July 19, 2006
Hundreds of young people marched through the streets of the nation's capital this afternoon to the steps of the Capitol Building to push reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and mark the 70th anniversary of the NAACP's Youth & College Division. The march was adjunct to numerous bus loads of adults who visited their Congressional members to urge renewal of the act.
"As adults were being jailed and attacked during the heated demonstrations of the '50s and '60s, it was the young people who stepped in and displayed incredible courage to further build the movement's momentum," said NAACP President & CEO Bruce S. Gordon. "Today's youth share that same thirst for justice and equality and are taking up the mantle of activism when necessary."
The march comes on the fifth day of the NAACP's 97th annual convention where delegates from across the nation have gathered in Washington, D.C. under the theme "Voting Our Values, Valuing Our Votes."
"The VRA's renewal is specifically important to young people because our generation is a testament of how powerful this piece of legislation has been to communities of color," said Stefanie Brown, the NAACP's National Youth & College Division Director. "Our children and future generations will be the beneficiaries of what the Congress does today and that is why we are here, to voice our concerns. We cannot sit idly by as we watch our community stripped of the protections that our ancestors shed blood for in years past."
The House voted 390-33 July 13 to approve the Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act without amendments. The bi-partisan majority beat back attempts by some House radicals to hijack the legislation. Now it's the Senate's turn to act. Today the bill passed unamended through the Senate Judiciary Committee, 18-0. President & CEO Gordon sat in on that session and visited leaders on both sides of the aisle to press the Association's position. "I am encouraged with Senate majority leader Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) intent to expedite a vote on this bill," Gordon said.
Three key sections in the act due to expire next year were reauthorized in the vote earlier this month. The provisions are Section 5, which requires covered jurisdictions with a long history of voting discrimination to obtain approval or "pre-clearance" before making any changes to their voting practices. Sections 6-9 authorizes the federal government to use observers in elections to monitor VRA compliance.
In the 41 years since its initial passage, the VRA has empowered minority voters and had the effect of desegregating legislative bodies at all levels of government. Since 1965, when the Act became law, the number of African American elected officials has grown from fewer than 280 nationwide to more than 10,000.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
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