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The City Council of Philadelphia calls on our Congressional Representatives and Federal Government to support the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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WHEREAS, Following the Civil War, Congress adopted the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment establishing the citizenship rights of all persons born in the United States and requiring that no one be denied due process or equal protection of the laws, and the Fifteenth Amendment securing the right to vote for all citizens regardless of a person's race, color, or former condition of servitude; and
WHEREAS, Despite the enactment of these significant constitutional commands, for nearly 100 years, states and local jurisdictions passed laws and instituted practices designed to circumvent the Civil War amendments; many states erected barriers to access to the polls, including infamous poll taxes and literacy or good character tests; African-Americans, Latinos, and other minorities and those who advocated on their behalf often were subjected to severe violence and intimidation, or in some cases death, if they attempted to register to vote or cast a ballot; and
WHEREAS, Confronted with aggressive and relentless defiance of the Constitution, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in order to ensure that the rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were enforced; and
WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is widely viewed as one of the most successful civil rights statutes ever enacted; It bans literacy tests and other discriminatory devices, outlaws discriminatory practices and procedures during the voting process, authorizes the appointment of federal election monitors and observers, and creates various means for protecting and enforcing the rights of American citizens, including racial and language minorities, to vote; and
WHEREAS, Although the struggle to ensure fairness in the electoral process continues, as a result of th...
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