[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6291-H6292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES UNDER SIEGE IN AMERICA

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in the 1960's, as the civil 
rights journey, bloody though it might have been, unfolded in this 
Nation the eyes of most of America were riveted on those who were 
seeking simply freedom. Today we are under siege as the most recent 
church burned in Enid, OK. African-American churches across this Nation 
are under siege through the tragedy of church burnings. Some of my 
colleagues have disdained to call this political. I cry out in outrage.
  As a cosponsor of the Church Arson Prevention Act, I asked the 
Speaker of the House in posthaste to bring this to the floor. In 
joining the gentlewoman from North Carolina who sponsored a resolution 
for this Nation to denounce this tragedy, I asked for its immediate 
attention in this House, and I ask America not to sleep at night while 
these tragedies are occurring, for I ask whether or not our colleagues 
are willing to entertain the possible loss of

[[Page H6292]]

life. I ask America to have a day of prayer this coming Sunday to join 
for peace and freedom and the end of racial hostilities and this 
tragedy and blight on the Constitution of the United States of America.

                          ____________________