QUOTE
Updated:2006-05-26 06:28:56
Do We Still Need the Voting Rights Act?
By Terence Samuel, AOL Black Voices
The summer of 1965, and the months leading up to it were deadly serious in the United States: the Vietnam war was boiling over with regular bombings and the first introduction of American combat troops; Malcolm X was assassinated in February; the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery would turn brutal and bloody; in August, Watts would erupt in race riots.
On a warm Friday evening in early June, President Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered the commencement address at Howard University. There was more than symbolism as to where he chose to speak that day since political leverage was being exerted to pass a vital piece of legislation: the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The speech became legendary. " … Our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the world," Johnson declared. "But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own destiny than the revolution of the Negro American." Johnson had sent the bill to Congress in March, ten days after what became known as Bloody Sunday, when Alabama state troopers and sheriff's deputies attacked civil rights marchers.
That August, after the longest filibuster in the Senate history, Johnson signed the bill into law.
Now, more than 40 years later, Congress is embroiled in heated debates about the Act, which essentially reiterated the rights in the 15th amendment of the Constitution, prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote as a result of literacy tests. And it targeted southern states from changing laws or enacting provisions that affect voting, unless the Attorney General or a federal court agreed that those changes were not discriminatory.
Several sections of the Act are set to expire in 2007 and an effort at renewing them has set off a fight about how the legislation will be preserved or changed.
Some civil right activists and legislators, pointing to the most recent presidential elections and the plight of Gulf Coast voters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, say that voting rights for black Americans is not a dead issue. "Every election we have lots of intimidation," Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), said. "Unfortunately, we still have people who'd rather not have minorities vote."
John Lewis,who was badly beaten on the March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, and who has spent almost 20 years as a Congressman from Georgia, added the law must be renewed and the protection preserved.
"Forty-one years ago I gave a little blood on that bridge," Lewis said. "So when I see what’s happening in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, it’s a beginning of an effort not only to violate the letter but the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And that must not be allowed to happen."
Former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), subtly revived the argument that recent elections were not exactly fair. "…Here we are, 40 years later, and we've seen in these last elections intimidation, suppression, efforts to wipe people off the rolls of voting and deny people the right to vote in the United States of America," Kerry said.
Some southern lawmakers and scholars point to the progress that has been made in electing black candidates in the South as in arguing that some of the provisions of the 1965 Act are burdensome and unfair since they apply mostly to Southern jurisdictions.
Keith Gaddie, a professor at the University of Oklahoma said the success of the law is the very reason it should be changed: "Race still divides the South," Gaddie told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. "But southern blacks are not helpless in the pursuit of political, social, and economic goals when compared to five decades ago. The context of race relations and the status of minorities in the South are dramatically changed from four decades ago …the law too must change."
Proponents of renewing the provisions had hoped to have the bill approved before the Memorial Day congressional recess. That is now a dead issue, but the expectation is that the expiring provisions will be renewed this year, since even those who have issues with the Act, would like to avoid responsibility for killing such an historic piece of legislation.
When Johnson triumphantly signed the bill, he anticipated it would not end the debate of the right of black people to vote. But he also called on African Americans to avail themselves of these rights.
"Let me now say to every Negro in this country: You must register. You must vote. You must learn, so your choice advances your interest and the interest of our beloved Nation," Johnson said. "Your future, and your children's future, depend upon it, and I don't believe that you are going to let them down."
Do We Still Need the Voting Rights Act?
By Terence Samuel, AOL Black Voices
The summer of 1965, and the months leading up to it were deadly serious in the United States: the Vietnam war was boiling over with regular bombings and the first introduction of American combat troops; Malcolm X was assassinated in February; the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery would turn brutal and bloody; in August, Watts would erupt in race riots.
On a warm Friday evening in early June, President Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered the commencement address at Howard University. There was more than symbolism as to where he chose to speak that day since political leverage was being exerted to pass a vital piece of legislation: the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The speech became legendary. " … Our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the world," Johnson declared. "But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own destiny than the revolution of the Negro American." Johnson had sent the bill to Congress in March, ten days after what became known as Bloody Sunday, when Alabama state troopers and sheriff's deputies attacked civil rights marchers.
That August, after the longest filibuster in the Senate history, Johnson signed the bill into law.
Now, more than 40 years later, Congress is embroiled in heated debates about the Act, which essentially reiterated the rights in the 15th amendment of the Constitution, prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote as a result of literacy tests. And it targeted southern states from changing laws or enacting provisions that affect voting, unless the Attorney General or a federal court agreed that those changes were not discriminatory.
Several sections of the Act are set to expire in 2007 and an effort at renewing them has set off a fight about how the legislation will be preserved or changed.
Some civil right activists and legislators, pointing to the most recent presidential elections and the plight of Gulf Coast voters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, say that voting rights for black Americans is not a dead issue. "Every election we have lots of intimidation," Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), said. "Unfortunately, we still have people who'd rather not have minorities vote."
John Lewis,who was badly beaten on the March across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, and who has spent almost 20 years as a Congressman from Georgia, added the law must be renewed and the protection preserved.
"Forty-one years ago I gave a little blood on that bridge," Lewis said. "So when I see what’s happening in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, it’s a beginning of an effort not only to violate the letter but the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And that must not be allowed to happen."
Former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), subtly revived the argument that recent elections were not exactly fair. "…Here we are, 40 years later, and we've seen in these last elections intimidation, suppression, efforts to wipe people off the rolls of voting and deny people the right to vote in the United States of America," Kerry said.
Some southern lawmakers and scholars point to the progress that has been made in electing black candidates in the South as in arguing that some of the provisions of the 1965 Act are burdensome and unfair since they apply mostly to Southern jurisdictions.
Keith Gaddie, a professor at the University of Oklahoma said the success of the law is the very reason it should be changed: "Race still divides the South," Gaddie told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. "But southern blacks are not helpless in the pursuit of political, social, and economic goals when compared to five decades ago. The context of race relations and the status of minorities in the South are dramatically changed from four decades ago …the law too must change."
Proponents of renewing the provisions had hoped to have the bill approved before the Memorial Day congressional recess. That is now a dead issue, but the expectation is that the expiring provisions will be renewed this year, since even those who have issues with the Act, would like to avoid responsibility for killing such an historic piece of legislation.
When Johnson triumphantly signed the bill, he anticipated it would not end the debate of the right of black people to vote. But he also called on African Americans to avail themselves of these rights.
"Let me now say to every Negro in this country: You must register. You must vote. You must learn, so your choice advances your interest and the interest of our beloved Nation," Johnson said. "Your future, and your children's future, depend upon it, and I don't believe that you are going to let them down."