Awarding Congressional Gold Medal to the Foot Soldiers Who Participated in Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, or the Final Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in March of 1965

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. I want to thank Ms. Sewell for having the foresight to
bring this proposal. This is most fitting that we honor the foot
soldiers. They were Americans, all races, who came together and saw
injustice and wanted to right it. They risked their lives. Some died in
the efforts. Miss Liuzzo was killed right after the march to
Montgomery. Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman were killed over in
Mississippi in conjunction with this with the Freedom Riders.

Thousands of people came to the South to see that people got the
right to vote. It is hard to believe that people were denied the right
to vote in this country, but they were.

I was touched by the remarks of my colleague from Alabama. It was
historic. But you don't just have to see the movie and experience it to
honor these people and give them a Gold Medal; you need to live it.

People are being denied voting rights today in this country. The
Supreme Court emasculated the Voting Rights Act just recently. It needs
to be reinstated. There are civil rights that can be performed and
enacted in America today. The movement isn't over. The movement
continues. A medal is good, but the spirit must continue on this floor
to see that all people have their right to vote, their right to
participate, and their rights not to have State judges with their lips
dripping with interposition tell probate clerks not to enforce a
Federal law.

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