79R9300 AMY-D

By:  West, Royce                                                S.C.R. No. 38 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, African Americans won the right to vote with the 
1870 ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution, but were often prevented from exercising that right 
for more than a century through the use of literacy tests, poll 
taxes, and physical intimidation; and
	WHEREAS, The work of the civil rights movement to abolish 
these unfair barriers to voting directed at African Americans led 
to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; this landmark 
legislation was signed into law by native Texan President Lyndon 
Baines Johnson and strengthened in 1975 with the help of celebrated 
Texan, member of the U.S. Congress, and former member of the Texas 
Senate, the late Honorable Barbara Jordan; and
	WHEREAS, In its 1975 report The Voting Rights Act: Ten Years 
After, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recommended that the 
Voting Rights Act cover language minorities; responding to that 
report, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate 
Judiciary Committee heard seven days of testimony that highlighted 
systemic discrimination experienced by language minorities in the 
voting process in a number of states, including Texas; and
	WHEREAS, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits the 
reintroduction of voter discrimination by requiring the U.S. 
attorney general or the U.S. District Court for the District of 
Columbia to review all proposed election procedure changes in 
specified jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory election 
practices to prevent any attempt to dilute minority voting 
strength; and
	WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act has proven its effectiveness 
by drastically reducing the gap in voter registration between 
African Americans and Anglos and contributing to the ever 
increasing number of African American legislators since the 
mid-1960s; the Act is considered the most successful piece of civil 
rights legislation ever passed by congress and is integral to the 
continued protection of political participation by minority groups 
in this country; and
	WHEREAS, Enshrined in the Declaration of Independence are the 
core American values that "all men are created equal" and that our 
government may rule only with "the consent of the governed"; to this 
end, the Congress of the United States has strengthened and 
reauthorized the expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act three 
times, in 1970, 1975, and 1982; but with Section 5 of the Voting 
Rights Act scheduled to expire in 2007, the time again has arrived 
for the congress to reaffirm the values for which our country has 
become the envy of the world; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby respectfully memorialize the Congress of the United States 
to reaffirm its commitment to protecting the rights of minorities 
in the United States, and the principle that the government derives 
its right to govern from those it governs, by reauthorizing Section 
5 of the Voting Rights Act in 2007; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.