Cleo Fields: “I rise tonight to address an issue that is very important to the integrity of our institution of Government. The 1965…”

“I rise tonight to address an issue that is very important to the integrity of our institution of Government. The 1965 Voting Rights Act signaled the advent of change in our Nation, change that was to reform our representative bodies. But that reform is under a misguided attack today; an attack that threatens the progress made by the election of thousands of African Americans and Hispanics to office, from Congress to local school boards, in fulfillment of the Voting Rights Act. As a Congressman, I am vigilant about such threats; as an American, I desire respectability and equality in our Government; but as an African American, I am frightened that the important progress that we have made may be turned back. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to provide minorities opportunities to fully participate in the political process; participation that had been denied for so long; 100 years after the Civil War, States across the country were still using poll taxes, literacy tests, and gerrymandering to undermine the political voice of black minority communities.”