[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 177 (Thursday, November 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12072-H12076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         JOLTED BY WORLD EVENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Allard). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentlewoman 

[[Page H 12073]]
from Georgia [Ms. McKinney] is recognized for 60 minutes as the 
designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. McKinney. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to provide an update 
on the redistricting battle that we are continuing to fight in the 
State of Georgia in an effort to save not just the 11th Congressional 
District, but also the 2d Congressional District, the two new majority-
minority districts that are the equal opportunity districts in the 
State of Georgia.
  Before I talk about what is happening recently with redistricting, I 
would like to just say a few words about how we have been jolted by 
world events. The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. We 
have had several of our colleagues come down here and tell their 
stories about what the Prime Minister meant to them. I had an 
opportunity to meet Prime Minister Rabin, and I would like to share the 
few moments that I had with him and what it means to me.
  We were in an international relations meeting, and some of our 
colleagues can be so boarish sometimes. One of our colleagues was 
pointing his finger and becoming rather animated and turning red as he 
tried to make a very strong point to the Prime Minister. I had seen 
this particular Member behave the same way toward President Aristide, 
and I thought that perhaps this particular Member had a problem with 
race. But when I saw him doing the same thing with Rabin, I knew that 
it was probably just that ugly Americanism coming out, that ugly 
American that we are known to be around the world that we need to try 
and change.
  When my colleague finished, I felt compelled to speak up and say to 
the Prime Minister, well, Mr. Prime Minister, I want you to know that 
that gentleman does not speak for me and he does not speak for people 
who think like me, who are very supportive of Israel, who are very 
supportive of the peace process, and who want America to be a part of 
your success. Prime Minister Rabin turned to me and he said, I am not 
the enemy of America's mothers.
  So while we struggle with the senseless assassination of Prime 
Minister Rabin, we all must learn to let go of the hate and to work 
toward peace.
  So even as we fight right now and become even jolted by things that 
are happening in our domestic policies as well, we still have to learn 
to let go of the hate. Sometimes it is very difficult. Right-wing, 
extremist talk does lead to extremist behavior, and right now while we 
are discussing our Nation's budget, it is perhaps the most important 
piece of legislation that this Congress will debate.
  The budget is a statement of our Nation's priorities, and for the 
first time in 40 years, the Republicans, who now have a majority in the 
House and in the Senate, can state what their priorities are to this 
Nation and to our world.
  I remember when I ran for Congress back in 1992. There were a whole 
lot of people who did not believe. In fact, there were a lot of people 
who kind of laughed. They said, she wants to be a Congresswoman from 
Georgia? Who does she think she is, or what does she think she is? It 
was very difficult for me to find friends. It was very difficult for me 
to raise money. It was very difficult for me to put together the kind 
of organization that people readily associate with congressional races, 
but I got here. After I got here I found out that friends came real 
easy, and folks were falling all over themselves to become my friend.

