OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Restore the Voting Rights Act

Floor Speech

Date: July 29, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Arts, Entertainment, and History

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this Confederate flag, which is
a symbol of systemic oppression and racial subjugation, was recently
lowered in the State of South Carolina.

But this same flag, which symbolizes so many inequities in our
country, is still flying high in a figurative sense over our country.
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the heart of the Voting
Rights Act, it signaled that African American voting rights would no
longer be protected.

Pretending that the legacy of poll taxes, literacy tests, and blatant
discrimination was no longer taking place, the Supreme Court
symbolically raised this flag when it gutted the Voting Rights Act.

Now that this flag has come down from the halls of South Carolina, it
is time that we lower this flag from its perch over the voting rights
of African Americans by passing the legislation in the U.S. Congress to
restore the Voting Rights Act.

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