Cleo Fields: “I rise this morning feeling like Fannie Lou Hammer. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am sick and tired…”

“I rise this morning feeling like Fannie Lou Hammer. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am sick and tired because, the courts are consistently inconsistent in their interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I am sick and tired because there are six States in this country that have lawsuits pending challenging the creation of minority districts: North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas, all of which are southern States that have a history of discriminating against minorities at every level conceivable, education, housing, employment, public facilities and, more importantly, the political process. Of these six States, our great Justice Department has found a need to intervene in only one, which is a miscarriage of justice, to say the least, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion. I ask the question, Mr. Speaker, if we as Members of Congress who pass Federal laws virtually every day cannot depend on the Department of Justice to defend those laws, which they are constitutionally bound to do, then who will. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, if a minority voter in this country cannot depend on the Department of Justice to intervene on his behalf, when his voting rights are being violated, maybe we do not need a Justice Department after all. Again, I call upon the Justice Department and the Attorney General in particular to live up to its responsibility and exercise its fiduciary responsibility and obligation and defend the 1965 Voting Rights Act.”