[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 49 (Monday, April 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1841-H1848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PARTICIPATE IN REENACTMENT OF SELMA-TO-MONTGOMERY
CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, with me on the House floor I have a number
of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat,
who experienced a marvelous journey to Selma, Alabama, a few weeks ago
to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the great march led by Dr. King
and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) to end racism and bigotry
across this country.
We had nearly 20 Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle
that traveled to Selma and Birmingham and Montgomery. What I would like
to do is ask all of my colleagues who are here to take various stations
and we could have a conversation on the floor without the formal
proceeding of yielding to other Members.
Madam Speaker, I guess I should first recognize my good friend and
brother, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), elected the same year
as I, who helped lead us on that march, as we did
[[Page H1842]]
last year as well, giving so many of us the experience of walking in
the shoes of those that had gone before. It was an experience that I
have to say I will never forget.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Upton) my friend, my brother, and my colleague, for
being the co-leader of this delegation traveling from Washington to
Birmingham where we had an opportunity to visit the Civil Rights
Museum, the Sixteenth Street Church that was bombed on September 15th,
1963, where the four little girls were killed, and to visit the park
where they used the dogs and the fire hoses against little children.
We then traveled, as the gentleman suggested, on to Montgomery and
then to Selma. During that entire trip in the State of Alabama, we were
in the district of the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) and we
should take the moment to thank him for his hospitality and thank all
of our colleagues.
This trip was sponsored by Faith and Politics, a group that comes
together here in Washington where we have been meeting for some time
discussing the whole question of race, having a dialogue on race. We
have been doing it here, in our districts, in our offices, in our
homes. We did it on this trip and we are going to continue to do it.
So I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Upton) for bringing us together tonight. Maybe the gentleman from
Alabama would have something to say, since we were in his district in
Alabama.
Mr. HILLIARD. Madam Speaker, let me first of all thank all of my
colleagues for coming to Alabama. I am very happy that we got a chance
to participate in the reenactment of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. I
hope, and I am certain that it did bring feelings different from what
they would have felt elsewhere unless they had been with John Lewis and
others on the actual march.
We still march for equality in this country, and the participation of
my colleagues in that march brought forth the idea that there are still
things that are imperfect about this country. But the fact that all of
my colleagues came and all participated let me know, and hopefully let
America know, that all of my colleagues are on the job, that they are
trying to make this country a better place, and realize that we still
have got a distance to go.
So we were very happy to have our fellow Members of Congress in the
State of Alabama, have them participate in the reenactment of something
that meant so much to this country and something that had our
colleagues of 3 decades ago to look at themselves and reexamine the
state of discrimination in this country and make changes. Because we
were there, I hope we will reexamine how things are, and any changes
that are necessary, we will make them.
Mr. LaHOOD. Madam Speaker, it was obviously a real treat for me to
participate. I think of all of the activities, actually being in Selma
and being with John Lewis and the reenactment of the crossing of the
Edmund Pettis Bridge is something that I will never forget. I think
that was for me the highlight of the trip.
Then also I think recognizing that we serve in the House with so many
different personalities and different people. And even though I have
known John Lewis for a period of time, I guess I did not really
recognize the kind of hero that he is to so many people in the movement
in really striving for better race relations and improving civil
rights. To have the opportunity to be with him that weekend and to have
him really walk us through what happened during that period I think
sensitizes all of us to the importance of those events in terms of
really standing on the shoulders of people who were there and
sensitizing us to the importance of better race relations and what
happened there in terms of the movement.
Then having the opportunity to hear from Mrs. Martin Luther King, who
joined us on that Sunday morning, and hearing from her was just an
extraordinary experience.
Madam Speaker, I have taken the occasion to actually go back to my
own district earlier this week. As a matter of fact, a few days ago I
met with the African-American leaders in my own community, the head of
the NAACP, the head of a couple of other African-American
organizations. I talked to them about our experience and talked to them
about what we can do as leaders in our community in Peoria to improve
race relations.
So I am really trying to build on the experience that we had, that
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) provided to us, and that all of
the folks at Faith and Politics provided.
I think I want to conclude by saying a special thanks to Doug Tanner
for really helping to organize these activities. Doug is here in the
Chamber with us tonight and has done just an extraordinary job of
helping to organize all of us around people like the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and
others to make this happen.
Madam Speaker, it is something I will never forget. I hope to build
on it in my own community, and I hope we can build it as Members here
in the House. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership and
for the ability of all of us to join him and share the experience that
he shared with us. And a special thanks to Doug Tanner for all that he
does to sort of enlighten all of us and give us an experience that I
know many of us will never forget.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, this was a great trip in that all of us
here, 20 or so that went down on both sides of the aisle, I thought
became much stronger friends as we renewed our commitment to end racism
and bigotry and discrimination. And as much as we thought we knew each
other on the trip, we always learn something new.
