because it works!
African Americans in the South were prevented from voting by a battery of tactics--poll taxes, literacy tests that were for blacks only, and the crudest forms of intimidation. From the Southwest to some urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest, Latinos were discourage from voting by subtler but also effective techniques that exploited the vulnerabilities of low-income newcomers, for whom English was a second language. Both groups were also the targets of districting designed to dilute their ability to elect officials of their own choosing--a fundamental freedom that all too many Americans take for granted.
That is why it is so important that the Congress renew all three provisions that are set to expire: Section 5, which requires a federal approval for proposed changes in voting or election procedures in areas with a history of discrimination; Section 203, which requires some jurisdictions to provide assistance in other languages to voters who are not literate or fluent in English; and the portions of Section 6-9 of the Act which authorize the federal government to send federal election examiners and observers to certain jurisdictions covered by Section 5, where there is evidence of attempts to intimidate minority voters at the polls.
I am gratified at the degree of support--on both sides of the aisle--for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. I urge you to also recognize the continued need for preclearance and other special provisions that are so necessary for the continued progress we must make as a nation.
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