Keep it from being too strong, but keep it from being weakened on the floor, and because they conducted debate in whats known as the committee of the whole, votes were not recorded by and large, and the only way to know how someone voted was to be there physically and watch, and except for reporters, no one could take notes on paper in the house gallery so the forces led by Clarence Mitchell and others devised a system of gallery watchers, the segregationists called them vultures, but they had to sit there and keep notes in their head who was voting how, what amendment, and in the precell phone era, had to round up family members to make sure enough were on the floor at any one time to defeat hostile legislative mischief, so a bunch of young activists led by a Woman Working for the textiles who is still alive fighting all the fights, would sit in a telephone tree and they heard something was happening on the floor, they would physically go run office to office, going come on, and after
Awarding the congressional gold medal to dr. Martin luther king, jr. And his wife core letta scott king. This is a little less than an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our honored guest, members of the United States house of representatives, members of the United States senate and the speaker of the United States house of representatives. Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the United States house of representatives the honorable john boehner. Good afternoon and welcome to the United States capitol. [ applause ] as you can see the dome is under construction. Getting some repairs and theres a technical term for that canopy but the architect said we could refor it refer to it as the doughnut. On july 2nd, 1964 congress completed the most fundamental and consequential ladies and gentlemen legislation of our long history. The Civil Rights Act recognizes every citizen has the right to pursue happiness without discrimination on grounds of race, color, or national origin. This was
Of our republican forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. The law i will sign tonight forbids it. That law is the product of months of the most careful debate and discussion. It was proposed more than one year ago by our late and beloved president , john f. Kennedy. It received the bipartisan support of more than 2 3 of the members and the house and senate. An overwhelming majority of republicans as well as democrats voted for it. It has received the thoughtful support of 10s of thousands of civic and religious leaders in all parts of this nation and it is supported by the great majority of the american people. The purpose of this law is simple. It does not restrict the freedom of any american so long as he restricts the rights of others. It does not give special treatment to any citizen. It does say the only limit to a mans hope for happiness and for the future of his children shall be his own ability. It does say that there are those who are equal be
So, it is fitting and appropriate on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we honor this unbelievable couple, dr. Martin luther king, jr. And his beloved wife mrs. Coretta scott king. They were my friend. My brother. And my sister. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, the United States senator from michigan, the honorable carl levin. [ applause ] thank you and good afternoon, everybody. The congressional gold medal resolution that we are implementing today commemorates the ability of an inspired couple, armed only with the righteousness of their cause to help liberate millions from oppressive racism. We also commemorate today the ability of elected officials. Led by president johnson. Armed only with the desire for justice to overcome the divisions of party in order to help overcome the divisions of race. In october 1960, Martin Luther king, jr. Wrote to his beloved coretta from a georgia prison 230 miles from atlanta, a prison to which he had been hauled i
today. errin i hear you. claire mccaskill makes a similar point. the numbers are incredibly daunting. nick gave us these numbers yesterday. georgia in 2020, 272,000 georgians didn t have the requisite id they would need to give the secretary of state s office. they d have to provide new vote information based on the new georgia law. more than half were african-american voters. joe biden won georgia by 11,779 votes. i mean can you really incentivize the laws are sweeping. the laws take hundreds of thousands of people out of the equation. yes, nicolle. unfortunately black voters have been here in this country before. let s take this week and think about this. yesterday was the anniversary of the killings of andrew good man, michael swerner and james cheney in mississippi, three civil