[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H422-H435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I come today to open a discussion and create
a forum right here on the floor of the House on African-Americans. We
are, in the month of February, proudly celebrating American life and
history for African-Americans.
We come today to take this time to talk about the contributions of
African-Americans, to talk about the struggle of African-Americans, to
identify and to celebrate the many contributions that African-Americans
have made to this country and this world.
Back in 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D. who had 11 years
earlier founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and
History, initiated what was known as Negro History Week. It was Dr.
Woodson's hope that through this very special observance, all Americans
would be reminded of their ethnic roots, and a togetherness in U.S.
racial groups would develop out of a mutual respect for all
backgrounds.
Now we have expanded Negro History Week to Negro History Month, so
the entire month of February you will see programs and activities all
over America. You will see children in elementary schools identifying
the contributions of African-Americans to this Nation. You will witness
plays, you will see poems written, all kinds of activities basically
focusing on the work, the life, the history, and the times of African-
Americans.
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I come today to share this time with the Members of the Congressional
Black Caucus and others who would like to give their observations and
to do their documenting of those events and those individuals who have
been central and important to the development of African-Americans in
this Nation.
It is with that that I will yield to the gentleman from Chicago, IL
[Mr. Davis], one of our new Members in the House of Representatives,
who has come today to share in this very special moment and to give his
observations on the life and times of African-Americans in this Nation.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, the United States of America is
indeed a strong, vibrant, diverse, and great Nation. Much of its
strength, character, and greatness stems from the fact that it is rich
in diversity.
We are America, a nation that is made up of many different
individuals and groups who have contributed significantly to its growth
and development.
During the month of February, yes, we celebrate African-American or
Black History Month, a period which we set aside to take special note
and highlight the accomplishments and achievements of African-Americans
who have excelled or made noteworthy contributions.
Mr. Speaker, I should take this opportunity to highlight some of the
outstanding African-Americans who grew up in, lived, and/or worked in
the district which I am proud to represent, the Seventh Congressional
District of the State of Illinois, one of the most diverse districts in
the Nation. Downtown Chicago, Chinatown, the Gold Coast, the
Magnificent Mile, housing developments like Cabrini, like Rockwell,
Abla, the West Side of Chicago, home of the riots, suburban
communities, Oak Park, Maywood, Bellwood, Broadview.
It became a focal point of the Negro Free Speech Movement in the
1890's. At that time it was home to one of the most famous black female
journalists of all times, Ida B. Wells Barnett.
It was the last port of entry for African-Americans leaving the South
in large numbers, migrating to the North, the Northeast, and the
Midwest.
It has been a launching pad for many black firsts. The first black
woman to receive an international pilot's license, Bessie Coleman,
lived there. The world renowned chemist Dr. Percy B. Julian, the holder
of 19 honorary doctorate degrees, an individual who helped to shape
medical research procedures, lived there.
The famous black daily newspaper, the Chicago Daily Defender, was
founded there by Robert Abbot with $25 and a typewriter at his kitchen
table.
Johnson Publishing Co., Ebony, Jet, and other components of the
business founded by Mr. John H. Johnson and now operated by his
daughter, Ms. Linda Johnson Rice, operates in the Seventh District.
Parker House Sausage Co.'s president, Daryl Grisham, lived in the
district. Oprah Winfrey, that everybody in America knows, operates out
of the Seventh District. Marva Collins, founder of the Westside Prep
School and Paul Adams, principal of Providence-St. Mel College Prep,
two of the most successful educators in the country today, live and
work in the district.
Earl Neal, one of the top attorneys in the Nation, lived and worked
in the district. Jewel Lafentant-Mankarious, the first black woman to
become Deputy Solicitor General of the United States of America, lived
in the district.
The district has been home to the practice of Dr. Maurice Robb, one
of the foremost ophthalmologists in the Nation. It has produced star
athletes like Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Kevin Garnett, Daryl
Stingley, Michael Finley, Glenn Rivers, Hershey Hawkins, Russell
Maryland, Mickey Johnson, Otis Armstrong, and others.
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin have perfected their craft in the
Seventh District. And when we see children playing in the James Jordan
Boys and Girls Club, you see greatness at work. The renowned writer,
producer, and actor, Robert Townsend, grew up in the district.
This inner city district has produced the likes of Jerry (Iceman)
Butler, Ramsey Lewis, Tyrone Davis, Alvin Cash, Gene Chandler, the
Brown Brothers, the Family Jubilee, Vernon Oliver Price, the Thompson
Community Singers, Angela Spivey, and other great entertainers;
nationally renowned African-American ministers like the Reverend Clay
Evans, Bishop Louis Henry Ford, Rev. Harry McNelty, Rev. Wallace Sykes,
Rev. Johnny Miller, Rev. Clarence Stowers, Rev. Charlie Murray, Rev.
Jimmie Pettis, Rev. Albert Tyson, Rev. August Minor, and others all
live in the district.
I have spoken of contemporaries. I have made a point to do so because
so often when we talk about history, we forget about those individuals
who are struggling each and every day in an effort to make history
real. And so all of the individuals, the people who struggle on a daily
basis, who work with our children, who work with our seniors, the
chairpersons of local advisory counsels, of public housing units and
public housing developments, all of these individuals are my heroes and
sheroes. They are my heroes, Mr. Speaker, they are my heroes because
they understand what Fred Douglass taught when he suggested that
struggle, struggle, strife, and pain are the prerequisites for change.
They understand that if there is no struggle, there is no progress. And
so Black History Month reminds us that when we glory in the struggle,
all of America can rejoice in the victory.
So, yes, African-Americans have indeed contributed and African-
Americans have indeed made progress. But I
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tell you, Mr. Speaker, we must continue to struggle to keep affirmative
action alive. We must continue to struggle so that we can prevent
redlining. We must struggle for equal protection, for help for the
helpless and hope for the hopeless. We must struggle for a livable wage
so that as individuals work, they can earn enough to take care of their
basic needs.
So, yes, we have made great progress. And as James Weldon Johnson
would say, Stony has been the road we have tred, bitter the chastening
rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died, but with a steady
beat, have not our weary feet brought us to the place for which our
fathers sighed.
Mr. Speaker, we have come over ways that with tears have been
watered. We have come treading through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past until now we stand at last where the white
gleam of our bright star is cast.
I know, Mr. Speaker, that as we celebrate African-American history
month, as we face the rising sun of our new day begun, I am confident
that with the leadership of the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Waters
with the togetherness of the caucus and with the activation of
Americans all over this land, as we face the rising sun of our new day
begun, I am confident that we shall march on till the victory is won.
I thank so much the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, before moving onto our next presenter, I
would like to again take a moment to thank our colleagues who are
joining me in the House Chamber today. Again, I would like to
reiterate, we gather to mark the congressional observance of Black
History Month. I join my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus
and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we acknowledge the
contributions of African-American men and women to the building and
shaping of this great Nation. African-Americans have a history which is
inextricably woven into the economic, social and political fabric of
this Nation.
In 1926, the late Dr. Carter G. Woodson really understood that
African-Americans were not receiving proper recognition in history for
their contributions. To alleviate this, Dr. Woodson proposed setting
aside one week during the month of February to commemorate the
achievements of African-Americans. In 1976, the observance was changed
to Black History Month. As we mark the 1997 observance of Black History
Month, we do so with great appreciation to Dr. Woodson for his
foresight and leadership.
The Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History,
which Dr. Woodson founded, is responsible each year for establishing
the theme for our Black History Month observance. This year the
organization has selected as our theme African-Americans and civil
rights, a reappraisal. This theme allows us to examine how far we have
come in the struggle for civil rights. I am pleased to join my
colleagues as we chart our progress and acknowledge the contributions
of African-American men and women to the history of the struggle.
Mr. Speaker, I stand here as the chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus. Traditionally, we have witnessed at this moment the
presentation and the leadership of one of our great leaders in the
Congressional Black Caucus. He is here with us today, and he has
decided that he shall let us go forward and he will sit by and guide
us, as we attempt to make this presentation today. It is my great
pleasure to attempt to carry on in the fine tradition of our leader,
Congressman Stokes, from the great State of Ohio.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the Virgin
Islands, Ms. Christian-Green, one of our new Members who will share
with us her observations of black history.
Ms. CHRISTIAN-GREEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues, the
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes], the gentleman from New York [Mr.
Owens], and the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters], Black Caucus
chair, for organizing this special order and affording me this time to
say a few words in recognition of Black History Month and the
contributions that people of color have made to this Nation and to the
world.
In keeping with this year's theme, African-Americans and civil
rights, a reappraisal, I wanted to address reappraisal by especially
highlighting and honoring the contributions of Virgin Islanders, the
people from the district that I represent. We in the Virgin Islands are
proud of our history. The revolt by African slaves on our smallest
island of St. John in 1733 is one of the earliest successful
revolutions in this hemisphere.
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On St. Croix our own Moses Gottleib Buddhoe, along with Anna
Heegaard, were credited with playing a major role in bringing about our
emancipation in 1848, more than 10 years before our sisters and
brothers on the mainland. In 1878, three women, Queen Mary, Queen
Agnes, and Queen Mathilda, continued the quest for civil rights and led
a ``firebun'' revolt for fair wages. Later, in 1916, D. Hamilton
Jackson and others continued the struggle for increased rights for
Virgin Islanders, resulting in better working conditions and freedom of
the press.
Many of our firsts have largely gone unrecognized. For example, we
had the first black female president of a U.S. State legislature in
Senator Ruby Margaret Rouss, and the first African-American woman to be
a U.S. Attorney General in J'Ada Finch Sheen.
We look back with pride at our first elected Governor, Dr. Melvin H.
Evans, the first African-American to be elected Governor under the U.S.
flag. He was also a Member of Congress and a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus from 1978 to 1980.
My father, Judge Almeric L. Christian, was our first native Federal
District Court judge.
We have also shared our heroes and their contributions with our
Nation at large.
Before the relationship between the United States and the Virgin
Islands began in 1917, Virgin Islanders migrated to the United States
for education, for economics or to join family and friends already
located here.
Late in the 19th century and early in the 20th, renowned pan-
Africanist Edward Wilmot Blyden, whose written works were a mainstay of
African-American intellectuals, was born on St. Thomas. His
contemporary, Hubert Henry Harrison, known as the Black Socrates, a
native of St. Croix, was well-known for his soap box lectures in
Harlem. His were some of the words that fueled the careers of many
early workers for civil rights, including Marcus Garvey.
Frank R. Crosswaith, a native of Frederiksted, St. Croix, was an
early crusader for the integration of Negro workers in the labor
movement. His work channeled thousands of African-American workers into
many unions, including those in the AFL-CIO.
It was a Crucian mother who gave us Arthur Schomburg, who collected
and preserved many important works by African-Americans during the
Harlem Renaissance; and it was St. Thomas that produced the ``Harlem
Fox,'' J. Raymond Jones, widely known for his rise through and
contributions to the New York City political establishment in the first
half of this century.
There are many more, such as Roy Innis of St. Croix, national
chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality; and others too numerous to
mention who served in the movement in the '40's, '50's, '60's, '70's
and even today as students, as marchers, workers, and as other average
everyday Americans who made their contributions to the furtherance of
civil rights.
It is important for us to recognize that the history of African-
Americans is still being written by our hands. As we celebrate this
month, we acknowledge that there is still much to be written. And let
it be written that we extended health care to everyone; that we
educated our children well and kept them safe; and that we rid our
communities of drugs.
As we owe this to our forbearers and to those who we now nurture, let
it also be written that we saw to it that the celebration of our
history, which was once compressed into 1 month, was finally woven into
the fabric of everyday American life.
We in the Congressional Black Caucus consider it our solemn duty to
keep this history, our history, alive, hopeful and full of the
greatness that is deserving of our people.
I thank the gentlewoman for the opportunity to say these few words.
