[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 20 (Tuesday, March 1, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______


                               speech of

                           HON. MAXINE WATERS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 23, 1994

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues this 
evening in marking February as ``Black History Month.''
  There's an old saying that ``If you don't know where you came from, 
you don't know where you are going.'' As African-Americans, we know 
where we've come from. That's something we just can't forget. We are 
reminded of it each and every day.
  When our Constitution guaranteed this country's citizens ``life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'' African-Americans--and women--
were pointedly excluded from freedom's blessings. For purposes of 
representation in this Congress, slaves were counted as three-fifths of 
a person.
  A bloody Civil War set us free, but mere force of arms couldn't make 
us equal. One hundred twenty-eight years after the end of the Civil 
War, the struggle for political and economic equality continues.
  This struggle has yielded a rich pantheon of heroes--businesspeople 
and politicians, preachers and inventors, writers and musicians, and 
sports figures. Some of these brothers' and sisters' names are 
household words--George Washington Carver or Martin Luther King or 
Billie Holliday. Others are less known, if no less valued--homerun king 
Josh Gibson, educator Mary Macleod Bethune, and Harlem's Mother Hale. 
And, of course, some of our biggest heroes are ordinary people who 
confronted injustice, overcame obstacles, and moved our struggle 
forward. I'm talking about Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of 
the bus, Medgar Evers facing down the Klan in Mississippi, and 
Sojourner Truth ``following the drinking gourd'' North to freedom.
  In these often difficult times, it is good to think of heroes as we 
chart our future course. Our community suffers the pain of violence and 
crime. We watch many of our children drop out of school and out of the 
mainstream. Economic opportunities dwindle, the result of 12 years of 
neglect by the Federal Government and the export of jobs to low-wage 
countries. Teen pregnancy is a major obstacle to our young women 
realizing their full, God-given potential.
  Now, more than ever before, we need to remember that we are 
inheritors of a legacy of struggle. Nothing worth having comes easy. We 
struggle with the pain and frustration and hopelessness in our 
communities. Too many of our sons and daughters are unskilled, 
undereducated, and scarred by substance abuse and violence. We are 
frustrated by the lack of resources we have with which to tackle these 
problems. We are even more frustrated by the lack of sufficient 
political will.
  We need to strengthen our families because families have seen us 
through the hardest of times. We need to bring capital for our 
businesspeople and homeowners, quality education for our kids, and job 
opportunities for our working people.
  The genius and energies of our African-American heroes have carried 
us to where we are today. We stand on the shoulders of giants. We have 
to understand the power we have if we take heart and inspiration from 
the examples set by the Shirley Chisholms and the Jackie Robinsons, the 
Malcolm X's and the Fanny Lou Hamers.
  We can never give up. We can never give in. By lifting ourselves up 
we can make our lives better and build an America that, at long last, 
lives up to its noble words and ideals.

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