I have been in a little prayer group with the gentleman from
California (Mr. Filner), and it was only until we got on the bus and my
wife and I were sitting in front of Bob and his wife and we sort of
talked about our experiences that I thought when I was in the mid-'60s
when this event really happened, I did not know about it. I was in
fourth grade. I did not see that on the news. I did not watch the news
when I was in the fourth grade.
It came out in the description, as I was listening to the gentleman
from California, and he was talking about a variety of different events
and seeing different things unfold, that I learned that he had been a
student in college and had seen some of the events and actually took it
upon himself to come down and become, in essence, one of the Freedom
Riders on one of those buses.
I know that it was a marvelous experience for him. He actually spent
some time in prison because of it. And this was his first trip back to
Alabama since then. I would love to hear a little bit of the
gentleman's thoughts firsthand tonight.
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan, and I
thank all of us for being able to put this together. I wish those who
were viewing this from their offices and from around the country could
see that we are a bipartisan group standing on both sides of the aisle.
Mr. UPTON. We like having the gentleman from California on this side
of the aisle. We will keep working on it.
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, seeing the world from the right is a very
different perspective. But it is clear that we all see this as not only
a bonding experience for all of us, but to come together around the
issues of fighting discrimination and ending racism is something that
bonds us all together. There is no aisle when it comes to these issues.
And like all of the other Members who were on this incredible weekend
pilgrimage, we thank especially John Lewis for leading us in a
religious experience. We were with, I think we all know, an authentic
American hero, someone who really changed American history, changed the
course of history through his own personal witness, his willingness to
stand up for righteousness and for the truth and against racism; who
was beaten down, was imprisoned, and yet got up and is here in Congress
to lead us into a new understanding.
Madam Speaker, we thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), all
of us, for reliving those experiences.
The changes that I saw, and I had not been in Alabama for 30 years,
were incredible political changes, social
[[Page H1843]]
changes. It reminded us of the progress that we made, but it also
reminded us I think of the ways we have got to go.
We were in Selma, and a small town takes a long time to change. We
saw how changes had to be made there. But what struck me as someone who
had been there 30 years ago was the incredible courage that was
evidenced, the tremendous courage evidenced by the young people and the
older people at that time. I got to go back to college after a summer
in jail. People had to stay there and take the hardship and the
challenge and the threats of death.
Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. FILNER. I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina.
Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, I did not interrupt the gentleman except
for the single purpose of pointing out what he was about to point out
himself. The gentleman very correctly recognized John Lewis as a great
American hero. However, the gentleman from California was humble in not
pointing out the fact, explicitly I think, that he himself was pretty
heroic, a Freedom Rider, 3 months, 6 months in prison in Mississippi.
For those of us who grew up in the South, that is a stirring
testimonial.
We are proud and I could see when we were down there that he was, I
hope, pleased to see that some of the things that he fought for have
come to fruition. A long way to go still, but the world is a much
greater place because of the sacrifices that he and John Lewis made.
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina
(Mr. Spratt) for his remarks.
{time} 2045
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, one of the individuals that we had wished
had been with us for the full time but was with us for certainly a good
part of it was the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Dickey). All of us here
participated in many discussions and conferences, not only with the
White House but with other folks, not only in this town but across the
country. The gentleman from Arkansas has been a special help on this,
and his heart is big, and we appreciate that.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Dickey).
Mr. DICKEY. Madam Speaker, the thing that I wanted to point out has a
lot to do with the age of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) at
the time and my age at the time. He was in the fourth grade. I was 17
years of age when in Arkansas we had the tragedy of Little Rock
Central, or the Little Rock High School crisis.
I know that I was going to college during that time and had to pass
back and forward through Little Rock exactly during that time. I had a
profound lesson that I learned on this trip because of my insensitivity
back then. I just started playing it through. I watched as everything
happened there and how many brave and heroic young people were leading
the attack against bigotry and against hatred, and I thought about my
own self.
I was not but about three, two years younger than the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Lewis), and there he was. He cared enough to sacrifice. I
thought about this as we were going from church to church and where
they had their meetings in preparation for the walks, how they never
did know, they did not know enough about the society or about the
opposition to know whether they were going to survive or not.
They were not interested whether or not they would be successful.
They were only interested in proposing and pushing the issue of
fairness and civil rights. I thought that was a significant, a
significant message that I learned.
I also sat across the street on the bus and looked at the spot that
Rosa Parks got on the bus, the very point. We were told that she was
not a part of any organized effort. She had just reached the point
where she had said enough is enough; I am not going to put up with it
anymore. Look what happened. She was not a young person at the time,
but she was brave. She was brave because she did not count what the
consequences might be.