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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Guam [Mr.
Underwood].
Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for this time. I
want to express my sincerest thanks for my colleagues, the gentleman
from Ohio, Representative Louis Stokes, and the gentlewoman from
California, Maxine Waters, for giving me the opportunity to participate
in this special order commemorating Black History Month. The trials and
tribulations of the African-American people stand as a needed reminder
of America's past and the promise of our future as a Nation. And while
the days of slavery and social segregation are over, our country
continues to face challenges engendered by racism and ignorance.
People from the Territories, the people of Guam, can certainly relate
to this disenfranchisement and discrimination when it comes to the
level of participation that we are granted within our own Federal
system. We do not have complete representation in the House of
Representatives, we do not have any representation in the Senate and we
do not even vote for the President.
Many years ago Joshua Fishman, the noted linguist, in writing about
ethnic relations in America, stated that other minorities in the 1960's
got the black disease. By implication this disease was the affliction
nonblack minorities contracted after black Americans became conscious
of their roots and justifiably defiant in their pride about their
origins and their many contributions to American society.
I am proud to say that I was afflicted with this so-called disease in
the 1960's, and that the efforts to raise awareness about black
Americans not only brought into appropriate line the perceptions and
the understandings of black Americans in American society but certainly
opened the society to issues surrounding other minorities in this
country.
In the context of American history, black heroes and she-roes, to
borrow a term from an earlier Speaker, are everyone's property. We all
share and we all take inspiration in and we are all motivated by the
statements and the actions of a Frederick Douglass, a Malcolm X, a
Martin Luther King, a Barbara Tubman or even a Maxine Waters.
I know this from my own personal growth as an individual from a
faraway island that has not been fully recognized for its contributions
and relationship to this Nation. And I know this from my own
intellectual growth and the efforts of my people in struggling with the
issues of identity and participation and citizenship, in its battle
with discrimination, racism and ignorance.
We have much to be grateful for in the commemoration of Black History
Month. All of us, black and white and all the colors, which make up the
fabric of our great social and political experiment which we label the
United States.
And we must be ever mindful of the fact that Black History Month is
more than the celebration of individuals who did well. It is the
commemoration of a people's struggle to be great despite all of the
odds laid before them. I take pride in that struggle, and the people of
Guam, I think, continue to be inspired by it.
I cannot emphasize strongly enough how much the civil rights movement
benefitted all other minority groups in the United States. And for the
people of Guam this meant a push for more self-government and a demand
for the resolution of injustices that have occurred throughout the
past.
We on Guam also want to celebrate Black History Month with our small
but vibrant black community. Several long-time black Guamanians have
influenced the community in very special ways.
Fred Jackson of Mangilao is a pioneer businessman on the island,
having opened the first black-owned business on Guam in the 1970's. His
wife, Dr. Marilyn Jackson, is a respected educator, having taught in
many of the island's public schools. And Mrs. Claudette McGhee is yet
another pioneer, having been one of the first equal employment
opportunity counselors on the island. I also want to finally draw
attention to the first black Guamanian Attorney General in the
government of Guam, Calvin Halloway, a long-time island resident and
good personal friend.
Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a great day when the entire Nation
recognizes the achievements and influence of black communities and
individual African-Americans throughout the United States of America. I
hope that our efforts in educating the public into embracing equality
and basic civil liberties will provide a base upon which we will
eventually triumph in our battle against racism and its accompanying
politics of division and destruction.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Guam [Mr.
Underwood] and I yield to the gentleman from the State of Georgia, the
Honorable John Lewis.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the
gentlewoman from California, Maxine Waters, for yielding me this time
and for calling this special order, along with the gentleman from Ohio,
Lou Stokes.
I want to thank Maxine Waters, our colleague, the new chairperson of
the Congressional Black Caucus, for her leadership, for her vision, for
bringing to the caucus a sense of vigor and vitality.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be here today to celebrate Black History
Month; to talk about the civil rights movement and all that it has
accomplished. Thirty-two years ago blacks in the South could not vote.
I could not vote. Blacks were not allowed in the same restaurant as
whites, the same hotels as whites. Blacks were not even allowed to
drink from the same water fountain as whites.
Growing up in rural Alabama, in the heart of the black belt, I grew
up surrounded by the signs that divided our world: white waiting,
colored waiting; white men, colored men; white women, colored women.
In the 1960's, during the movement, all of this changed. People from
all across our country, men and women, young and old, black and white,
red, yellow and brown, came to the South. They came to change the world
and they succeeded. We succeeded. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed our country. It changed our world. It
is a better place. It is a more inclusive place.
So it pains me today to hear people attack these laws. It pains me to
hear politicians say that these laws have done more to divide our
country than to unite it. These people do not know what they are
saying. They do not know how far we have come.
To those who say these laws do not work, I say ``Walk in my shoes.''
I have seen the progress. I have seen us grow as a Nation and as a
people. I have seen a poor black man, denied the right to vote, become
a Member of Congress because of these laws.
It is not the laws that divide, it is people who divide. It is
politicians playing the race card to win votes. It is politicians who
attack any solution to the racism that still exists in our society. It
is people who ignore the racism and attack those who offer solutions
and work to overcome the racism that is still with us.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we have made great progress as a Nation and as a
people. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act have made us
equal under the law, but we are still not equal. The scars and stain of
racism still plague our society.
We must speak up against those who see the world as rich against
poor, black against white, us against them. We have heard the political
speeches, seen the political ads. They fan the flames of racism, the
racism that burned dozens of black churches to the ground last year.
My colleagues, thanks to the civil rights movement, we are all equal
under the law. We have come a long way toward being in a country where
all men and women are created equal. We have come so far because of the
movement, because of the laws, not in spite of them.
It is time, Mr. Speaker, for us to speak openly about race. We must
redirect the priorities of our Nation. We must use our resources not to
divide but to bring together, not to tear down but to uplift, not to
oppress but to set free.
We, every one of us, have a moral obligation, a mission and a mandate
from the spirit of history, from our fallen martyrs, Martin Luther
King, Jr., Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey
Schwerner. We
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have an obligation to work for hope and opportunity for all, to build
upon the civil rights movement, to build upon its legacy which has
brought us here today.
Yes, Ms. Waters, as I said earlier, we are a better nation, a better
people because of the civil rights movement.
{time} 1600
We are in the process of laying down the burden of race, but we must
do more. We must continue to fight injustice wherever it rears its ugly
head. And we must continue to dialogue between all men and women of
good will. I thank the gentlewoman again for holding this special
order.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi].
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I am overwhelmed by the remarks of the
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis] and those of all of our other
colleagues who have spoken in tribute to Black History Month. I want to
thank the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] for having this
special order, more importantly for her incredible leadership on issues
of concern to our country, which as our colleague says, in promoting
civil rights and equal justice and equal economic opportunity, helps
make our country grow. So I thank you for that, Maxine, and to Mr.
Lewis, and I am tempted to call him chairman, I hope I will again, Lou
Stokes from Ohio for his great leadership over so many years in this
Congress and in our country.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today joining these distinguished leaders and
many others in the room to celebrate Black History Month and the
history of the civil rights struggle by remembering the life of a man
who dedicated his life to peace and civil rights, Dr. Carlton Goodlett,
physician, civil rights activist, newspaper publisher, champion of
world peace and San Franciscoan. Dr. Goodlett, who was 82 when he
passed away just this January 25, established his medical practice in
San Francisco in 1945 and also became an aggressive civil rights
advocate. He would associate himself with that characterization of
aggressive.
His role as president of the local branch of the NAACP represented
the start of a long and fruitful public service. Dr. Goodlett denounced
police brutality, demanded improvements in public housing, exposed the
exclusion of Jews and African-Americans from the draft boards in San
Francisco and often single-handedly demonstrated against restaurants
that refused to serve people of color.
In 1948, Dr. Goodlett joined with a partner to purchase The Reporter,
a community weekly newspaper which then overtook its competitor to
become the Sun Reporter. Perhaps you have heard of it. It is a very
famous newspaper in our area. Under Dr. Goodlett's stewardship, the Sun
Reporter became the main African-American newspaper in northern
California. Anybody who wanted to be involved in politics in our area
had to go see Dr. Goodlett, and he always, if not his endorsement,
always gave very good advice.
Dr. Goodlett juggled many activities and passions but never dropped a
ball. In addition to his achievements in medicine, publishing and civil
rights activism, he also placed himself directly at the forefront of
liberal causes with his activity in the Democratic Party. Are we
allowed to say the Democratic Party on the floor of the House? Is that
partisan?
In 1950 he joined with my predecessor, the great Representative
Phillip Burton, in founding the San Francisco Young Democrats. He put
his heart into supporting the campaigns of candidates he believed in,
like Phillip Burton, John Burton and Willie Brown, our current mayor of
San Francisco.
On Friday, we all participated in Dr. Goodlett's memorial service.
Three generations at least of Californians and Americans were present
there. It was a joy to see the elderly join with the young people and
talk about how they had received hope from Dr. Goodlett. They joined
our distinguished colleague, Congressman Dellums, who gave the eulogy
and summed it up with his usual eloquence when he stated, ``Carlton had
zero tolerance for injustice * * * And he helped me understand that I
am not only a citizen of the Bay Area or the United States. I was a
citizen of the world. Now, I look and wonder, where are the new
Carltons? Who will rise to take his place?''
Dr. Goodlett's presence was deeply felt. His absence will be felt
equally. He was a man who did many things, all of them well. As we
celebrate Black History Month, we need look no further for inspiration
than Dr. Carlton Goodlett. He was a renaissance man who mobilized the
intellectual resources of his area to fight for civil rights. He was a
healer, a mentor, a courageous leader, an activist and advocate and
truly a citizen of the world. As the world will mourn his loss, we must
remember that he is an inspiration to us all.
He was famous in our area. We have other inspirations, maybe not so
famous in their own right. One of them that I would like to recognize
today is Louise Stokes, mother of her namesake Louis Stokes, because
she must have been a very remarkable woman. I have heard our colleague
Lou Stokes talk about his mother with great pride and affection, but we
know how great she must have been to have produced such a magnificent
son, Congressman, chairman and another son Carl Stokes, mayor, judge
and ambassador, representing our great country abroad. Carl had passed
away within the last year and it was a tremendous loss again to all of
us, but Louise Stokes is as much an inspiration and as much a leader in
the fight for civil rights and justice in our country because of her
role as mother in the civil rights movement.
I mentioned that Carlton Goodlett was a leader in the NAACP, and I
was so pleased to see our former colleague Kweisi Mfume, the president
of the NAACP now, here in the Chamber this afternoon. He indeed is also
another answer to the question, who will take Carlton's place.
As we look around and see our colleagues serving in this House from
the African-American community, we can be encouraged that the future is
bright and, as our colleague Mr. Lewis so eloquently said, that you
will all help to grow our great Nation.
With that, I once again want to commend Congressman Waters not only
for calling this special order but for your leadership, most recently
your speech that you made that was on TV at least three times yesterday
talking about our budget priorities in our country and providing the
kind of leadership that we truly will need so that the hope and the
dream of hope will be kept alive for all Americans, regardless of
color. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this special order.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman from California.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee].
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the gentlewoman from California for
yielding, and I thank her for her leadership in drawing us together and
following and lifting up both the par excellence leadership of my
friend and colleague, the honorable Lou Stokes. I hope he will allow me
to do so inasmuch as it gives me a boost up in terms of youth, but I
know he will challenge that, that I had the privilege to be tutored by
him as a member of the congressional staff of which he was a leader on
the Select Committee on Assassinations. So a long time I had the
opportunity to watch this gentle giant move in the U.S. Congress.
This is a special day, and, Congresswoman Waters, as I indicated, I
am gratified to join my colleagues for this important occasion to
commemorate black history, African-American history, to raise it up,
not only as a history of a people of which I certainly am a part of,
but to raise it up as a commemoration that should be part of the entire
United States of America.