  So it seems that the new Republican majority is falling all over 
themselves, and they are falling all over themselves to do what they 
have not been able to do for the last 40 years, and that is to give 
special breaks to their rich, wealthy, elite friends, people who have 
always been able to wind themselves inside the political process and 
who have been able to find their way inside rooms, halls, for deals. So 
we should not be surprised that in this budget we see that the rich are 
super represented and everybody else, well, they have to fend for 
themselves.
  In this bill, there are special breaks. I have four pages of special 
interest deals for special interest friends, from the oil companies to 
ski resorts, to large corporations, corporations, with large capital 
gains, corporations with large pension funds, the banking industry, 
mining companies, rich ranchers out west who think that our land is 
their land. Pharmaceutical drug companies, health insurance companies, 
infant formula companies, doctors, doctors, doctors, nursing home 
industry, coal companies, gambling interests, even football coaches 
have been able to find a little special treatment in this Republican 
budget.
  We have seen that some folks are going to have to pay the price. Our 
seniors pay the price. Medicare funds to Georgia will be cut by $6 
billion. Mr. Speaker, 56,000 seniors in the 11th district alone will 
see their premiums increase. Georgia hospitals will lose $2 billion 
over the next 7 years. Hospitals in the 11th district alone will lose 
$138 million. Georgia will lose another $5 billion in Medicaid cuts 
over the next 7 years. Students, with their student loans will be 
paying, on average, an additional $600, 3,416 students in the 11th 
district alone.
  The earned income tax credit. Who in the world could be against the 
earned income tax credit? Well, these folks here want to cut the earned 
income tax credit. Almost 600,000 working families in Georgia stand to 
lose the earned income tax credit, 52,000 working poor families in the 
11th district alone.
  Republicans have definitely defined themselves. On Medicare, Gingrich 
said, now, we do not want to get rid of it in round one because we do 
not think that that is politically smart, and we do not think that is 
the right way to go through a transition period. But we believe it is 
going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily 
going to leave it. Wither on the vine, Medicare.
  So the Republicans have done a good job of defining themselves, and 
now it is up to the Democrats to define themselves.
  What is it that the Democrats stand for? Well, one thing we know for 
sure is that Democrats stand with seniors against these devastating 
Medicare cuts. Democrats stand with children and the poor against the 
decimation of Medicaid. Democrats stand with college kids when they are 
trying to fund their education. Democrats stand with the millions of 
working families who use the earned income tax credit. Democrats stand 
with little kids who deserve a healthy start and a head start in life. 
Democrats stand with the jobless, with the workers who find themselves 
jobless because their factory has moved in search of low-wage labor. 
Democrats stand with our lowest-wage workers who are in need of an 
increase in the minimum wage. Democrats stand with our urban and 
suburban areas in dire need of infrastructure, and Democrats stand with 
folks who just want a fair shake from their Government.
  Marian Wright Edleman complains in The New York Times article of 
November 6 that the American people are asleep, sleeping through this 
revolution. The story reads, ``Marian Wright Edleman was seething. `I 
have been so frustrated trying to get the message out', she said. `It 
is immoral what is going on in Washington today. The country is 
sleeping through this revolution. What we are witnessing', she said, 
`is an unbelievable budget massacre of the weakest. It is absolutely 
wrong.' ''

  Marian Wright Edleman has dedicated her life to the pursuit of civil 
rights and equal rights and rights for our children.
  But as I struggle with the Democratic party, on behalf of Democratic 
values, to make a Democratic stand, there are some Democrats who do not 
value me or my participation in this process. The last time I checked, 
there was no whites-only sign on the Democratic party. The last time I 
checked, there was no white-only sign for Democratic values.
  The Democratic party is a party of diversity. It is a place where 
women have a place. It is a place where minorities have a place. It is 
a party where liberals, moderates, middle of the roaders, all have a 
place and ought to be respected.
  Mr. Speaker, something is going on in the south, and that something 
that is going on in the south is saying, you black folks, you do not 
have a place in the Democratic party. You get out. Move out of the way, 
because we do not want you. That is what my State 

[[Page H 12074]]
Democratic party is doing in the State of Georgia.

                              {time}  1900

  The Florida plaintiffs were bold enough to say what other folks were 
thinking. In their brief, the case is Johnson versus Smith, which is an 
effort to get rid of the congressional district that is represented by 
Congresswoman Brown, they write:

       In the 103d Congress which met in 1993 and continues to 
     meet through 1994, the legislation which was passed included 
     a budget which enacted substantial increases in taxes and gun 
     control legislation which had been put before the two prior 
     Congresses but which had failed to gain passage. The 
     Congressional Black Caucus, which consists of 37 Democrats 
     and 1 Republican congressman, claims responsibility for those 
     legislative successes. Particularly in the area of gun 
     control, where 37 of the 38 African-American congressmen 
     voted for banning certain gun sales, legislative passage 
     could not have been secured without the votes of 12 African-
     American congressmen from the South whose congressmen 
     traditionally voted against gun control measures.
       Representatives Brown, Hastings, and Meek all voted in 
     favor of the bill. The Congressional Black Caucus has also 
     supported increased power for political action committees $5 
     million in funding for prevention programs as part of the 
     crime bill, and the granting to death row inmates of the 
     right to challenge their convictions on the basis that those 
     convictions, as shown by a statistical analysis, were 
     racially motivated.
       The process of gerrymandering congressional districts has, 
     therefore, had a substantial impact on the political debates 
     concerning issues of our time. However, it has resulted in 
     the passage of legislation which would not otherwise have 
     been passed without gerrymandered districts.

  So I think we have it there in black and white, which is kind of 
literal, that the Florida plaintiffs are upset because the 
Congressional Black Caucus has a modicum of power for a change, because 
the Congressional Black Caucus has a seat at the policymaking table, 
because there are three African-Americans who happen to be able to 
represent the State of Florida in the U.S. Congress.
  I think that is a shame, that folks would actually think and then 
articulate an idea that black people have no place here and then would 
act on that idea in an effort to get us out of here.
  That is what this redistricting battle is all about. It is an effort 
to get black people out of elected office. There is no doubt about it 
in my mind.
  Now as a result of the most recent events in the State of Georgia, I 
can say unequivocally that the Democratic leadership in the State of 
Georgia feels the same way. Georgia Democrats believe that they should 
get rid of these black representatives, trade us in, trade me in, so 
that a white male can come here and represent those people who are 
already represented.
  The reason that I cast my vote in a different way is because I 
represent people who have not been represented. This is new. But this 
is representative democracy. I thought that is what we all were 
fighting for.
  Just a reminder, I have got these district maps here. I want to make 
sure that the American people understand that the judgment about what a 
beautiful district is, what a pretty district is, what an effective 
district is, is purely subjective. There have never been perfectly 
square or perfectly round districts. Districts have always been drawn 
with special interests in mind. As our Speaker of the House has said in 
the State of Georgia, ``You can't take the politics out of politics,'' 
and redistricting is about as raw a form of politics as you can get.
  So we can have here a 95-percent white district in the State of 
Illinois that has a shape that is not perfect and that district can go 
unchallenged.
  We can have a district in the State of Texas that is 91 percent white 
that can be challenged on a map of all congressional districts from the 
State of Texas, a district that can look like this. It ain't square, it 
ain't perfectly round, but it is an effective district. Nobody has 
denied the Representative of Texas' Sixth District the opportunity to 
cast his vote here.
  Then the three-judge panel in Texas looked at that configuration and 
said, ``Well, it's OK, but let's go over here and let's find Barbara 
Jordan's historic district, let's declare that district 
unconstitutional,'' so they did.
  ``Let's go over here and find the majority Latino district and 
declare that district unconstitutional,'' so they did.
  ``Let's go over here and find a district that is 45 percent black and 
declare that district unconstitutional,'' so they did.

