Testimony of Representative Barbara Jordan Before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, House Committee on the Judiciary, February 26, 1975, Extension of the Voting Rights Act Page: 9 of 28
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Representative Barbara Jordan
To provide a remedy for these discriminatory voting
practices perpetrated upon blacks and Mexican-Americans I
have introduced H.R. 3247, which is before this subcommittee.
My bill would extend the provisions of the Voting Rights Act
to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of California. H.R. 3247
would guarantee to Mexican-Americans and blacks residing in
these jurisdictions the same special attention to their voting
rights now afforded blacks in the South.
Under my proposal a jurisdiction would be covered by the
Voting 'ights Act if, first, less than fifty percent of the
eligible voters registered to vote or less than fifty percent
of the eligible voters actually voted during the presidential
election of 1972 and, second, if the jurisdiction printed election
or registration materials only in the English language
when more than five percent of the eligible voters are of a
single mother tongue other than English. The current
definition of a test or device includes any-requirement "that
a person as a prerequisite for voting or registration for
voting demonstrate the ability to read, write, understand,
or interpret any matter."
In its simplest form my bill amends the definition of the
phrase "test or device" to make explicit the rulings of
federal courts that the failure to provide bilingual registration
forms and ballots constitutes the use of a literacy test,
Note Garza v. Smith, 320 F. Supp. 131 (W.D. Tex. 1970), a
class action suit on behalf of Mexican-American citizens who
were illiterate in English. Plaintiffs alleged that Texaspage 4
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Johnson, Lyndon B., (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973. Testimony of Representative Barbara Jordan Before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, House Committee on the Judiciary, February 26, 1975, Extension of the Voting Rights Act, text, February 26, 1975; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth611453/m1/9/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas Southern University.