I am honored to have this opportunity to speak to the American public
during this time that we have set aside to celebrate the enormous
accomplishments of African-Americans in the United States. I must say
that 2 minutes do not do justice to the enormous contribution given to
our Nation by African-Americans, but I am gratified of the kindness of
the gentlewoman to allow us to spill over.
I am thrilled to stand here on the floor of the House as an American
and as an African-American Member of Congress. I am able to stand
today, Mr. Speaker, because other brave African-
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Americans stood boldly before me. That is one of the challenges that I
offer this afternoon, as the theme becomes a reappraisal to not forget
from whence we have come, to never forget that no matter what party you
are in, no matter how you may have thought you have achieved, you could
not have achieved without the blood and sweat and tears of those who
marched before us.
The theme, as I have said, is a reappraisal of the civil rights
movement. I want to use my time to herald the accomplishments and
contributions of African-American men and women in all facets of our
Nation's history.
I can think of no better time than now to let the American people
know that it was 126 years ago that the first speech ever delivered by
an African-American Representative on the floor of the House of
Representatives was given by Jefferson Franklin Long of Georgia on
February 1, 1871. He also had the unique distinction of being the first
black Congressperson elected from Georgia.
Representative Long probably did not know that in February, 126 years
later, we would be informing the American people of his name in honor
of his novel achievement. One can only imagine the pride of this former
slave as he stood to deliver his speech to his fellow Members of
Congress. When he stood he spoke for black people all across America.
How proud they were in this period of reconstruction after the
Emancipation Proclamation to have someone speak for them.
The subject of his speech centered on his opposition to an alteration
of the oath of office for former Confederates who sought to have their
political rights restored. Congressman Jefferson Franklin Long set the
stage for African-Americans to take their rightful place here on the
floor of the House of Representatives, to proclaim to the world their
concerns for themselves and the good of the American public.
The voice of Jefferson Franklin Long of Georgia will resound
throughout this Chamber for as long as this Chamber exists. It will be
a challenge to each and every one of us to recognize that we must never
forget from whence we have come. We must always speak for the people
that we represent, even though it may be a hard and difficult position
to be in. Those who follow in his footsteps continue the spirit of his
first breath here on the floor of the House of Representatives. We in
spirit echo his voice.
As I take my place here on the floor of the battlefield of democracy
to debate the pressing issues that affect every American, I am reminded
of the courage that it took for Congressman Long to be the first
African-American to speak on this floor. In part it was his courage
that today gives me courage to speak on the floor today.
As a female African-American in Congress, I must pause and pay
tribute to the African-American woman in whose giant footsteps I now
follow. The Halls of Congress were once graced with the presence of
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who was an African-American woman of many
firsts: The first Representative of the then newly created 11th State
Senatorial District in Texas, the first African-American to be elected
to the Texas Senate since 1883, the first African-American woman ever
to be elected to the Texas Senate, the first African-American to serve
as the Speaker pro tem of the Texas Senate, the first African-American
to serve as Governor for a day in Texas, and the first African-American
of the then newly created 18th Congressional District.
As I come to a close, let me point now to the pride that I have in
the 18th Congressional District, in Houston, and the State of Texas.
First of all we practice and celebrate Juneteenth. That means that yes,
we learned of our freedom some 2 years later, but now we have come of
age and no one bows their head about celebrating Juneteenth. We are
proud to be able to say we learned our freedom in 1865, but we have
never, never looked back.
In keeping with the mind of that spirit, let me salute these
organizations that have brought about young people and given them the
self-esteem that allowed them never to forget their history: The Martin
Luther King Center in the 18th Congressional District; Shake Community
Center in the 18th Congressional District; the PABA that works with
young men who, yes, they want to put on a boxing glove and not put a
knife in their hand; and the NAACP, whose first secretary was Christie
Adair, a strong and valiant woman; and the Akers Home Citizens Chamber
of Commerce that brings about individuals in the Akers Home and all
over the city who are interested in economic development.
Certainly let me say that the President called us to challenge
education and to have that to be the clarion call. Here is my
reappraisal of the civil rights movement as we go forward. It is to
challenge African-Americans to remember that now we must do a lot of
this ourselves, not go it alone but do a lot of this ourselves.
As endowments are being created all over this Nation by the likes of
Texas A&M, Harvard, and Yale, where are we with supporting our
educational institutions? I call upon you today to recognize that each
of us must support our traditionally black colleges. Why not give
$1,000 a year to some college that you support? Why not recognize that
in this time of reappraisal we must stand up to the call, we must
support education, we must ensure that our young people have the
opportunity. Where are you? I hope you are listening.
Finally, as I said, I am glad to join Congresswoman Waters to be
assured that we celebrate black history in a manner that it should be,
recognition, commemoration, celebration but also a reassessment and an
acceptance of the challenge that we must stand up to the bar. I come to
renew my commitment to say that I will not allow institutions to fall,
I will support them in the future, and certainly most of all I will be
a supporter of our traditionally black colleges and ask all America to
support me as well.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have this opportunity to speak to the
American public during this time that we have set aside to celebrate
the enormous accomplishments of African-Americans in the United States.
I must say that 2 minutes do not do justice to the enormous
contributions given to our Nation by African-Americans.
I am thrilled to stand here on the House floor as an American and as
an African-American Member of Congress. I am able to stand today, Mr.
Speaker, because other brave African-Americans stood boldly before me.
The theme of this years celebration of black history month is
African-Americans and Civil Rights: A Reappraisal.
I want to use my time to herald the accomplishments and contributions
of African-American men and women in all facets of our Nation's
history.
I can think of no better time than now to let the American people
know that it was 126 years ago, that the first speech ever delivered by
an African-American Representative on the floor of the House of
Representatives was given by Jefferson Franklin Long of Georgia on
February 1, 1871.
He also had the unique distinction of being the first black
Congressman elected from Georgia.
Representative Long probably did not know that in February, 126 years
later, we would be informing the American people of his name in honor
of his novel achievement.
One can only imagine the pride of this former slave as he stood to
deliver his speech to his fellow Members of Congress. When he stood, he
spoke for black people all across America.
The subject of his speech centered on his opposition to an alteration
of the oath of office for former confederates who sought to have their
political rights restored.
Congressman Jefferson Franklin Long set the stage for African-
Americans to take their rightful place here on the floor of the House
of Representatives to proclaim to the world their concerns for
themselves and the good of the American public.
The voice of Jefferson Franklin Long of Georgia will resound
throughout this Chamber for as long as this Chamber exists. Those who
follow in his footsteps continue the spirit of his first breath here on
the floor of the House of Representatives. We, in spirit echo his
voice.
As I take my place here on the floor of the battlefield of democracy
to debate the pressing issues that affect every American, I am reminded
of the courage that it took for Congressman Long to be the first
African-American to speak on this floor.
In part, it was his courage that today, gives me courage to speak on
the floor today.
As a female African-American in Congress, I must pause and pay
tribute to the African-American woman in whose giant footsteps I now
walk.
The Halls of Congress were once graced with the presence of
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan who was an African-American woman of many
firsts:
[[Page H427]]
The first Representative of the then newly created 11th State
Senatorial District in Texas;
The first African-American to be elected to the Texas State senate
since 1883;
The first African-American woman ever to be elected to the Texas
State senate;
The first African-American to serve as the Speaker pro tempore of the
Texas Senate;
The first African-American to serve as Governor for a day in Texas;
and
The first Representative of the then newly created 18th Congressional
District.
This month in which we celebrate black history, let us remember the
awesomeness of those that have come before us and renew our commitment
to build on their strong foundation on which we stand.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman from Texas. I yield to the
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Jackson].
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this
time, in light of the reality that this special order will shortly be
coming to an end and with the knowledge that before this month will
have concluded, I will have had three special orders through which I
will specifically address issues of concern to black history.
While there are those of us who would suggest that the civil rights
movement, and it was a crucible in our history, our history in this
Nation dating from 1619, and every facet of American life during these
special orders will be explored.
{time} 1615
The first of these special orders, Mr. Speaker, will be this coming
Thursday, and it will be an indepth look at our criminal justice system
and the role which African-Americans have played. I have entitled this
particular special order O.J. and Race Entertainment. But I want to
take just a minute or so, and a minute is about all that I will need,
to pay homage to a particular Member of Congress who finds himself
sitting in the House Chamber on this occasion.
I was born, as a matter of African-American history, on March 11,
1965. On March 7, 1965, in our history it is known as bloody Sunday. It
is the Sunday that the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], Martin
Luther King, Jr., and Jesse Jackson and many others in our history
walked across the Edmond Pettis Bridge for the right to vote. Because
of the struggle that they engaged in in 1965, I now stand here as the
91st African-American to ever have the privilege of serving in the U.S.
Congress. The gentlewoman from California [Ms. Millender-McDonald] has
the privilege of being the 92d, and the gentleman from Maryland [Mr.
Cummings], the 93d.
Because of a struggle that our foreparents engaged in, it made it
possible for us to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives to
represent disenfranchised and locked-out groups, whether they are
African-American or whether they are white or Asian-American or Anglo-
American. So, while we will reflect upon the contribution of those who
have come before us to make it possible for us to serve, each and every
one of us as African-Americans in this institution.
Mr. Speaker, as women in this institution, as Asian-Americans and
Latino-Americans in this institution, we owe a tremendous debt of
gratitude to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis] and others who made
it possible for us to serve.
And so these are some of the contexts that we will place over the
course of this month as we look at our history and as we look at the
racial debate in our country, as we move from O.J. Simpson to race
entertainment and what race entertainment has really done and taken us
off of the course of civil rights and fairness for all Americans. I am
particularly honored on this occasion to thank Congressman Lewis for
making it possible for me to serve in the U.S. House of
Representatives.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms.
Furse].
Ms. FURSE. You know, as a former South African, I have seen great
history made, history made by people who refuse to bow down to the
horrors of apartheid, and with many of my colleagues in 1994 in
Pretoria, South Africa, we saw the wonder of President Mandela taking
the oath of office of President of South Africa; finally, a just South
Africa.
Mr. Speaker, history is made by people, by individual people, black
history is made by black people, black individuals, and I want to speak
today of one of those individuals who makes history every day in my
community. Her name is Ruby Haughton. Ruby was the first African-
American to be named vice president of a large bank in Oregon, the U.S.
Bank. This position would be consuming enough to fill any life, but for
Ruby it is just a start. She is a national figure in the fight against
diabetes. Her passion for a cure and better treatment for this
devastating disease is fueled by her love and admiration for her mother
who suffers from diabetes. I understand that passion, as my beloved
daughter Amanda suffers with diabetes.
Ruby Haughton has been named to the prestigious National Institutes
of Health, the board that oversees grants for diabetes research. She
chairs the cultural diversity committee of the American Diabetes
Association. Ruby is a member of the Urban League of Portland, the
NAACP Portland branch and serves on the United Negro College Fund
advisory board of directors.
Ruby Haughton is a role model. Her two sons have been guided by her
passion for justice, community service, and personal responsibility.
But Ruby's influence must not just touch those who know her, she is far
too valuable. She deserves to be recognized for her accomplishments so
that all, all of our sons and daughters, can learn from her dedication.
She is talented, beautiful, humorous, deeply spiritual, unyielding in
her commitment to public service, and unlike so many who are quick to
criticize, to judge others, Ruby has neither the time nor the interest
in pointing her finger at people. She is too busy extending her hand to
help them.
Mr. Speaker, it is an honor for me to count myself as a friend of
this great lady.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Oregon. I yield
to the gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Meek].
Mrs. MEEK of Florida. To my esteemed chairwoman and to my good
colleague, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes], we owe both of you a
debt of gratitude for giving us this opportunity. I want to thank you,
and I want to thank everyone in this great country of ours, especially
black Americans who helped to build this country and are now waiting
and hoping that justice and freedom will come to everyone.
