Speech #970087869

To revert to a practice of excluding Hispanics. Asians. and native Americans who occupied this land long before our forefathers and who have retained their indigenous language traditions would be the height of arrogance and insensitivity. To abandon our proud tradition of integrating recent immigrantsbecomecitizens into our political processes would truly be a tragedy of the largest magnitude. Not to extend these provisions would indeed constitute such an abandonment. as Hispanics and Asiansparticularly in the Southwest and Californiaknow all too well. The Federal courts have ruled repeatedly that discriminatory literacy tests are unconstitutional. and Englishonly elections are equivalent to such literacy tests. This very body. the Congress of the United States. declared in 1975 that this form of discrimination has been "pervasive and national in scope." Let us not turn back the clock of time. Let us not turn away from our fellow Americans who love this Nation. who work and die for this land. and who wish to go to the polls with pride and dignity to vote as citizens of the United States of America.