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Lenore Neier
Director, Communications
212-614-5425

Hear the Untold Story: How the “Puerto Rican Section” of VRA Opened Voting Booths to African-Americans and Latinos in NYC and Other Minority Voters Nationwide

Former Congressman Herman Badillo Joins
Activist and Former Councilmember Gilberto Gerena Valentin
to Celebrate Their Roles in the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965

What:

Forty years after the passage of the VRA, former Congressman and Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo and civil and human rights activist Gilberto Gerena Valentin will join CSS General Counsel Juan Cartagena to discuss the historic act. More specifically, they will talk about the story rarely heard: the Puerto Rican influence in shaping the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Gerson Borero, columnist at El Diario-La Prensa, and is being organized and hosted by the Community Service Society of New York.

When:

Monday, August 8, 6 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where:

The Community Service Society
105 East 22nd Street (4th Floor)
New York, NY
(No. 6 train to 23rd St.)

Background:

The 1965 Voting Rights Act included a special provision to empower Puerto Rican voters by assuring that they could register to vote in spite of New York’s English literacy requirement. That provision, Section 4 (e) the “Puerto Rican Section” of the Act, led to an extension of the VRA coverage for all Latinos in other parts of the U.S. and bilingual election assistance for Native Americans and Asians. Herman Badillo and Gilberto Gerena Valentin testified in support of Section 4 (e) while N.Y. Senators Robert Kennedy and Jacob Javits introduced the amendment to the Senate, giving Puerto Ricans equal access to the ballot, ultimately making voting and civic participation a reality for many citizens who had yet to learn English.

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