Certainly the history of people of African descent is interwoven, Mr.
Speaker, with the history of America. Since the first Americans arrived
on what is now American soil, black Americans have played an important
part in the development of this great Nation.
I want to limit my remarks this afternoon to selective passages from
historic speeches from black Americans, and I have chosen quite a few.
I will mention them to you, but because of time constraints I will only
quote two or three of them.
First is a Congressman, Robert B. Elliott, who came to this Congress,
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and the
Reverend Jesse Jackson. They are some of my heroes; I have many of
them, but they are included, and I want to, as I stand here this
afternoon, think about Congressman Robert Elliott. He was one of the 22
African-Americans to serve in Congress during Reconstruction.
His last term in Congress was highlighted by his eloquent support of
a civil rights bill designed to secure equality for and prohibit
discrimination against African-Americans in all public places. This is
what Congressman Elliott said, and I can imagine that each of us could
perhaps give this speech now, and I quote him:
I regret at this day it is necessary that I should rise in
the presence of an American Congress to advocate a bill which
simply asserts equal rights and equal public privileges for
all classes of American citizens. I regret, sir, that the
dark hue of my skin may lend a color to the imputation that I
am controlled by motives personal to myself in my advocacy of
this great measure of national justice. Sir, the motive that
impels me is restricted by no such narrow boundary but is as
broad as your Constitution. I advocate it because it is
right. The bill, however, not only appeals to your sense of
justice, but it demands a sense of response from your
attitude.
In the end, after a long and very passionate speech, Congressman
Elliott's bill was defeated, but he stands in my
[[Page H428]]
memory today as fighting the same fight that we are trying to fight
here.
And I mention Shirley Chisholm. You know her very well. She is still
alive. Those of you who are as old as I am call her ``Fighting
Shirley,'' but now she is in Florida. She worked very hard for Head
Start. Well, Shirley Chisholm was a great heroine, and she still is. I
will not quote from any of her speeches because of time constraints,
but I do want you to know that Congresswoman Chisholm went on to really
chastise the Congress to say, it was Calvin Coolidge, I believe, who
said that the business of America is business, and she went on to sort
of challenge them for spending so much money on things that certainly
were not for the benefit of the social significance of black Americans.
And of course I choose Frederick Douglass as well. Most of you know
the work of Frederick Douglass who was an abolitionist, but he
contributed a lot because he was very active politically in the fight
for justice in America. A very intelligent man, he called upon America
to make the Constitution its mandate in making its righteous laws. And
Frederick Douglass said:
If liberty, with us, is yet but a name, our citizenship is
but a sham, and our suffrage thus far only a cruel mockery,
we may yet congratulate ourselves upon the fact, that the
laws and institutions of the country are sound, just and
liberal. There is hope for a people when their laws are
righteous.
Frederick Douglass went on to say:
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.
That is why we are all here today. We do not believe, as we
are often told, that we are the ugly child of a national
family, and the more we are kept out of sight the better it
will be. You know that liberty given is never as precious as
liberty fought.
My next hero is Malcolm X. It is shown Malcolm was another great
black voice. He was a strong leader with a very revolutionary cause,
and in his December 31, 1964, speech to a delegation of Mississippi
youth Malcolm encouraged these young African-Americans to think for
themselves, to recognize their enemies, and to be assured that they
were not standing alone.
And Brother Malcolm said, one of the first things I think young
people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself
and listen for yourself and think for yourself. And he went on with
this elegance to the end of a farewell and constructive speech.
My last hero as I move along, and I am not forgetting Martin Luther
King or any of the greats, but I choose Rev. Jesse Jackson. I am a
great advocate and a great lover of Rev. Jesse Jackson because he is a
world famous Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and political
leader. I followed him from his first time in politics as he ran for
the President of this country. Reverend Jackson said:
We must continue to dream, but the dream of 1963 must be
expanded to meet the realities of these times.
Incidentally, the Reverend Jackson told me that our chairwoman, the
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters], had a lot of input in his
speech for that particular convention.
We must dream new dreams, according to Jesse, expand the horizons of
our dreams and remove any ceiling or barrier that would limit our
legitimate aspirations. Democracy at its best provides a floor for
everyone but imposes limits upon no one. The sky is the limit. Let us
continue to dream.
Reverend Jackson went on to say, 20 years ago we came to this
hallowed ground of the Lincoln Memorial as a rainbow coalition to
demand our freedom. Twenty years later, we have our freedom, our civil
rights. On our way to Washington today we did not have to stop at a
friend's house or a church to eat or use the bathroom. Apartheid is
over. But 20 years later, we still do not have equality. We have moved
in. Now we must move up.
I was fortunate enough to have participated with Reverend Jackson at
that time.
Twenty years ago, he said, we were stripped of our dignity. Twenty
years later we are stripped of our share of power. The absence of
segregation is not the presence of social justice or equality.
And that is the end of Reverend Jackson's quote.
I am privileged to be here to thank you and Mr. Stokes for holding
this special order so we can share with America the richness of our
heritage and the richness of our history.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman from Florida.
Mr. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this year as we observe Black
History Month we should reflect on the all-out attack that has occurred
on civil rights, voting rights, and affirmative action programs. We
need to renew our commitment to progress on these political fronts. We
have witnessed the Hopwood case in Texas, the attack on affirmative
action, as well as a number of majority-minority districts being found
unconstitutional and ordered to be redrawn by State legislatures. This
happened in my district, the Third Congressional District of Florida,
as well as districts represented by Representative Sanford Bishop,
Representative Cynthia McKinney, Representative Eva Clayton,
Representative Melvin Watt, and just late last week Representative
Bobby Scott, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Representative
Eddie Bernice Johnson. To say the least, the past 2 years have indeed
been hostile.
I, and others, would not have the privilege of serving in Washington
today, if it were not for the courage and sacrifice of those great
leaders who led the way. The progress we, as a race, have made could
not have occurred without the groundwork having been laid by great
African-Americans like former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall,
educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, tennis great Arthur Ashe, poet Zora
Neale Hurston, Gwen Cherry, Mary Singleton, and James Weldon Johnson,
composer of the Negro National Anthem.
Let me share with you a little information about Florida's first
Member of Congress. In 1879, Josiah Wells was first elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives from Gainesville, but his election was
challenged and he lost his seat after only 2 months in office. However,
by that time, he had already been reelected to a new term. Believe it
or not, his next term was challenged after ballots were burned in a
courthouse fire. And, thus ended the congressional career of Florida's
first black Representative.
Once Reconstruction began, 21 black Congressmen were elected in the
South between 1870 and 1901. Following 1901, Jim Crow tightened his
grip and it took over for 70 years before another black person would be
elected to Congress in the South.
For the first 100 years of American's history, African-Americans did
not have the right to vote because they were enslaved. Eventually the
Constitution was amended to change the status of blacks from three-
fifths of a person to a whole person. Following the Civil War,
some African-Americans were able to exercise their right to vote but
this lasted for only a brief time. After Reconstruction, things
actually worsened and Jim Crow ruled the South. The civil rights
movement exploded because African-Americans were fed up with living as
second-class citizens in America, ``home of democracy.''
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and numerous others, sacrificed their
lives to have the Voting Rights Act passed into law in 1965. It has,
however, taken almost 30 years to implement in the South. The initial
reason majority-minority districts were redrawn was because of a long
history of violations of the Voting Rights Act.
Following the 1996 congressional elections, many journalists reported
that the fact that myself, Cynthia McKinney, Eva Clayton, Melvin Watt,
Eddie Bernice Johnson, and Sanford Bishop won reelection proved that
blacks no longer needed majority-minority districts to be elected to
Congress. Therefore, as majority-minority districts continue to be
challenged, it is important that we not lose sight of the fact that had
it not been for the creation of majority-minority districts through
voting rights remedies, it is very likely that many Members of the
freshman class of 1992 would not have been elected. Keep in mind it
took 120 years before Florida elected another African-American to
Congress.
As African-Americans continue to make progress in education,
business, and government, there will continue to be attacks. It is
important that we continue to press ahead because there are still
people who would like to turn back the hands of time and return
African-Americans to the back of the political bus. Congress now more
closely resembles America than it has in the past.
Furthermore, it is important that African-Americans continue to fight
for their right to vote for a candidate of their choice, civil rights,
and for affirmative action programs that help promote diversity in the
workplace. It is important that we continue to support affirmative
action programs because they give qualified minorities and women the
opportunity to work in professions they, historically, had not been
represented in. While we have made gains, there is still a long way to
go.
As we approach the new millennium, it is crucial that young African-
American children are prepared and able to walk across that bridge to
the 21st century.
[[Page H429]]
Mr. COYNE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with great enthusiasm to join in
this special order to observe and celebrate Black History Month. Black
History Month provides Americans with an important opportunity to
educate ourselves and our children about the many important
contributions that African-Americans have made to our country. The
annual observation of Black History Month should also remind us that
the legacy of America's greatest tragedy--more than 300 years of
slavery and the racial discrimination that was used to justify it--
remains with us and must continue to be addressed.
I want to thank Representatives Louis Stokes and Maxine Waters for
organizing this special order today. This special order has become an
annual event. It allows Members of Congress to pay tribute to the many
African-Americans who have had prominent roles in our country's
history. It allows us to recognize, understand, and appreciate the
unique nature of the African-American experience in our history. And it
allows us to celebrate African-American accomplishments in the arts,
sciences, education, business, and politics that have made our country
immeasurably richer and more diverse.
Black History Month was the creation of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a
noted African-American historian and educator. Dr. Woodson established
the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History in 1915
to encourage greater appreciation for the many contributions that
African-Americans have made to this country. Dr. Woodson subsequently
created Negro History Week as a vehicle for advancing this goal, and
this event, which has evolved into Black History Month, has been
observed annually since its inception in 1926. Each year the
Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History selects a
common issue or theme for consideration during Black History Month.
This year, the association has chosen ``African Americans and Civil
Rights: A Reappraisal'' as its theme. I think that the association has
chosen a most timely and important topic. The history of the United
States can perhaps best be interpreted as the history of a people's
long and often painful struggle to provide the greatest possible
experience of civil rights to the largest majority of its citizens. In
our pursuit of a more perfect union, we have repeatedly had to broaden
the eligibility for membership in that union and to define more
perfectly the rights that accrue to its members. A serious reappraisal
of our current civil rights policies requires that we look at where we
started and how far we have come as well as what we may need to do in
the future. I will attempt to provide my own evaluation of the civil
rights struggle here today.
While the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill
of Rights represented a remarkable advance in democratic self-
government--the likes of which the world had never seen before--the
society that the early Republic erected around them had a number of
major shortcomings. The most glaring and horrifying of these
shortcomings was of course slavery.
The next major expansion in civil rights came as a result of the
Civil War--slavery was abolished by the 13th amendment, and the 14th
amendment to the Constitution was ratified in an attempt to guarantee
African-Americans the rights of full citizenship. These constitutional
changes, significant and well-intentioned though they were, failed in
the end to deliver on their promote of equal rights for all Americans.
Despite the temporary gains achieved during the Reconstruction period,
African-Americans continued to suffer the ill effects of
discrimination, segregation, political disenfranchisement, and--in many
parts of the country--outright violence. African-Americans were
consistently and systematically denied their civil rights for another
100 years after the abolition of slavery.
World War II marked the beginning of the modern struggle to deliver
on the promise of equal rights for African-Americans. In the Civil War,
African-Americans had served in large numbers in the Union Army in
order to prove their merit and buttress their demands for equality.
After some initial and temporary successes, their hopes were dashed.
