WASHINGTON, D.C. – May, 3, 2019 – Rep. Sylvia Garcia and members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing in Houston on the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act in the state of Texas. The subcommittee gathered testimony from voting rights scholars and practitioners from throughout the state on barriers to exercising the right to vote in Texas.
“For all the modern successes within our wonderful Texas heritage, we also know Texas is failing many of our communities by denying them their constitutional right to vote,” said Congresswoman Garcia. “Texas continues to show a widespread pattern of discrimination against minorities at the ballot box. The testimony here today has shown that. And this testimony has also shown that together, we must work to ensure that this fact becomes a thing of the past.”
Congresswoman Garcia continued, “Over 60 years ago, President Johnson, a Texan, said upon the signing of the Voting Rights Act: ‘This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.’”
“Texas is and has always been a place for those who seek liberty and to take control over their own destinies. To be true to this liberty that we hold so dear, we cannot tolerate discrimination and suppression, either directly or indirectly, in accessing the ballot box.”