G. K. Butterfield: “first let me thank the delegate from the District of Columbia for giving me this time this evening to speak on this most…”

“first let me thank the delegate from the District of Columbia for giving me this time this evening to speak on this most important subject. I have watched Eleanor Holmes Norton since I have been in the Congress, and she has worked so tirelessly on behalf of the people of the District of Columbia to get full voting rights, and I want to thank her for her passion and thank her for her work in this body. Mr. Speaker, many people who now call the District of Columbia home have established themselves here by way of my home State of North Carolina and by way of our neighboring State of South Carolina. As the delegate said a few minutes ago, even her family originated in Halifax County, North Carolina, which is in my Congressional District. Many DC residents are my schoolmates from eastern North Carolina. In coming to Washington, DC, they left parents, and they left grandparents behind who had endured blatant discrimination in public accommodations and discrimination at the ballot box. Many of them could not vote because of the literacy test, and others refused to register to vote because of voter intimidation. Now, Mr. Speaker, the descendants of these individuals living in Washington, DC, are again denied the right to vote and the right to have voting representation in Congress. What a disgrace. Voting is one of our most fundamental rights, but it is one that has been systematically denied for as long as it has been assured.”