[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 WE MUST FIND A WAY TO REDUCE THE POLARIZATION AND RACIAL CONFLICT IN 
                              OUR SOCIETY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, this House was so shocked by church burnings 
in recent weeks that it last week passed a bill to add to Federal law 
enforcement authority, and I want to commend the gentleman from 
Illinois, Chairman Hyde, and the gentleman from Michigan, ranking 
member Conyers, of the Committee on the Judiciary, for the leadership 
they took and also Chairman Conyers for the Congressional Black Caucus 
hearing that shed additional light on this matter, including the need 
for prevention.
  In my years as a youngster in the civil rights movement, I never saw 
this kind of systematic racist church burning. This House's response 
does it honor. A few high-profile prosecutions are now in order, but, 
Mr. Speaker, I have come to the floor because I want something more.
  Martin Luther King would have wanted us to use his life amidst the 
polarization and balkanization that has contributed to these burnings. 
I come to the floor to call the House's attention to two events and to 
two people, both youngsters, who deserve the notice of this House. One 
is Billy Shawn Baxley, a 17-year-old white youngster who has confessed 
to burning a church; and the other is Keshia Thomas, an 18-year-old 
black girl who saved a pro-Klan white man at an anti-Klan rally a few 
days ago. Both are reported in the papers, and I know nothing more than 
what the papers tell me, but the Nation ought to know more.
  In the small rural community of East Howellsville, NC, Billy Shawn 
Baxley, 17 years old, burned the church across the road from him, and 
he confessed on television. People in the community said, well, he did 
not know what he was doing, he is only a kid. The State's attorney said 
he was not willing to concede that race was not involved. The youngster 
could have burned a McDonald's; he burned a church. But the response of 
the two churches involved is what deserves special notice, and I want 
to tell it unvarnished by reading from the New York Times.

       He confessed to it in a televised interview. On Thursday 
     night the teenager and about 12 members of his white church, 
     Zion Tabernacle Baptist Church, joined about eight members of 
     the Pleasant Hill congregation for bible study at the church 
     that Mr. Baxley is accused of setting ablaze. After an 
     hour of singing and scripture, the group stood in front of 
     the pews, held hands and prayed. Mr. Baxley wiped a tear 
     from his eye after prayer, and several members of both 
     congregations hugged him and said they forgave him.

  This is a story out of these tragic racial burnings that deserves the 
mention and the notice of Americans throughout this country. It is in 
the tradition of Martin Luther King. It reminds us that after the 
prosecutions are over, we are still one people, and we have to find a 
way to reduce the polarization and the racial conflict in this society.

                              {time}  1100

  Then perhaps you saw this picture; this young woman was interviewed 
on television last night. Keshia Thomas was a protester against the Ku 
Klux Klan at a Klan rally. There a white man who had a Confederate flag 
on his jacket and who appeared to support the Klansmen came forward. 
The crowd lunged at him and started to beat him. It looked as though 
they might beat him to death.
  This is 18-year-old girl did what Martin Luther King told us must be 
done, except she was not here when he lived or when he died. Her 
instinctive decency was such that she threw herself on the racist white 
men and fended off those who were beating him. Finally, taking blows 
herself, they moved back and then she got up with him and led him away.
  She was no admirer of this man, but she was a decent human being. She 
said, and I quote her, ``Just because you beat somebody doesn't mean 
you are going change his mind.'' She has not had time to develop a very 
deep philosophy, but what she is is a decent black girl who happens to 
be a decent American.
  These two youngsters, the 17-year-old who could not hold the crime in 
himself and confessed on television and the 18-year-old black girl who 
could not bear to see a man beat to death because of his views, these 
are the heroes of this ordeal. These are the people who have learned 
from it.

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