[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RALPH ELLISON'S ``INVISIBLE MAN''

  (Mr. SAWYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SAWYER. Madam Speaker, today is the 40th anniversary of Little 
Rock, AR. It is also the 45th anniversary year of the publication of a 
novel that changed America, Ralph Ellison's ``Invisible Man.''
  The central conceit in that compelling piece of literature was the 
invisibility of African-Americans in American society. It began, ``I am 
an invisible man. I am invisible, understand, simply because people 
refuse to see me.''
  Five years later, Central High School was on every television in 
America and millions of Americans were invisible no more. Today, it is 
a deep irony that if we fail to conduct the most complete census we are 
capable of, we will make millions of Americans of a color disappear 
from the public rolls of the Nation.
  At the same time, in Orange County, in an attempt to change the 
outcome of an election, a former Member of this House is trying to 
manufacture people of color to suggest a fraud, manufacture people of 
color out of thin air.

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