Description
White House Bill Signing Pen, from the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, from the estate of Kentucky Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli.
Blue cardboard box, lid edged with brass. Presidential seal and replica signature of Gerald R. Ford on top panel of lid. Pen housed in yellow velvet sleeve. The pen itself is blue and chrome, made by the Parker Pen Company. Pen has a removable cap, felt ink tip. Address label of “U.S. Rep. R.L. Mazzoli” on the underside of the lid. Handwritten note on the bottom of the box, noting “Voting Rights Act.”
Gerald R. Ford’s most direct expansion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came when he signed the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975 (H.R. 6219 / Public Law 94-73) on August 6, 1975, a bill that (1) extended key “special” protections for seven more years (including the preclearance framework tied to the Act’s coverage formula), (2) made permanent the nationwide ban on “tests or devices” used to block registration and voting (notably literacy tests), and (3) added major new protections for “language-minority” citizens, requiring bilingual election materials in covered jurisdictions and explicitly broadening the Act’s reach beyond its original focus to protect communities including many Spanish-speaking voters, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Alaska Natives.
From the estate of Rep Ron Mazzoli (1932-2022), a Louisville Democrat who represented Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1971-1995. Mazzoli was a leading architect of modern immigration policy, the principal House author (with Sen. Alan Simpson) of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
