Date: 2015-02-11
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentlewoman. Might I say. as we vote on this. we vote together. Might I say. as much as we vote. can we do it in action and vote to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act by simply restoring section 5. giving the Supreme Court what it needs. but recognizing the importance of protecting the right to vote? In the name of Jimmie Lee Jackson who died trying to protect his mother and grandmother. in the name of Viola Liuzzo. and in the name of Reverend James Reeb. I ask that we stand here today and vote for this legislation to honor them. but vote for reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Mr. Speaker. I rise today not only as a proud supporter. but as a cosponsor. of H.R. 431. a bill authorizing the award of the Congressional Gold Medal to the "foot soldiers of Selma." those heroic souls who risked their lives for freedom and to secure the right to vote for all Americans by their participation in marches for voting rights on "Bloody Sunday." "Turnaround Tuesday." or the final. completed march from Selma to Montgomery in March I thank my colleague. Congresswoman TERRI SEWELL of Alabama. for introducing this legislation paying fitting. and long overdue. tribute to those brave and determined men and women. boys and girls. persons of all races and creeds. who loved their country so much that they were willing to risk their lives to make it better. to bring it even closer to its founding ideals that all persons have dignity and the right to equal treatment under the law. and in the making of the laws. which is the fundamental essence of the right to vote. I also want to thank Congresswoman MARTHA ROBY. Mr. Speaker. on March 15. 1965. before a joint session of the Congress and the eyes of the nation. President Lyndon Johnson explained to the nation the significance of "Bloody Sunday": "I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy ... "At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in mans unending search for freedom. "So it was at Lexington and Concord. "So it was a century ago at Appomattox. "So it was last week in Selma. Alabama." The previous Sunday. March 7. 1965. more than 600 civil rights demonstrators. including our beloved colleague. Congressman JOHN LEWIS of Georgia. were brutally attacked by state and local police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched from Selma to Montgomery in support of the right to vote. "Bloody Sunday" was one of the defining moments in American history because it crystallized for the nation the necessity of enacting a strong and effective federal law to protect the right to vote of every American. No one who witnessed the violence and brutally suffered by the foot soldiers for justice who gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge will ever forget it. the images are deeply seared in the American memory and experience. Mr. Speaker. what is so moving. heroic. and aweinspiring is that the foot soldiers we honor today faced their heavily armed oppressors fortified only by their love for their country and each other and the audacious faith that their cause was just. The example set by the foot soldiers of Selma showed everyone. here in America and around the world. that there is no force on earth as powerful as an idea whose time has come. So it is fitting and proper. Mr. Speaker. that we honor today the heroesthe foot soldierswho won the Bathe of Selma and helped redeem the greatest nation on earth. But we should not forget that this victory came at great cost and that many good and dear persons lost their lives to win for others the right to vote. Men like Jimmy Lee Jackson. who was shot by Alabama state trooper as he tried to protect his mother and grandmother from being beaten for participating in a peaceful voting rights march in Marion. Alabama. Women like Viola Liuzzo. a housewife and mother of five. who had journeyed to Selma from Detroit to join the protests after witnessing on television the events at Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday" and who was shot and killed by Klansmen while driving back from a trip shuttling fellow voting rights marchers to the Montgomery airport. Persons of faith. goodwill. and nonviolence like the Reverend James Reeb of Boston. a minister from Boston who heeded the call of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. to come to Selma and who succumbed to the head injuries he suffered at the hands of his white supremacists attackers on March 9. two days after Bloody Sunday. Mr. Speaker. in the face of all this hostility. violence. brutality. and hatred. the foot soldiers of Selma would not be deterredwould not be movedwould not be turned around. They kept their eyes on the prize and held on. And help came the very next week when President Johnson announced to the nation that he would send to Congress for immediate action a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote by striking down "restrictions to voting in all electionsFederal. State. and localwhich have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote." On August 6. 1965. that legislationthe Voting Rights Act of 1965was signed into law by President Johnson and for the next 48 years did more to expand our democracy and empower racial and language minorities than any act of government since the Emancipation Proclamation and adoption of the Civil War Amendments. But our work is not done. the dreams of Dr. King and of all those who gave their lives in the struggle for justice are not behind us but still before us. In the wake of the Supreme Courts 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder. which severely crippled the Voting Rights Act. we have seen many states across our nation move to enact legislation designed to limit the ability of women. the elderly. racial and language minorities to exercise their right to vote. In Texas alone. new voter ID laws are estimated to have prevented or deterred as many as 600.000 citizens from registering to vote in To honor the memory of the foot soldiers of Selma. we must rededicate ourselves to a great task remaining before usto repair the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by working to pass the Voting Rights Amendments Act of 2015. which I am proud to be one of the original cosponsors. Mr. Speaker. as I have stated many times. the 1965 Voting Rights Act is no ordinary piece of legislation. For millions of Americans. and for many in Congress. it is sacred treasure. earned by the sweat and toil and tears and blood of ordinary Americans who showed the world it was possible to accomplish extraordinary things. As we honor the foot soldiers of Selma by voting to pass H.R. 431 awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal. let us resolve also to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965. so that it remains a lasting monument to their heroism and devotion to the country they loved.