Date: 2012-03-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of H. Res. 562. "Directing the Office of the Historian to compile oral histories from Members of the House of Representatives involved in the historic and annual Selma to Montgomery. Alabama. marches. as well as the civil rights movement in general. for the purposes of expanding or augmenting the historic record for public dissemination and education." What happened in Selma 45 years ago. is an opportunity to remember and embrace our history and its evolution. A single day in 1965 would become known as Bloody Sunday. I am proud to serve with Mr. JOHN LEWIS who led 600 brave Americans on that day. on a peaceful march for their equal rights to vote. They were met with unspeakable violence and put their lives on the line for the right to vote. This resolution will ensure that future Americans will not forget the sacrifices made by brave. courageous. Americans seeking only to have full participation in our fine Democracy. I have had the honor of participating in the Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage with Mr. Hl111 LEWIS. I had the opportunity to see history come alive during my pilgrimage to Birmingham. Montgomery and Selma. I left with further appreciation for all the efforts that AfricanAmericans have accomplished over the years. The events that took place in Alabama were pivotal in our nations civil rights movement. Dr. Kings "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and the Bloody Sunday march were crucial experiences to Americas collective psyche. Two weeks after Bloody Sunday. under the protection of the Alabama National Guard. Dr. King was able to lead the march successfully. and in August of that same year President Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. King and his committed supporters forced our nation to acknowledge the injustices committed against AfricanAmericans. This legislation will ensure the 54 mile route. beginning at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma and ending at the State Capitol Building in Montgomery. is never forgotten. With the support of this body. generations to come can know and appreciate those early steps in the civil rights movement that began the road to making the Constitution of this country extend its rights and protections to all of its citizens. The painful lessons learned in Montgomery. Birmingham and Selma continue to be experienced by minority populations all over the United States. The struggle for political recognition and participation continues not only in the AfricanAmerican populations. but now in the fastgrowing Latino community. In addition. many of the gains that can be traced back to the civil rights era are currently being targeted. We must be ever vigilant to ensure that we do not turn back the clock and instead keep moving forward to protect the rights of minorities in this country. A long. bitter. and bloody struggle was fought for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 so that all Americans could enjoy the right to vote. regardless of race. ethnicity. or national origin. Americans died in that fight so that others could achieve what they had been forcefully deprived of for centuriesthe ability to walk freely and without fear into the polling place and cast a voting ballot. Efforts to keep minorities from fully exercising that franchise. however. continue. Indeed. in the past thirty years. we have witnessed a pattern of efforts to intimidate and harass minority voters including efforts that were deemed "Ballot Security" programs that include the mailing of threatening notices to AfricanAmerican voters. the carrying of video cameras to monitor polls. the systematic challenging of minority voters at the polls on unlawful grounds. and the hiring of guards and offduty police officers to intimidate and frighten voters at the polls. Most Americans take the right to vote for granted. We assume that we can register and vote if we are over 18 and are citizens. Most of us learned in school that discrimination based on race. creed or national origin has been barred by the Constitution since the end of the Civil War. Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act. however. the right to vote did not exist in practice for most African Americans. And. until 1975. most American citizens who were not proficient in English faced significant obstacles to voting. because they could not understand the ballot. Even though the Indian Citizenship Act gave Native Americans the right to vote in 1924. state law determined who could actually vote. which effectively excluded many Native Americans from political participation for decades. Asian Americans and Asian immigrants also have suffered systematic exclusion from the political process and it has taken a series of reforms. including repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. and passage of amendments strengthening the Voting Rights Act three decades later. to fully extend the franchise to Asian Americans. It was with this history in mind that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was designed to make the right to vote a reality for all Americans. And the Voting Rights Act has made giant strides toward that goal. Without exaggeration. it has been one of the most effective civil rights laws passed by Congress. In 1964. there were only approximately 300 AfricanAmericans in public office. including just three in Congress. Few. if any. black elected officials were elected anywhere in the South. Today there are more than 9.100 black elected officials. including 43 Members of Congress. the largest number ever. The Act has opened the political process for many of the approximately 6.000 Latino public officials that have been elected and appointed nationwide. including 263 at the State or Federal level. 27 of whom serve in Congress. And Native Americans. Asians and others who have historically encountered harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited greatly. We must not forget the importance of protecting this hard earned right. Preserving our past and honoring those who put their lives on the line for change is the right step toward ensuring that history does not repeat itself. Again. I thank Mr. LEWIS for his leadership. I thank him for having the courage both 45 years ago and today to be a champion of change.