  Obviously, only people of color are under assault in these 
redistricting cases. If the district is 90-percent white, obviously 
there is no race involved in that district; but if the district is 50-
percent black, you better look out.
  Of course, here is Georgia's 11th Congressional District, a district 
that provides representation from the south of DeKalb County over to 
the city of Augusta and down to the city of Savannah and all of these 
rural areas in between. One and a half million African-Americans in 
rural Georgia have never had representation before. Now they finally 
have a little bit of representation, and some greedy folks want to come 
and take that away from them.
  What does a quiet hug in the Georgia State reapportionment office 
tell me? A hug between the most powerful Democrat in the State of 
Georgia and the lawyer for the plaintiffs, hugging, in congratulation, 
in celebration, of their victory. Mighty amazing.
  Then, what am I to make of a statement by the State's attorney? Now 
the State of Georgia is supposed to be defending, well, as much of this 
as they can, and the other district on the other side of the State. 
But, no, the State's attorney says, ``Well, we only want one black 
district.''
  So now the story I thought I was telling months ago is now even more 
tragic and true. It is even more tragic, because the State has now 
shown its hand. It has joined with the plaintiffs. The State failed to 
put up any witnesses in the trial. The State played dead. The State has 
joined with the plaintiffs, and the plaintiffs have an agenda.
  What is their agenda? Their agenda is to reconstruct the district so 
that my previous Democratic opponent can win. What they want to do is 
get rid of me and replace me with the man who ran because he did not 
think there was anything wrong with the district in 1992, but when he 
lost, then there was something wrong with the district. Maybe he took 
some folks for granted. Maybe he did not have a record to run on. Maybe 
it was the right of the people of the 11th Congressional District to 
reject his candidacy, because maybe he just did not stand for the right 
things.
  There was a map that was on the walls in the legislative office 
building, and nobody paid any attention to the map, because the man who 
ran against me was a Democrat at the time. Then he flipped over and 
became a Republican, and everybody knows that our speaker of the house 
in Georgia is a yellow-dog Democrat. There is no way in the world that 
our yellow-dog Democrats are going to ally themselves with this flip-
flop Democrat turned Republican.

  But there was a map. Now all we have to do is just think back and 
remember that there was a map. The very first map that was on the wall 
was a DeLoach map, and then the very last map on the wall was a DeLoach 
map, and the maps that were taken to the Republican caucus, to the 
Black Caucus, was a DeLoach map.
  Of course, nobody really realized this at the time, but now we can 
put two and two together and we can add and we can see that really our 
yellow-dog Democrats had joined up with the flip-flop Democrat-
Republican, and their purpose was not to reinvigorate the two-party 
system in the State of Georgia but to reinvigorate old-line politics 
from the State of Georgia, Old South politics, the kind of politics 
that have made Georgia famous in the halls of the department of justice 
because Georgia is known for denying black people their rights.
  But, at any rate, the plaintiffs claim that they want to reinvigorate 
the two-party system. Well, there is a way that you can do that. You do 
that with message. You do that with standing for something. You do that 
with fighting for causes and goals and objectives. You do not do that 
by ignoring people, by denying people representation, by using people 
as spare parts.
  So now I and the people that I represent from South DeKalb throughout 
our heartland, our rural heartland, in Augusta and in Savannah are 
supposed to be nothing more than spare parts for aspirations for other 
folks, but they 

[[Page H 12075]]
cannot have their own hopes and aspirations for their own government.
  The plaintiffs also as a part of their agenda want to dismantle and 
completely obliterate these integrated districts. These are integrated 
districts, the most integrated districts in the South. They want to get 
rid of them.
  Now probably more insidious than anything else, the true aim is that 
they want to bleach the Democratic party.

                              {time}  1915

  What they want to do is to get me out of the room so that they can be 
in the room, and then they can exercise public will at the public till 
as they see fit, with impunity and without any meddling from folks who 
have a different point of view. If they want to bleach the Democratic 
Party, then they also want to bleach our Government.
  Because they want to get rid of me. They want to take me out and 
replace me and replace me. What they want to do is to restore white 
dominance in the South. I want to be very clear about this. They can 
assign fancy names to it, but the bottom line is white resistance. It 
is what the South is known for.
  Why is it that in the State of Georgia we fly a flag that has the 
Saint Andrew's cross on it? What is the Saint Andrew's cross? Saint 
Andrew's cross is the battle flag of the Confederacy.
  Now, why would the State of Georgia want to fly the battle flag of 
the Confederacy on the State flag? They want to do that because they 
voted affirmatively, they took affirmative action in 1956 to place the 
battle flag of the Confederacy on our State flag because they wanted to 
resist Federal intrusion into their school system.
  They did not like the Brown versus Board of Education decision in 
1954, so they went slap-damn-it straight up to the legislature in 1956, 
and they put that doggone new change on Georgia's flag, and in 1995 we 
still live with the decision that was made in 1956.
  Now they are all doing it in the name of the 14th amendment. That in 
and of itself is a cruel hoax, but there was probably another cruel 
hoax, and that was all of that time and all of the taxpayers' money 
that was spent in that special session. All of the tears, all of the 
anguish, all of the serious negotiation, was just a joke. It was a 
joke.
  Now we know, because the first map that was on that wall was the last 
map that was on that wall, was the map that the State of Georgia sent 
to the trial. That map, State Senator Donzella James feared that it was 
a hoax, and so she wrote a piece which I will not read. I will just 
submit it for the Record, entitled ``The Redistricting Hoax.'' She 
feared it. We did not know it.
  The special session was a joke. Black elected officials were duped. 
Black elected officials, including me, were laughed at behind closed 
doors. $500,000 of taxpayers' money was wasted. Yellow-dog Democrats 
have proved that they have got a streak in them, but it ain't loyalty.

