John Cornyn: “I have some additional remarks that I would like to make on this important legislation. Forty-one years ago, when…”

“I have some additional remarks that I would like to make on this important legislation. Forty-one years ago, when signing the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, Lyndon Johnson, the President of the United States, a former member of the Senate whose seat I am privileged to hold, described the act's passage as ``a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.'' President Johnson's words captured the importance of the act's passage. It was a hard-fought victory at a tense time in American history. It is no secret why the Voting Rights Act was necessary. It was adopted at the height of the civil rights movement, when numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States had intentionally, systematically disenfranchised Blacks and other minorities from the electoral process. As a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee noted, a Senate report from 1965 found that in every voting discrimination suit brought against Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, both the district court and the Court of Appeals found ``discriminatory use of tests and devices''--devices such as literacy, knowledge, and moral character tests. The Senate concluded that these were not ``isolated deviations from the norm'' but, instead, ``had been pursuant to a pattern or a practice of racial discrimination.'' Such practices had driven down to 29.3 percent the average registration rate for Black citizens in these States--29.3 percent.…”