I mean death was at near hand for all of these people, and that is
just hard to understand. I mean here in the United States, it was like
battle lines were drawn, and people stepped out and they were beaten
like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) was beaten as he finished
crossing the bridge.
I think what it all amounts to and what I learned from it is that
these people sacrificed so much so that a person like myself, who was
possibly calloused by being from a privileged family, could feel better
about ourselves.
I want to thank you for what you did, all of you who sacrificed then,
and particularly I want to thank my colleagues for including me in this
trip because it did me a lot more good than I ever imagined.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, one of our great Members that accompanied
us was the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton). I would be
happy to hear some of her comments.
Mrs. CLAYTON. Madam Speaker, for me it was an opportunity to
reconnect and to be revived. I think sometimes we live through an
experience and do not know all the details, but we think we know them.
For me to go back and actually see the places for the first time, as
a person who was active in civil rights, not in Alabama but my own
little local area, to understand how profound those individuals had to
be, how courageous they had to be, and how significant their
involvement meant in terms of progress, and how the gentleman from
Arkansas (Mr. Dickey) said that Rosa Parks was an average person who
did an extraordinary thing, and how that extraordinary thing on the
part of ordinary people meant just a difference in the Americans'
response.
I think the other thing that was good for me, and I want to thank the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Upton) as well, is bringing those of us who are more experienced in the
civil rights group together and those who never have been involved.
Those of us who think of ourselves as experienced sometimes get a
little calloused. We kind of forget the significance of the battles
that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) did or others did or Rosa
Parks did. We kind of need to be revived. So for me it was a revival
and a motivation.
The thought I had going back home at the 'hood was not so much I need
to do it with my white citizens as well, but I needed to do it for my
children who are now adults. I needed to do it with my friends, in fact
for them to really have an appreciation of what a profound history
there is.
My colleagues are right. It was indeed a spiritual awakening. It is a
sense that all those kids who were attacked, you know, there is a
prophetic history of the divine intervention. There is a whole theory
called God of history; and that there is intervention of how the divine
uses ordinary people to move people in authority in such a way that
could not be moved by people in authority. So in some ways, we need to
understand what that means, that ordinary people can make a difference.
I thank my colleagues for including me, and I hope that, if I do not
go back the next time, that many of our colleagues will have the
experience. But we ought to just share with people the opportunity of
having this kind of revival and motivation and appreciation for a sense
of history.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) was
an active member with our group going down, and again, for me, was one
of the first times I actually had a chance to have lengthy and decent
conversations with a naval representative from Arkansas. It was
terrific to have him on board, too.
Mr. BERRY. Madam Speaker, all of us that participated in the trip
came away with a new appreciation for what happened in Selma,
Montgomery, and Birmingham. We are very appreciative of the gentleman
from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and certainly the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis) for making it possible for us to experience that.
When I first came to the House, one of the first people that extended
the hand of friendship to me was the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis). He shook my hand and he said, ``Welcome, my friend and my
brother.'' I knew just from the way he shook your hand and the way he
said it that he meant it.
Until I went to Selma and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge arm-
in-arm with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I did not really
appreciate what he meant or how important it was that he did that.
[[Page H1844]]
I suspect, had I been through some of the things that the gentleman
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and some of the others that were in the nonviolent
civil rights movement at that time, I would not even want to be in the
same room with a guy like me. I can understand that.
But I think it says so much that we can come together, that we did
make this pilgrimage, and it meant an awful lot to all of us. It shows
us, not only how far we have come, but how far we have yet to go, and
that we must never, ever forget that we cannot go back to what that
was.
I just once again want to thank all of my colleagues for their
leadership: Doug Tanner, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), and
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
What a great privilege it was to be with the other leaders of the
movement, Bernard Lafayette, many, many others that were there. To hear
their experiences firsthand, it gave it all just so much more meaning.
I think the term ``keep your eye on the prize'' certainly will always
be much more meaningful to me now, and it points out to us how petty
and unimportant some of these things we argue about on this floor are,
and that there are things that are more important and that that is what
we should be about.
But it was a tremendous experience for me. I think that anyone that
has not done it has really missed something.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
LaTourette) who joined us and helped us in every way.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Madam Speaker, I want to add my voice to thank Doug
Tanner and the Faith and Politics Institute for putting this trip
together.
I have been, since I have been here, a strong believer in the
importance of Members on both sides of the aisle, I would say to the
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner), it is strange over here on the
left side of the aisle too for me, as it is for him on the right, but I
think when Members of both parties go out and see each other out of
this room, good things happen.
