Tina Smith: “above the dais, our Nation's motto, e pluribus unum, is chiseled in the marble. That is more than a motto; it is one of…”

“above the dais, our Nation's motto, e pluribus unum, is chiseled in the marble. That is more than a motto; it is one of America's greatest ideals. But it is an ideal that we are constantly in an effort to realize as fully as is humanly possible. Our Nation has made great progress on becoming one, and becoming one begins at the ballot box. Our Nation began at a time when even the institution of human slavery was tolerated--tragically for nearly 70 years--leading then to a horrendous Civil War that claimed the lives of nearly a million Americans trying to fully realize what that motto means. The institution of slavery was ended--thankfully--too late but ended nevertheless. In the bitter years that followed, the years of Reconstruction and all the heartache that flowed from the Civil War, there was a period of time in part of our country where African Americans were denied access to the ballot box and were disenfranchised by that. But it isn't just one region of the country where we have to constantly be vigilant about race relations; it is a challenge all over America. The challenge begins in every heart and in every home. It is a fact that the Jim Crow laws were specifically designed to intimidate African Americans from voting. Thankfully, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, under the signature of President Lyndon Johnson, the constitutional promise was fully realized, and now we have an opportunity to extend it.…”