Eighty years later, their descendants still faced discrimination and
segregation in the Armed Forces as the United States fought to preserve
our own imperfect freedom. Conscious of this glaring inconsistency, the
Pentagon began desegregating the military on a trial basis during the
war, and President Truman ordered that the Armed Forces be desegregated
in 1948.
After the war, the NAACP began an effort to expand civil rights for
African-Americans through a series of court challenges. This strategy
proved extremely successful in expanding educational and residential
opportunities for African-Americans. At the same time, African-
Americans brought their civil rights struggle to the attention of the
rest of America by directly confronting many of the existing Jim Crow
laws. African-American leaders contrasted the accomplishments of
African-American servicemen during the war with the discrimination that
they still faced at home. Other brave African-Americans risked arrest,
imprisonment, and physical violence to challenge such laws. Rosa Parks
refusal to abide by such laws in 1955 led to the Montgomery, AL, bus
boycott--the first mass protest by blacks in the South. In subsequent
years, sit-ins, boycotts, and freedom rides provided important tools
for illustrating the need for new civil rights laws.
As the civil rights movement grew and became more successful in the
early 1960's, many white Americans began to reconsider their own
attitudes about race. Many concluded that Federal action was necessary.
As a result of the civil rights movement--and after lengthy and often
acrimonious debate--Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
prohibited racial discrimination and called for equal opportunity in
employment and education, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which
banned poll taxes and provided Federal supervision of voter
registration and elections in places where African-Americans had
previously been denied the right to vote. In 1968, Congress passed the
Fair Housing Act at the President's request. This legislation
prohibited racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.
These three bills effectively abolished most State and local laws that
supported discrimination and segregation.
The experience of these previous generations, however, has affected
the current generation as well-decades of discrimination have left many
African-Americans today convinced that many opportunities are still
denied to them. This perception is not without justification. The long
history of racial discrimination in this country has also produced a
situation today where many African-Americans start life with fewer
resources and further to go than many equally capable white Americans.
It seems inconceivable to me that we could step back today and say
seriously say that racism and discrimination have been eliminated from
our society. While the legal foundation of discrimination and
segregation has been obliterated, racism and discrimination--as well as
the legacy of generations of racism and discrimination--are still
pervasive in our society. African-Americans still face civil rights
problems like discrimination, police abuse, and an unreliable system of
justice. Consequently, the civil rights struggle must go on. And we
still need affirmative action. I thank Representatives Stokes and
Waters and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and
History for providing us with a forum and a stimulus for discussing
this painful but important issue.
Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join with my colleagues in
this special order celebrating Black History Month. It is truly a
magnificent history--an heroic history if you will. I thought I would
take this opportunity to say a few words about a remarkable chapter in
that history which is being retrieved and returned to us by a dedicated
band of preservationists in Massachusetts.
That chapter concerns the African Meeting House of Nantucket--once a
church, a meeting hall and a school for children prevented from
attending public school because of their race.
The one-room meeting house was built in the 1820's, and is one of the
oldest standing structures of its kind in the United States. It
embodies a rich history. When the meeting house was built, Nantucket
was a center of a whaling industry in which blacks played an integral
part. Among the whaling ships that set sail from the island was the
Industry, with a black captain named Absalom Boston and an all-black
crew. Absalom Boston later became one of the four trustees of the
African Baptist Church which was to become known as the African Meeting
House.
Absalom Boston's grandfather was a slave name Prince Boston, who took
a whaling voyage in 1770. At the end of the voyage, Prince Boston's
white master demanded that he turn over his earnings. With the help of
a white shipmate, Prince Boston went to court and won his earnings and
his freedom, became the first slave set free by a jury verdict. That
year, Nantucket freed its slaves, 13 years before the rest of
Massachusetts followed suit.
In 1845, the daughter of one of the founders of the meeting house
went to court to demand admission to the public high school, and the
next year Nantucket became one of the first districts in the country to
desegrate its schools. With its strong Quaker tradition, the island
became a stronghold of abolitionist sentiment. It was there that
Frederick Douglass delivered his first public address before a mixed-
race audience.
Once the public schools had been integrated, the meeting house ceased
to operate as a school, but continued to function as a vital
institution in the community. In 1910 the meeting house was sold to the
owner of a trucking business and eventually it fell into disrepair.
Now, thanks to the efforts of the Friends of the African Meeting House
and the Museum of Afro American History, this extraordinary landmark is
due to open to the
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public in 1998. I can think of no more fitting commemoration of Black
History Month, and I commend all of those who have brought this project
to fruition. I yield back my time.
Mrs. KENNELLY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, one of our great blessings
as a nation is our extraordinary cultural diversity. This varied
heritage makes the mosaic of American life one of unparalleled richness
and beauty. And a key part of that mosaic is our African-American
heritage, which we honor and celebrate each February during Black
History Month.
No area of American accomplishment or achievement has remained
untouched by African-Americans. Educators like Johnetta Cole open
minds. Entrepreneurs like Earl Graves create successful businesses.
Jurists like Leon Higginbotham protect our rights. And astronauts like
Mae Jemison explore the very nature of our universe.
Thie year, Black History Month's theme is ``African Americans and
Civil Rights--A Reappraisal.'' Today, as our Nation struggles to
redefine its commitment to affirmative action and to ensure that all
Americans enjoy equal opportunity, we have the chance to reflect on how
far we have come and to judge how far we have yet to go. But even as we
honor those whose courage and leadership in the cause of equal rights
made their names familiar to every American, we should also recognize
those who may not be as well known, but who nonetheless have served
well.
Such a man was John Stewart, Sr., who was active in the civil rights
movement in my own city of Hartford, CT, beginning in the 1920's. He
was an original member of the Hartford Independent Political Club,
founded in 1928 to advance the political interests of Hartford's
African-American community. In the 1950's, he founded the Citizens
Community of the North End. In the late 1960's, he became active in
High Noon, a group that reached out from the African-American community
to other civic and business organizations. Through it all, he worked
with the NAACP and the Urban League. This grandson of a slave lived to
see his son become majority leader of the Hartford City Council and the
city's first African-American fire chief.
But remarkable as he is, he is just one of many extraordinarily
talented individuals who worked in the early days of the civil rights
struggle in Connecticut. Collin Bennett, entrepreneur and minister, was
the first Caribbean American to be elected to the Hartford City
Council. At the University of Connecticut, law professor John Brittain
has become a national expert on civil rights law. The late State
senator Wilber Smith was an eloquent champion of equality and justice
who helped Connecticut become the first State to adopt enterprise zone
legislation for urban centers. Arthur Johnson, the first executive
director of Hartford's Human Relations Commission, presently serves on
the Hartford Inquirer's editorial page, his social commentary as
insightful as ever. The late Isabelle Blake, a longtime proponent of
elementary education and welfare rights, was one of the founders of the
Connecticut African-American Day parade. And Elizabeth Horton Sheff, a
former member of the Hartford City Council, continues to blaze trails:
along with her son Milo, she is leading the quest for equal educational
opportunity and better schools for Connecticut students.
Mr. Speaker, American history contains few chapters as inspiring and
uplifting as our Nation's struggle to achieve full civil rights for its
African-American citizens. The pioneers of the civil rights movement
led all of us not only to a more just society, but also to a better
understanding of what America was truly intended to be. The enormous
debt we owe them should be remembered, not only during Black History
Month, but throughout the year. And the best way to honor them is to
continue their struggle. Thank you very much.
Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, in honor of National Black History Month, I
rise today to pay special tribute to the African-American people, both
past and present, who have made American a better place to live. it is
because of their tremendous sacrifice and faith, as well as their
educational, economical, and social contributions, that helped make the
United States of America the leader of the world.
Our Nation owes its African-American citizen a debt it can never
repay. During the Revolutionary War, African-American patriots fought
and died defending the civil rights described in the U.S. Constitution
before they were allowed to enjoy these rights themselves. In every war
since then, African-American people have fought and died with the
utmost valor and courage, yet without equal protection under the law.
The segregation of U.S. military troops is just one example in a long
line of injustices perpetrated against African-Americans in our
Nation's history.
Our country learned invaluable lessons from the African-American
people who led the civil rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's to
eliminate racial barriers. As a schoolteacher, I will never forget
hearing Thurgood Marshall speak after the winning the Brown versus
Board of Education Supreme Court decision which declared separate but
equal was unconstitutional. His work helped open up our schools so
children of all races can learn and grow up together. And I was never
so proud than seeing Ms. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on
that bus in Montgomery, AL. Or watching James Meredith's courageous
efforts in desegregating the University of Mississippi.
Every day I try to live by the principles set forth by one of the
greatest leaders in history, Martin Luther King, Jr. His teachings of
tolerance and nonviolence profoundly changed America. It was the
contributions of these great African-Americans, and millions of others,
that made out country realize that we can be a better nation and that
we must work to end racial bigotry.
As a member of the Michigan State Legislature, I introduced the very
first Open Housing Act which outlawed housing discrimination in
Michigan. In my 32 years in public office, I have consistently voted in
favor of civil rights legislation because I believe out country must
grant every person an equal chance to succeed in America. And while we
have made significant progress in eliminating racial discrimination in
our country, there is no question we still have a ways to go. During
this month of observance of Black History Month, let us rededicate
ourselves to eliminating discrimination against all people so our
country can reach its full potential, and America can truly be the
beacon of light for the world.
Mr. WYNN Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate the history and culture of
African-American people this month, let us pauses to pay tribute to
someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for the ``first'' he
provided us. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's
integration of major league baseball. He was the first African-American
allowed to play on a major league team--the Brooklyn Dodgers--with
white athletes. A Pasadena, CA, native, he effectively paved the way
for African-Americans to be active participants in professional sports.
More importantly, his actions on and off the baseball diamond have
served as an example for confronting racial hypocrisy in this country
and beyond. The dignity with which he handled racism among his
teammates, fans, hotels, and restaurants stirred the conscience of
America and held people accountable for their actions. Beyond
establishing the black man's right to play baseball, he transcended
racial barriers and proved that mutual respect is an essential element
of sportsmanship. He was not only an athlete, but a person that truly
earned the title of role model. His name continues to live on through
the Jackie Robinson Foundation, established by Rachael Robinson in 1973
for the purpose of developing the leadership potential of minority and
urban youth.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
recognition of Black History Month.
Since 1976, Americans have celebrated, in the month of February, the
accomplishments and heritage of African-Americans. Brought here as
slaves, shackled, and beaten, African-Americans now represent 12
percent of the U.S. population, approximately 30 million. Despite many
obstacles and hurdles, this large group has made significant
achievements in the building and shaping of America.
Most African-Americans have on their list of movers and shakers
Crispus Attucks, the first man to die in the Boston Massacre of 1770;
Harriet Tubman, the leader of the Underground Railroad; Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., a drum major for justice; and Rosa Parks, the mother
of the civil rights movement. And, the list goes on.
But, if we stop and reflect on where we have gone since the marches
and sit-ins and boycotts of the 1960's, have we really gone far?
Despite African-American contributions to society, African-Americans
are still not fully recognized for their worth and potential to this
Nation. This is ironically portrayed by the title ``Black History
Month,'' the time set aside to learn the history of a people. One month
cannot capture the infinite historical treasures that African-Americans
have embedded into the fabric of this society. A more appropriate title
would be ``Black Emphasis Month'' symbolizing that black history should
not be a separate course taught only in February. Rather, we should
make daily efforts to correct the history that is taught to our
children. Our children deserve to know that their forefathers and
foremothers had the creative minds and intellect to make important
contributions to this society that we may sometimes take for granted,
such as the inventions of the light bulb filament and the traffic
light.
Importantly, we should use this month as a time to reflect not only
on recognizing the contributions of African-Americans to the American
society, but we must also think of February as a month in which we
ponder the travesties suffered by an entire race of people.
The battles are not over. Hopwood versus Texas was a blow to many
individuals hoping
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to further their educations. This decision, which rendered admission
criteria which take race into account unconstitutional, shattered the
hopes and dreams of would-be legislators, attorneys, and teachers.