  My dad had a dream, and he did not know how to adequately articulate 
it. He wrote it down kind of jumbled up, because he was writing from 
his heart. He was not trying to be so clear. He was just trying to 
remember his dream.
  He said:

       I had a dream last night. I saw very clearly a group of 
     white men gathered around a table, and they were plotting the 
     future of black people in the South for the next century. I 
     was surprised that I recognized all of them. They were all 
     involved in the attempt to overturn the Voting Rights Act.

  And he goes on to name who these people are. They are his Democrat 
leadership, because my dad is a Democrat. My dad is elected as a 
Democrat from the 51st State House District. They are his speaker, his 
Lieutenant Governor.

       This distinguished group had been stunned by the Georgia 
     Legislative Black Caucus at hearings before the Georgia 
     Reapportionment Committee. The Caucus had shown unusual 
     preparedness in its opposition to the dismantling of the 
     majority black districts. In stinging testimony, the 
     assertions of the plaintiff's attorney were proven to be 
     untrue. The Caucus brought down from the University of 
     Georgia a constitutional civil rights law expert in the 
     person of Dr. Pamela Carlin, attorney Rod McDuff from 
     Mississippi, who has fought civil rights cases all over the 
     Nation, Selwyn Carter of the Southern Regional Council.
       This emergency meeting was called because what was thought 
     to be a routine turning back of the clock had gone awry. The 
     blacks would not march back to slavery with their hats in 
     their hands like their forefathers had before them. After 
     much discussion, it was decided that the State would use an 
     unheard of order demanding that the State appear before the 
     court and present maps and testimony with only one week's 
     notice. The threat of having judges draw the districts would 
     scare the heck--that is not the word he used--out of the 
     Black Caucus. A brilliant threat that would throw panic into 
     the Caucus, because the Caucus is not really a player in this 
     chess game. Black citizens are only pawns to be sacrificed in 
     a fight between the major parties. The Democrats have three 
     Members serving in Congress, but they do not count because 
     they are black. So the plan is to banish the black 
     Congressmen and spread the black citizens who vote 95-percent 
     Democrat among the other districts.
       The lawsuit was filed against the State. Black people play 
     no significant role in State government, thus no hand at the 
     table. So as his plaintiffs fight the State to remove blacks 
     from public office, the State is helping as they connive in 
     that backroom hovering over that table.

