PRINTER'S NO. 4255
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
969
Session of
2020
INTRODUCED BY A. DAVIS, MADDEN, HILL-EVANS, McCARTER, McCLINTON,
READSHAW, KINSEY, D. MILLER, HOWARD, FREEMAN, SCHLOSSBERG,
WILLIAMS, McNEILL, GREEN, DRISCOLL, GALLOWAY, GAINEY,
DELLOSO, DEASY, INNAMORATO, HARRIS, SANCHEZ AND DeLUCA,
AUGUST 13, 2020
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, AUGUST 13, 2020
A RESOLUTION
Urging the United States Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting
Rights Act.
WHEREAS, The legacy of slavery in the United States has had a
significant influence on American history and policy; and
WHEREAS, Following the Civil War, the period of
Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877 saw Congress pass laws that
helped progress civil and political rights for African
Americans; and
WHEREAS, Most notable among the laws passed during
Reconstruction were three amendments to the United States
Constitution, including the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished
slavery in 1865, the Fourteenth Amendment which guaranteed
African Americans the rights of American citizenship in 1868 and
the Fifteenth Amendment which guaranteed Black men the
constitutional right to vote in 1870; and
WHEREAS, Despite progress from the constitutional amendments,
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hardships for African-American citizens continued; and
WHEREAS, With the Compromise of 1877, the last of the Federal
troops in the South withdrew, effectively allowing lynching,
disenfranchisement and segregationist laws to proliferate; and
WHEREAS, By the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement began to
form and was dedicated to activism for equal rights and
treatment of African Americans in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Among the prominent activists during this time was
the late Representative John R. Lewis, who participated in
freedom rides on interstate buses, was the youngest speaker at
the 1963 March on Washington and helped organize the peaceful
march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama in what is now
called "Bloody Sunday"; and
WHEREAS, John Lewis famously believed in getting in "good
trouble, necessary trouble" in an effort to bring about
transformative change in America; and
WHEREAS, John Lewis' leadership, among the help of countless
others, ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and
WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon B.
Johnson on August 6, 1965, expanded the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments by banning racial discrimination in voting practices
in response to barriers such as voter intimidation, literacy
tests and poll taxes that prevented African Americans from
voting for nearly a century; and
WHEREAS, Since 1965, the Voting Rights Act has been amended
in order to extend protections, however, on June 25, 2013, the
Supreme Court struck down a key provision; and
WHEREAS, The majority of the Supreme Court ruled that the
coverage formula in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was
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unconstitutional and allowed nine states, mostly in the South,
to change their election laws without Federal approval; and
WHEREAS, On February 26, 2019, H.R. 4, originally titled the
Voting Rights Advancement Act, was first introduced to the
United States House of Representatives and passed by a vote of
228 - 187 on December 6, 2019; and
WHEREAS, H.R. 4 restores the provisions of the Voting Rights
Act weakened by the Supreme Court decision by utilizing
contemporary data to expand and protect African Americans' right
to vote by making it more difficult for modern-day voter
suppression tactics to be instituted; and
WHEREAS, Following the passing of John Lewis, a renewed push
to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act has emerged with the
act being renamed to the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act in
order to honor his memory; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the United
States Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.
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