To be sure, the decision did not raise standards; the intellectual
capacity is ever-present. Rather, it took away the incentive, that
extra push needed by someone that may be from a broken home or a first-
generation college student. This measure tried to kill the aspirations
of our Nation's youths. Affirmative action gives those less fortunate
than others the initial opportunity to prove themselves--nothing more,
nothing less. We will not need race-based criteria once we have the
initial opportunity.
In 1996, the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, struck
another blow to minority voters. Bush versus Vera, which declared
unconstitutional congressional redistricting plans that gave black and
Hispanic voters more clout was a setback because it could ultimately
mean that those constituents may have a harder time gaining
representation in Congress. Rising to the challenges they faced, many
U.S. Representatives, including myself, were not defeated.
However, you must take note that we won reelection because we first
had the chance to serve. Affirmative action is that opportunity.
Affirmative action is what is needed to first prove yourself. It is
needed as a corrective action to change disparities from the past. When
such corrective action is taken away, we may not have any more initial
opportunities for success. We got the message out to our constituents,
and I want to get the message to you today, to see that now more than
ever it is a time to stand up for what so many others have died for--
our freedom, our rights.
In light of these abhorrent things that are going on today, we must
reevaluate, reappraise our civil rights gains. Glass ceilings are not
being removed. Affirmative action is being challenged from every angle.
We have the opportunity to use these stumbling blocks and make them
stepping stones. But we must be active in order to be instrumental in
this struggle.
What underground railroad are you leading? Are you a drum major for
justice, for peace, for equality? We must look the grim facts in the
face. We must not be passive. We must stand up and take charge of our
own destinies and take someone else with us. Then, and only then, can
we, as a people rise up and fight the injustices that have plagued our
people since we stepped foot on American soil.
Mrs. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from
Ohio [Mr. Stokes] and the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] and
the other members of the Congressional Black Caucus for allowing me
this opportunity.
In celebration of Black History Month, there are literally hundreds
of individuals from the past that could be remembered for their
achievements for African-Americans. The one I would like to remember
today was once a member of this auspicious body, and her work in this
Chamber will be remembered throughout history for its honesty and
integrity.
Barbara Jordan has often been described as having ``the voice of
God,'' one which could shake the rafters if necessary, and one which
always weaved a sense of urgency through an audience. Yet Ms. Jordan's
legacy lies far beyond her oratorical skills. Her reputation will be
one of a role-model for her devotion to public service, her unabashed
faith in the Constitution, and her ethical fortitude which is all too
rare in today's political climate.
In the summer of 1974, our democracy faced its greatest test, and our
Constitution its greatest challenge. As the House Judiciary Committee
considered the fate of President Nixon during the Watergate hearings,
it was a young African-American woman from Houston, TX, that pointed
the way through the fog of the time to the correct path to pursue.
Representative Jordan stated in plain language that no one, not even
the President, was above the law of the land. Her faith in the
Constitution, she said, remained strong despite the fact the Founding
Fathers did not originally include her in their definition of ``we the
people.'' Subsequently, during one of our Nation's darkest hours, Ms.
Jordan helped restore our faith in the foundations of democracy and
carried us forward to form a more perfect union.
Following her service in Congress, Ms. Jordan began a second tier of
public service by teaching public affairs at the University of Texas.
Despite the fact that her body was crippled by multiple sclerosis, her
spirit and her mind grew stronger. For over a decade, she taught
students at the University of Texas a class on ethics which demanded
students search their souls for the answers to tough dilemmas. Ms.
Jordan's class was extremely popular despite the difficult reputation
it gained, requiring a lottery each semester to select the handful of
students to have the honor of taking Ms. Jordan's class. Thus, Ms.
Jordan carried on the task of teaching the lessons of citizenship to
another generation, and preparing our young people to carry out the
tasks so vital to our democracy.
Barbara Jordan passed away a little over a year ago. Her reputation
will precede her for years to come. It is important to remember Ms.
Jordan today and always as not only a great African-American, but as
one of the central figures in American history in the late 20th
century. As we took towards the next millennium, with the need for
racial harmony and the collective healing of our wounds as tantamount
as ever, it is imperative that we look towards the example Barbara
Jordan set for all of us. Her standards may have been high on the bar,
but they were nonetheless the measuring stick we should all aspire to
reach. She defined what it means to be an American for many of us, and
her accomplishments will not soon be forgotten.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I take great pride in this
opportunity to join the Congressional Black Caucus and other Members of
this body to pay tribute to African-Americans who have contributed
enormously to this great Nation. I, too, want to thank the gentleman
from Ohio, Mr. Stokes, and Representative Maxine Waters, chairperson of
the Congressional Black Caucus for their efforts in organizing this
special order.
As we celebrate Black History Month, we must remember the origins of
this celebration, as it dates back to 1926. It was then, that Dr.
Carter G. Woodson, a noted historian, and author, initiated the
observance of ``Negro History Week.''
Each February, Dr. Woodson, whose own contributions were inestimable,
advocated setting aside a week to honor the achievements of African-
Americans. The lives of black Americans have improved since the 1950's,
and, indeed, there is no doubt that relations between blacks and whites
have improved. However, segregation, poverty, discrimination in jobs,
housing, and many related problems continue to persist, and continue to
erode the so-called American dream.
Today, we celebrate an America that is more culturally enriched,
intellectually developed, and technologically advanced because of the
contributions of African-Americans. However, as the 20th century nears
it close, there is still widespread ignorance about African-Americans
and our contributions to this society.
Of the 40 African-Americans elected to Congress this year, many came
from districts supported by black voters. However, the districts were
ruled unconstitutional if race was the predominant factor in designing
them. But, a 90-percent white congressional district in Texas is ruled
constitutional, whereas, a 5-percent black Texas district that sent the
late Barbara Jordan to Congress is ruled unconstitutional.
Imagine what kind of effect these and other related issues have on
the life and mind of a young African-American who knows less about hope
and faith than I do.
Mr. Speaker, the acceptance by some Americans of Dr. King's message--
that men should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character has made it possible for blacks to gain
considerable influence in various fields.
For example, in politics, blacks now serve in unprecedented numbers
in elected and appointed positions in Federal, State, and local
government, including this great body. We have won recognition in such
art forms as literature, film, and theater. We have received some of
entertainment's highest awards, including the Oscar, the Tony and
Golden Globe honors. We have reached the highest levels in professional
sports such as basketball, boxing, tennis, football, and track and
field. And, in music, we have made significant influence by creating
new musical categories and delighting audiences at home and abroad.
These accomplishments are all good news. But they are still not
enough.
As we continue to debate affirmative action policies, we realize that
the struggle to ensure equal opportunity for African-Americans
continues. The real issue is civil rights--civil rights that redeem our
fundamental American sense of hope and rights that affirm our basic
values and aspirations as a Nation.
African-Americans continue to have an uphill struggle. However, it is
my hope that this Nation would heed the words of the late Justice
Thurgood Marshall who said: ``We will only attain freedom if we learn
to appreciate what is different, and muster the courage to discover
what is fundamentally the same.''
Today, I call on this society to give the ordinary people of this
great Nation an equal opportunity, a quality education, and a fair shot
at the American dream. Let history record that we in our time faced our
challenges remembering who we are and believing that we are more than
our brother's keeper.
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to participate today in this
special order to commemorate Black History Month. As we celebrate the
great contributions of African-Americans throughout the history of our
country, we can look to the civil rights movement
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of the 1960's as a pivotal time when what ``was'' and what ``could be''
were brought into striking relief through sometimes violent conflict.
The civil rights movement was a period of enormous growth for our
country. As a nation we were forced, by great African-American leaders,
such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and others, to examine
ourselves and confront the forces of hate and ignorance that were
cleaving our society. That tumultuous period is now behind us, and many
great things have happened as a result of that struggle. The African-
American community was strengthened, and as it was, so was the entire
Nation.
As we face the present, and look ahead to the future, however, some
stark realities exist. The fact remains that much still needs to be
accomplished before true equality and racial harmony is a fact of life
in this country. Now, more than ever, we need strong African-American
leadership. We must have African-American activists, who, like the
leaders of the civil rights movement, are able to take action and
inspire.
One such activist-leader lives in Indiana's First Congressional
District. Mr. James Piggee has been a teacher and coach in the Gary,
IN, school system for 30 years, and his activism is unique in that it
focuses on educating young black students about their past, while at
the same time giving them an opportunity to prepare for the future.
For the past 12 years, Mr. Piggee has been actively involved in
organizing and leading the historical black college tour in which over
1,800 students from across the United States have participated. This
experience has allowed African-American students to experience various
parts of their history and culture as it has developed in traditionally
black colleges and universities throughout the country. In addition to
gaining an historical perspective on African-American intellectual
life, they get a chance to learn about the schools they may one day
attend.
One of the many positive results of Mr. Piggee's work is that over 60
percent of the students who participated in one of the tours enrolled
at one of the colleges they visited. As part of his work, Mr. Piggee
has helped over 500 students secure grants, scholarships, and financial
aid to historically black and other colleges and universities in the
United States.
Mr. Piggee, who tragically lost his son Marc in a drive-by shooting
on November 12, 1996, is an active member in many civic and community
organizations in northwest Indiana, including the board of directors of
Indiana Black Expo, the State Board of Minority Health Coalition, and
Healthy Start. He is a recipient of many distinguished awards, such as
the Governor's Voluntary Action Programs and Excellence in Education
Award, Indiana University's Outstanding Teacher Award, Gary and
Merrillville, IN, Lions Club Teacher of the Year Award, Inland Steel
Teacher of the Year Award, Gary Community Corporation Heritage Award,
National Council of Negro Women, Gary, IN, Chapter, Outstanding Service
Award, and the Indiana State Board of Health Outstanding Service Award.
Besides his continued dedication to teaching, Mr. Piggee is also the
coordinator of the developing options opportunity for responsible
students, or DOORS, program. This program provides an environment that
is conducive to the successful transition from high school to secondary
education, the military, or the work force.
Mr. Speaker, activists like Mr. Piggee will ensure that at all levels
the fight for equality will not end. His work should inspire us all to
look to the future and know that change is always at hand. His work
shows us that what is today, can be better tomorrow. In closing, I
would like to commend my colleagues, Representatives Louis Stokes and
Maxine Waters, for organizing this important special order on Black
History Month.
Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today with my
colleagues in celebration of African American History month. The theme
for this year's African American History Month Observance is ``African
Americans and Civil Rights: A Reappraisal.'' When we reappraise we take
stock, we review, and we measure the value of the item in question. As
we reappraise the civil rights laws that we have passed in this body,
laws that have helped realize for many of our citizens the promise of
equal opportunity embodied in our constitution, I can say without
question that they have appreciated in value and are worth more today
to our Nation and our people than they were 30 years ago. They are of
greater value because we can look back and see how far we have come and
recognize that we are a better Nation because of the existence of these
laws. Thirty years ago as the fog of racial oppression was only
beginning to clear we could not have made such an assessment.
As we made this reappraisal of civil rights we also mark an important
anniversary. It was 15 years ago that we passed the 1982 major
improvements to the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 which extended
and strengthened the enforcement provisions of the law. Some have
described the Voting Rights Act as our Nation's most effective civil
rights legislation, and I count myself among that group. I consider the
votes that I have cast in support of the extension of the Voting Rights
Act among the most important votes of my 20 years in Congress. Because
of the Voting Rights Act there has been a dramatic increase in the
participation of African Americans and other minorities in the
electoral process at all levels of government. As a result of the
Voting Rights Act African American voting participation in some
congressional districts has increased by tenfold. I look around this
institution and I see the power of the Voting Rights Act. Today there
are 39 African American members of this body and if we were to poll
them I believe they would tell us that their presence here is due in no
small measure to the Voting Rights Act. One of those members is Bill
Clay who in his 28 years of congressional service is the dean of the
Missouri Congressional Delegation. He was a civil rights leader in St.