  Now this was my dad's dream. But what he did not know was that later 
on there was a hug in a backroom between the State and the plaintiffs. 
He was absolutely right. My dad's fears came true. And so in the course 
of this cruel, tragic redistricting hoax, the Georgia Legislature voted 
to dismantle 11 majority black districts, 9 in the State House and 2 in 
the State Senate. It was all planned from the very beginning.
  ``General Assembly Held Hostage,'' that was the flier sent out, 
``targeted black districts.'' ``Told them if you all don't do right, we 
are going to take away your districts.'' ``Tyrone Brooks, you are 
nothing but a troublemaker anyway.'' He is the premier civil rights 
fighter in the State of Georgia. ``We will just take your district 
away.''
  Eugene Tillman, newly drawn district, gentleman came before the 
Reapportionment Committee. He said, ``I come from a county named 
Liberty, but they still treat us like slaves.'' His district is gone. 
His representation is gone in this cruel, cruel hoax.
  So now, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus members, certain 
members, have signed a letter to Deval Patrick asking that the plan 
that disbanded those 11 State legislative districts not be pre-cleared, 
because in the course of a special session that was convened for the 
purpose of fixing the problem in the 11th district, nothing happened in 
the 11th district. They did not do that. They did not get around to it.
  But they did find the time to dismantle 11 majority black districts, 
11 opportunity districts for folks who do not have representation to 
get a little representation. Bill Shipp, one of our noted columnists, 
wrote a story and says, ``Are the bad old days back?'' It is a question 
I asked, are the bad old days back?
  Does the Democratic leadership of the State of Georgia think that 
they can just wipe me out of Congress, off the map, and think that I 
will go away quietly? No way. I will not go quietly because I represent 
people, people who are sick and tired of being taken for granted, and 
people who are not going to stand to see the representation that they 
now have snatched away from them.
  It will not be the first time. On the grounds of the Georgia State 
capital there is a statue. That statue commemorates the service of 33 
African-Americans who were elected but who were expelled in 1868 for no 
other reason than the color of their skin. The title of the statue is 
``Expelled Because Of Color.''
  I stand today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, the 
most powerful democratic body in the world, as perhaps the first 
African-American in the 20th century to be expelled because of the 
color of my skin. That is not what America is supposed to be about, but 
that is what American has been about. It happened in 1868.
  It happened in 1901. Representative George White from North Carolina, 
he was a U.S. Congressman and he was kicked out. So that makes me think 
that I can escape what has happened before, the fate of black people to 
be expelled from representative democracy because they do not deserve 
representation?

                              {time}  1930

  George White said, ``This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negro's 
temporary farewell to the American Congress. But let me say Phoenix-
like, he will rise up 

[[Page H 12076]]
some day and come again. These parting words are in behalf of an 
outraged, heart-broken, bruised and bleeding, but God-fearing people; 
faithful, industrious, loyal people, rising people, full of potential 
force.'' George White did not go quietly, and neither will I.
  The attorney for the State of Georgia representing Democratic 
leadership in the State of Georgia said at the trial in Augusta, ``Our 
position is that Section 2 does not mandate a second Congressional 
black district.''
  I think that just about says it all. The fears that we had in the 
middle of the special session, at the end of the special session; the 
confusion that we experienced at the beginning of the special session 
and all during the special session, was a joke. It was a hoax. Folks 
were laughing at us.
  I had faith, hope, and trust in my Democratic leadership of the State 
of Georgia, because I am a Democrat too. And when I come up here and I 
vote, I do not see anything on my card that says ``Black vote,'' or 
``Black Democrat.'' I do not see that. I vote yea or nay, just like 
everybody else.

  Other folks see that. And then other folks bring what they see that 
is ugly to the political process. Now the whole Nation is wrapped up in 
this issue of race, when maybe really all it is is just a matter of 
greed. But greedy folks will use the issue of race. Greedy folks will 
divide people. Greedy folks will say ``You all do not deserve to be 
together,'' so that they can continue to get and get and get, and take 
and take and take.
  Claude McKay says the following in his poem, ``If We Must die:''

     If we must die, let it not be like hogs
     Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
     While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
     Making their mock at our accursed lot.
     If we must die, O let us nobly die,
     So that our precious blood may not be shed
     In vain; then even the monsters we defy
     Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
     O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
     Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
     And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
     What though before us lies the open grave?
     Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
     Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

  That is about the way I am going to take this whole redistricting 
fight, pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back.

                          ____________________