Voting Rights Act

Floor Speech

Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, my first babysitter was the Reverend Noah Albert Cleaver, my great-grandfather. He took care of me and my oldest sister every day after preschool. He lived to be 103 years old. I was in college when he died.

My grandpa, born in Cherokee County, Texas, who died in Ellis County, Texas, never voted, not one time in 103 years because they had to pay $3.50 in a poll tax.

When the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday saying that because of progress we don't need the voting rights any more, it's like having a cruise ship require everyone wear some kind of life vest. The ship goes down, everybody is saved, and they say, Well, because everybody was saved, we don't need life vests any more. It was the life vests that saved them. It was the Voting Rights Act that caused the voter participation to rise.

I will not insult the death and life of my great-grandpa by not being as active as I can to reinstitute section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.

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