Louis, our home town, during the struggles of the 1950's and 60's, and
he is my leader in the Missouri delegation. I have had the pleasure of
serving with Bill for all the years that I have been a member of this
body. This institution is a better place because of the presence of
Bill Clay and the other African American members of the 105h Congress
and those who have come before them, and we are a better nation because
of the Voting Rights Act.
In addition to Bill Clay, who was the first African American Member
of Congress from Missouri, I would also like to recognize another civil
rights leader from St. Louis. In 1977, Gwen B. Giles became the first
African American woman elected to the Missouri Senate and the first
woman elected to the office of city assessor in St. Louis. Mrs. Giles
was a tireless advocate for civil rights and for the rights of the
disadvantaged. As an elected official and in her roles as executive
secretary of the St. Louis Council of Human Relation, Director of the
Civil Rights Enforcement Agency and as a founder of the West End
Community Assoc., Mrs. Giles was a builder of community between the
races. Mrs. Giles died on March 26, 1986, but she remains a pioneering
spirit in St. Louis for her dedication to the principle and the
practice of equality for all citizens. Today, I honor her historical
achievements and contributions as well as those of other African
Americans in Missouri and throughout our Nation.
We celebrate this anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and we
commemorate African-American History Month as we approach a new century
at the crossroads of civil rights and race relations in our nation.
There are those who look at the gains that African-Americans have made
in the ballot box, in employment, in business and in education, and
they no longer recognize the need for vigorous enforcement of our civil
rights laws. They tolerate both direct and indirect attacks on the
cornerstones of our most monumental civil rights achievement. We have
seen these attacks take many forms. From the wholesale attacks on
affirmative action to the more subtle and strategic strikes against the
Voting Rights Act through the recent court challenges to minority
congressional districts, these attacks have the collective impact of
moving us backward toward our past of racial intolerance rather than
forward toward the promise of the new century. They could not be more
wrong. For those of you who say you support our civil rights laws in
principle but through inaction dilute their effectiveness and drive
wedges that further racial division and hostility, today I challenge
each of you to make your deeds match your rhetoric. I challenge you to
stop pulling at the dangling threads of intolerance that threaten to
unravel the great blanket of civil rights protections we have all
worked so diligently to weave. As we make this reappraisal of civil
rights in this month that we celebrate black history, we must all
recommit ourselves to supporting the enforcement of our civil rights
laws. We cannot fail to leave this important legacy intact and of
greater value to those who may stand in this place 30 years from today
and make a similar reappraisal.
Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join with my colleagues in
honoring the African-American community, as we commemorate Black
History Month.
The fabric that is America owes an important debt of gratitude to the
accomplishments and genius of the African-American community. We are,
in a very real sense, a whole nation due to the untold contributions of
African-Americans in the fields of science, education, politics,
commerce, sport, culture, and in so many other fields of endeavor.
I am proud to represent thousands of African-Americans in the Ninth
Congressional District of New Jersey. From Englewood to Maywood, Jersey
City to Teaneck, African-Americans represent the very best that our
region of
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New Jersey has to offer. Hard working and active in the civic life of
their respective communities, African-Americans constitute an important
part of what makes northern New Jersey such a special place to live.
But while prosperity is increasingly being secured by African-
Americans in New Jersey and across the United States, we should not
forget the recent past. Racism, embodied in so many aspects of American
culture years ago, has still not disappeared. The civil rights
struggle, which so honorably sought to erase racism, has not ended. And
so today, like every day, all Americans, of all backgrounds, need to
take a look at ourselves and recommit ourselves to erasing racial
prejudice.
Mr. Speaker, almost 35 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke
to America from Washington, DC. He said, ``I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.'' On this day, February 11, 1997, and every day, let us make
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream our own, and everyday, let us make
Martin Luther King, Jr's dream our own, and work toward a nation that
can rid itself of racial injustice.
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay
tribute to the African-American men and women who have helped make our
Nation strong. Through mutual tolerance and understanding we have made
significant strides in acknowledging and appreciating our diversity.
In our Nation's short history we have learned that differences
between people can be addressed in one of two ways: either through
strong division and aversion, or through understanding and real
cooperation. Division solves nothing, understanding is the key.
Throughout much of this century, African-Americans have been the
driving force in building an appreciation and understanding of
diversity.
One cannot look at the United States without acknowledging the
contributions African-Americans have made in a variety of different
areas. They have been involved in nearly every major event in U.S.
history and have enriched American culture throughout. Undeniably,
African-Americans have played key roles in the progress and prosperity
of the Nation and the world. Only when we recognize these
accomplishments can we truly see the richness of our country.
In 1926, Dr. Carter Woodson first called for a period of time to be
set aside for the recognition of important historical achievements by
African-Americans. Fifty years later, our Nation acknowledged February
as Black History Month. With each annual celebration, we find ourselves
recognizing new milestones African-Americans have made and barriers
that have been broken.
For example, this year for the first time in our Nation's history,
seven African-Americans were awarded the President's Medal of Honor for
their bravery during World War II. These men were among the bravest of
the brave, they risked their lives for our country. These African-
Americans gave so much, so that the rest of us might be free. We owe
them a huge debt of gratitude. I am only sorry it took so long to give
these men the recognition they so rightly deserve. This honor was well
overdue. It illustrates well the point that, we have come a long way,
but we have a long way to go.
Racial tensions still exist within our borders. It is clear to me
that there is still work to be done. In schools, neighborhoods, and
communities, we should seek out commonality and celebrate our
diversity, instead of looking to separate as a result of our
differences.
This is why we need to embrace all cultures and not only recognize,
but celebrate the achievements of black Americans. As we trace our
history, we can point to African-Americans who have made significant
contributions to our country, from authors and sports heroes to
political icons, including: Booker T. Washington, Willie Mays, Thurgood
Marshall, Marcus Garvey, Barbara Jordan, Langston Hughes, and many
other great men and women.
As a nation, let us always acknowledge the accomplishments of
African-Americans and celebrate them. Not only today, or during Black
History Month, but every day.
Mr. DIXON. Mr. Speaker, America is a Nation built from the labor,
love, and dreams of people from all corners of the globe. Black History
Month offers America a chance to celebrate the achievements and
contributions of one of her many peoples--African Americans.
To help preserve our history it has taken the herculean efforts of
such people as Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D. who started Negro
History Week in 1926 and founded the association for the study of negro
life and history; Arthur Alonzo Schomburg, a Puerto Rican-born New
Yorker who amassed a collection of books, manuscripts, and letters by
blacks of the Caribbean, Europe, and America; and Daniel Alexander
Payne Murray, a black man hired as an assistant librarian for Library
of Congress in 1881 and whose collection of books, documents,
manuscripts, and letters laid the foundation for the Library of
Congress' current expansive holdings in African American history.
We must continue the work of Woodson, Murray, and Schomburg because,
as Dr. Woodson argued in ``The Miseducation of the Negro,'' a greater
understanding of black history provides African Americans with potent
weapons in the fight against racism and attempts to devalue the
contributions of African Americans.
Even more important than just celebrating black history to counter
negative views of African Americans or for its academic value, we must
continue to celebrate it because current and future generations need
this knowledge.
I challenge each of you to talk to a young person and ask them what
they know about black history, and I bet you'll find that Martin Luther
King, Malcolm X, and slavery will be the majority of answers you
receive. As adults we know that the sum total of our history is more
than just the civil rights struggles of 1950's and 1960's. However,
knowing is not enough. We must continue to impart the story of our
history to our youth, whose perspective on life will only be enhanced
by learning of the great achievements of their ancestors.
Imparting this history means we must continue to educate ourselves
and share the stories of lesser known, but equally important figures in
black history.
The association for the study of Afro-American life and history
reports that the theme for the 1997 Black History Month observance is
``African-Americans and Civil Rights: A Reappraisal.'' In keeping with
this theme, we should examine the progress blacks have made in
developing political power.
No study of African-American contributions to American political life
would be complete without a recognition of the life and work of Louis
Emanuel Martin, who the Washington Post once referred to as the
``godfather of black politics'' and who passed away only a few short
weeks ago.
Born in Shelbyville, TN, November 18, 1912, and raised in Savannah,
GA, Louis E. Martin attended Fisk Academy High School and received his
bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan in 1934.
A journalist by profession, Martin joined the staff of the Chicago
Defender after completing his education at the University of Michigan.
In 1936 he became publisher of the newly-created Michigan Chronicle.
During his tenure at the Chronicle, he published a book of poems by
Robert Hayden and aided Walter Reuther who was organizing the United
Auto Workers.
In 1947 he moved back to Chicago to become editor-in-chief of Chicago
Defender publications and helped found the National Newspaper
Publishers Association, serving as its president. Three years later
Martin was named editor-in-chief of Sengstake Newspapers. During this
period he also wrote a weekly column on politics and was an active
civic leader, lending his support to black entrepreneurs, artists, and
civil rights leaders.
A pivotal moment in Louis Martin's life came when fellow Chicagoan R.
Sargeant Shriver asked Martin to work on the election campaign of his
brother-in-law John F. Kennedy. Martin, who was named deputy chairman
of the Democratic National Committee in 1960, was instrumental in
arranging the sympathy call that Kennedy placed to Corretta Scott King
when her husband Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed in Atlanta on a
traffic violation.
Louis was an indispensable adviser to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson,
and Carter, playing a key role in garnering support for landmark
legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights
Act. He helped open doors for a number of talented African-Americans,
influencing the appointments of Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall to
the Supreme Court, Andrew Brimmer as the first black member of the
Federal Reserve Board, and Robert C. Weaver as Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development.
Probably Martin's most lasting legacy will be the Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies, which Martin founded in 1970 to provide
technical assistance and support for black office holders and scholars
across the country. The joint center has blossomed into one of the
premier research institutions in the Nation and the only think tank
which focuses the majority of its efforts on issues of importance to
African-Americans.
Although Louis Martin traversed the corridors of power, he did so
without vanity or desire for notoriety. He reveled in working behind
the scenes to bring about real opportunities for African-Americans. As
his daughter Trudy Hatter of Diamond Bar, CA summed it up, ``he worked
hard all the time, but not for himself.''
I urge all of my colleagues to join me in celebrating his life and
extending heartfelt condolences to Louis Emanuel Martin's wife Gertrude
and their children Trudy, Anita, Toni, Linda, and Lisa. His vision,
compassion, intelligence, and courage have blazed trails for his fellow
African-Americans and have left an indelible mark upon the history of
this Nation.
Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, we celebrate America as a nation of diverse
peoples who
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share a common vision: freedom, independence, and liberty. Throughout
our history, this diversity has served us well. The fabric of our
communities has been strengthened by the contributions of all of our
people.
So as we celebrate Black History Month, we should be mindful of the
rich history and vast contributions that African-Americans have made--
and continue to make--to our society. We marvel at the courage of Dr.
Martin Luther King. We are humbled by the eloquence of Barbara Jordan.
And we are enriched by the brilliance of Ella Fitzgerald.
And there are thousands more. In north Florida, Rev. R.B. Holmes
fights for a better future for all children through his efforts to
build the best charter school in our Nation. Al Lawson works hard every
day in our citizen's legislature to improve the lives of all of our
families. And, at FAMU, Jim Davis makes a difference by trying to open
the doors to higher education for all of our children.
So, today, we proudly recognize the great role that African-Americans
play in every facet of our human society. In that recognition we also
seek to build a more perfect America. We seek to work together as
leaders, parents, thinkers, artists, and students to make tomorrow's
America better than today's. Our common goals are built on the common
ground that all families seek: safety, security, and opportunity. We
know that we can only realize those goals when we work as one.
Mr. SABO. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to participate in the
celebration of Black History Month this year by honoring two
extraordinary civic leaders of Minnesota. I rise today to honor Cecil
Newman and Gleason Glover, both of whom were influential and notable
figures in Minnesota's civil rights history.
Cecil Newman is most noted for founding both the Minneapolis
Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder, the oldest African-American-owned
newspapers in Minnesota. In 1935, when the newspapers were first
published, Cecil delivered them by foot. Today, the Spokesman and the
Recorder are disbursed to over 26,000 Minnesotans.
The newspapers were two among many of Cecil's remarkable achievements
before he died in 1976. Mr. Newman was also responsible for persuading
many African-Americans to exercise their right to vote and was a
prominent leader in the fight for fair employment laws in Minnesota.
I believe Hubert Humphrey's statement about Cecil best sums up the
kind of man he was: ``Cecil Newman is a good citizen--responsible,
active, wise, and influential. I have been enriched by his friendship,
strengthened by his support, and helped by his advice.''
Gleason Glover dedicated his life to bettering the lives of African-
Americans. His list of accomplishments and awards is long. I am proud
to say I knew Gleason on a professional level and he was a close
personal friend.
Gleason came to Minnesota to serve as the executive director, and
later the president and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis
Urban League, one of the most forceful advocate organizations for
African-Americans, minorities, and the poor. The league, which started
in New York City in 1910 to help African-Americans in their transition
from rural to urban living, has expanded to provide assistance in areas
such as employment, housing, education, and social welfare. It has also
taken on additional challenges including adolescent pregnancy, single
female-headed households, and crime in the African-American community.
By the time Gleason retired in 1991, his strong leadership brought
the Minneapolis Urban League from a staff of three and a budget of
$45,000 to a staff of over 100 and a budget of $3 million. Before his
untimely death in 1994, Gleason was responsible for making the
Minneapolis Urban League one of the most important civil rights/social
service agencies in Minnesota.
Again, I am proud to recognize the impact and influence both Cecil
Newman and Gleason Glover had on the lives of many Minnesotans. Their
dedication and commitment to public service made them great community
leaders who will be long remembered.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in
honoring black history month for 1997. I would like to thank the
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters.] for arranging the time for
this special order.
Black history month is an appropriate time to recognize the
outstanding black men and women who have contributed so much to our
society. As my colleagues have pointed out, our history books do not
yet recount the significant efforts of many African Americans and all
they have accomplished to make America the great Nation that it is
today.
For example, Crispus Attucks, a free black man who, at the Boston
massacre, was the first American to die for the revolutionary cause.
After our war of independence was won a black man by the name of
Benjamin Banneker laid out our Capitol City of Washington, DC.
African Americans were among the most courageous and determined
fighters in the war to end slavery. While thousands of black men and
women were dying at the hands of their owners as examples to their
peers, thousands more were escaping to the north by way of the
underground railroad founded by Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. And
of course, let us not forget the tens of thousands of black soldiers
who sacrificed their lives to end slavery in the Civil War.
While the Civil War helped to end slavery in policy, it did little to
eradicate social slavery. When Jim Crow laws threatened to prevent
black men and women from assimilating into the American culture that
had been denied to them for so long, leaders such as Frederick Douglass
and W.E.B. DuBois fought to end such hypocritical and racist policies.
The struggle for equality throughout the 20th century is one of the
great sagas of all time. So many courageous black Americans risked
everything in order to pave the path for those who followed. Jackie
Robinson broke the color barrier in professional major league baseball,
while Marian Anderson became a symbol of equality in the world of
music. Mrs. Rosa Parks unwittingly became a great national symbol
through her decision not to move to the back of the bus.
A little more than 30 years ago, it was announced that for the first
time in history, a black man--a man who until that point had achieved
modest fame as a stand up comedian--would costar in a dramatic
television series. Within the last few weeks, the entire world saw, as
this great entertainer faced a deep personal tragedy, how much love and
respect all Americans have for Mr. Bill Cosby. He has done so much
single handedly to destroy hate and prejudice in our Nation that the
outpouring of grief and sympathy upon the murder of his son has been
phenomenal.
So many barriers have been broken that there are very few segments of
our society still closed to blacks. Tiger Woods has become the most
famous black golf player in history, thus knocking down one of the
remaining color barriers left in our society.
Alvin Alley's contributions to the dance; Wilt Chamberlain's
revolutionizing the game of basketball; Arthur Ashe teaching the Nation
how to play tennis and how to face devastating disease with grace;
Barbara Jordan articulating love of our form of Government; James
Baldwin breaking new ground with the art form of the novel; Henry
Johnson, a black man who was the first American soldier to be decorated
by France during World War I; Dr. Mae C. Jemison, our first female
black astronaut; William Brown, mayor of San Francisco; Alex Haley, who
single-handedly revived the pursuit of family genealogy while
instilling pride in black history; anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston;
poet and Amnesty International leader Akua Lezli Hope. The list of
prominent Afro-Americans in every field of human endeavor in the Untied
States is endless.
In the 1960's, the moral conscience of the entire Nation was finally
awakened, and our laws were finally brought into compliance with the
principles of our own American Revolution, Declaration of Independence,
Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Mr. Speaker, I never cease to be
amazed at how many young people today have trouble understanding how
controversial the quest for civil rights was at the time, and how
severe the sacrifices were of those who fought at the time. We must not
let future generations grow up unaware that a steep price was paid for
equality and justice.
Black history month is an appropriate time to recall and recite the
events in which black Americans changed our Nation's policies and
attitudes. But we must also remind our students and our citizens that
the struggle for equality continues today not only in the United States
but also abroad. Fortunately, today we are blessed with heroic black
men and women who work to bring our races closer together and set a
shining example for our youth.
It is imperative that we not simply acknowledge black history this
month, forgetting it in the months to come. The appreciation of black
history and its contributions to our Nation should be an ongoing
process. The contributions of African-Americans to our society are
truly exemplary, yet are too often taken for granted. I urge my
colleagues to bear these contributions in mind throughout our
deliberations.
Our Nation's rich diversity sets it apart from every other nation on
the face of the Earth. It is one of our greatest strengths and will be
fundamental in our Nation's future success. If we embrace that
diversity and learn from its ideals, then nothing will stand in our
way. Black-Americans have significantly contributed to every facet of
our society and therefore our culture. This, Mr. Speaker, is the lesson
we must teach our children, in hopes that they too will one day teach
their children these thoughts and pass along the importance of
diversity in the Nation.
Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our distinguished colleague
from California, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who chairs
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the Congressional Black Caucus, for joining me in sponsoring this
Special Order. We gather today to mark the congressional observance of
Black History Month. The occasion affords us the opportunity to
acknowledge the contributions of African American men and women to the
building and shaping of this great nation.
We gather in the House Chamber 71 years after the late Dr. Carter G.
Woodson proposed the observance of Negro History Week. In 1926, Dr.
Woodson understood that African Americans were not receiving proper
recognition in history for their contributions. Woodson proposed
setting aside one week during the month of February to commemorate the
achievements of African Americans. In 1976, the observance was changed
to Black History Month. Our theme for the 1997 observance of Black
History Month is ``African Americans and Civil Rights: A Reappraisal.''
I am proud to join my colleagues as we reflect upon this theme. It
causes us to examine how far we have come in the struggle for civil
rights.
The civil rights movement of our time set its roots in the field of
education, with assistance from the United States Supreme Court. In
1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court announced its ruling
that segregation in the Nation's public schools was unconstitutional. A
year later on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, AL, Mrs. Rosa Parks was
told by the driver on the bus on which she was riding to get up and
give her seat to a white man. This seamstress, who was tired from a
long day's work refused this order and was arrested.
In protest, black leaders organized a boycott that lasted for 382
days. It ended with the courts ordering integration and the abolishment
of a legal requirement that black people had to stand up and let white
people sit down whenever both races were riding on public
transportation.
The Montgomery bus boycott brought to the helm of the Civil Rights
Movement a 27-year old black baptist minister whose name is forever
etched in the annals of history. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used the
teaching of Mahatma Gandhi to preach a doctrine of love and
nonviolence. During his lifetime, Dr. King's faith, perseverance and
determination served as a symbol of the hope for equality for all
Americans.
Mr. Speaker, history records that on September 9, 1957, President
Eisenhower signed a new Civil Rights Act which markedly enlarged the
federal role in race relations. It established a Civil Rights
Commission and a Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of
Justice. It also gave the Attorney General authority to seek
injunctions against obstruction of voting rights.
One of the most climatic point in the campaign for equality came on
August 28, 1963, when over 200,000 demonstrators of all races
and religious denominations assembled in Washington, DC, in the largest
civil rights march in the history of this Nation. It was at that march
that Dr. King delivered his famous ``I Have A Dream'' speech.
The civil rights movement of this century has passed through three
phases, each one distinct in character. The first, desegregation, was
an effort to break down the barriers of an old and corrupt social
order. The second phase, integration, was concentrated on the opening
up of opportunities--as in the case of the provisions of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 which guaranteed the right to vote, access to public
accommodations, mandated non-discrimination in federal programs, and
required equal employment opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, we gather today to reflect upon our civil rights gain
and to measure our progress. What I have outlined is a glimpse of our
Nation's civil rights history. Let us turn for a moment to the
challenges we face. Two of the greatest challenges to continued
progress of the civil rights movement are in the areas of redistricting
and affirmative action. Since its enactment over 30 years ago, the
Voting Rights Act has altered the face of American government. In 1965,
the south had only 72 African American elected officials; by 1976,
there were 1,944. Today there are nearly 5,000--68 times as many as
when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Then, on the last day of its
1993 term, the Supreme Court again lowered the boom on years of
progress with its decision in Shaw versus Reno and Hays versus
Louisiana, and Johnson versus Miller in 1995. Each of these cases
called into question the constitutionality of remedial race-conscious
districting. Against this backdrop, on June 13, 1996, the Supreme Court
rendered two more opinions that turned back the clock on voting rights.
In Shaw versus Hunt and Bush versus Vera the Court simply nullified
four congressional districts held by African Americans.
Despite these setbacks, the struggle continues. My colleagues and I
will continue to fight for equal opportunity and equal access for all
minorities in the electoral process.
The issue of affirmative action also impacts our civil rights
progress. Within the last 2 decades, affirmative action has been the
primary tool that has allowed minorities and women to break through the
many barriers of discrimination that have contributed to keeping them
unemployed, underpaid, and in positions of limited opportunity for
advancement.
Unfortunately, despite 3 decades of progress in this area, we are now
faced with a new threat. We now face legislative and court initiatives
that attempt to turn back the clock by attacking equal opportunity in
America.
The Rehnquist Supreme Court struck down a minority set-aside program
requiring Richmond, VA contractors to hire minority-owned
subcontractors for 30 percent of its contracts in City of Richmond
versus J.A. Croson Co. The Court ruled in the Croson case that set-
asides by State and local governments were allowed only in cases of
past discrimination. On June 12, 1995, the United States Supreme Court
decision in Adarand Constructors versus Pena, established radical new
standards for evaluating affirmative action programs. While the court
does require ``strict scrutiny'' be applied to the review of
affirmative action laws, the vast majority of affirmative action
programs will easily survive such close examination. The court's
opinion clearly acknowledges the value of well-tailored affirmative
action programs as an important tool to end discrimination.
On June 19, 1995, in response to questions raised about affirmative
action, President Clinton presented a clear, unequivocal statement and
plan to support and improve our Nation's efforts to promote equal
opportunity and justice through the affirmative action laws of the
United States. This support is particularly important because of the
confusion and misinformation that is currently being circulated about
the status, mission, and future of affirmative action programs.
Mr. Speaker, I take pride in joining my colleagues for this special
order commemorating Black History Month. I hope that our remarks will
help all Americans to remember the important contributions that African
Americans have made to this Nation.
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