So I found it to be an enriching weekend from many standpoints. But
just to have the opportunity to talk to Members who are not of my party
and to get to know them as people, I think helps us do our work here. I
think that is important.
What actually piqued my interest on this trip, I heard the gentleman
from California (Mr. Filner) at the Hershey retreat a couple years ago
during the nondenominational church services describe his experience.
It is his story, and I am not going to take it from him. But basically
there are three Members of his party that were all involved in this
movement at the same time in the 1960s, and they had some differences
in points of view.
The fact that they not only came together years later to serve in the
United States Congress but in the same political party, I think to me
that story, I have carried that story with me since he told it, for 3
years, to show that there are no differences that cannot be bridged
when one begins to work towards it.
Like the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), I knew the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). I would sit as the Speaker pro tempore, and
would I see the gentleman from Georgia come to the well and talk every
once in a while. A lot of times he was talking about things that I did
not agree with, but I did not know his rich history.
To have the chance to walk in the footsteps with a true American hero
like John Lewis was an amazing experience for me, just a kid growing up
in Ohio. I will not forget that.
We have all been gone over our Easter break in our districts. I took
what I learned that weekend, and I visited a lot of schools because I
like to spend time with my young people in my district.
I was able to tell them the story about what some people had to go
through to get the right to vote and the fact that John Lewis and
people like John Lewis were willing to risk their lives, were willing
to risk police dogs and fire hoses and everything else that could be
thrown at them in the 1960s just to get the right that we all take for
granted to go in and cast a ballot in a Presidential race or a
congressional race or a city council race.
So I was talking with some high school seniors, and I asked them,
because we can register to vote at 18, how many are registered that are
18; and only half of them were. It has given me a powerful incentive
and a powerful message to go back and talk to them now about what
people before them had to go through to get the right to vote and that
they should not squander that opportunity.
I was reminded of how far we have to go, but I was mostly reminded of
the fact that we need to do it all together, Republicans and Democrats,
black and white, men and women, rich and poor. A lot of times
discussion in this Chamber is about dividing rather than bringing
together. We need to concentrate more on finding the things that unite
us. When we do that, I think that we can move forward.
If the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) will permit me, I have one
quick story that I was reminded of when we were in Alabama, about one
of our Presidents, Harry Truman. We all go door-to-door in our
campaigns. As the story goes, he ran into a nasty homeowner one day and
stuck out his hand and said, ``I am Harry Truman, and I would like your
vote.'' The woman would not come from behind the door. She said, ``Mr.
Truman, I know exactly who you are, and I would not vote for you if you
were Saint Peter himself.'' Mr. Truman, for a Democrat, he had pretty
quick wit. He said, ``Madam, with all due respect, if I were Saint
Peter, I do not think you would be in my district.''
It occurred to me when we were down in Alabama that this is one
district, the United States is one district, and we need to figure out
what it is that is going to pull us together more than anything else.
So I was very thankful to spend those three days with all of my
colleagues, and I was most appreciative to have the chance to spend
that time with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Watt) who was a great fellow to join us with his wife as
well on the trip as we crossed the State.
{time} 2100
Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I was seated here
listening to the stories and thinking about what this trip meant to me.
Let me start by just thanking the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis),
our leader, our primary leader, and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Upton), our co-leader on this trip. It was a wonderful, wonderful
experience.
My colleagues will probably recall that at the end of the trip when
we were at the airport about to board the plane from Alabama, we had a
little debriefing, a discussion, and everybody was going around talking
about what this trip had meant. And I sat quietly and never said
anything because I was still sorting through the emotions I was feeling
and the significance of this trip.
And it took me several weeks really to kind of put in perspective
some feelings. And this is kind of where I got to at the end of that
vexing period.
I was reminded that in 1963, I got a scholarship offer to Talladega
University in Alabama. And I came to that fork in the road. I had never
been to Alabama. And when I looked at the scholarship offer that I had
gotten, I decided that probably the last place in the world I wanted to
go was Alabama in 1963.
And I have been true to that up to this trip. I never set foot in
Alabama. It was not a place that I ever aspired to go to to visit. I
had these images of people being beaten and fire-hosed and dogs sicced
on folks. All these years since 1963, those images have lingered in my
mind, and I never have wanted to go to Alabama. And I finally got
talked into it by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the
wonderful people from Faith and Politics, my good friend over here.
Now, another part of me kept saying, well, why did I not want to go
to Alabama? I mean, North Carolina, which is where I am from, is in the
south also. And I think I came to grips with some fears that I had
about going to Mississippi and Alabama and Arkansas, the far southern
States, where this movement was taking place. I think I decided that
part of the reason that I never wanted to go there was that I was
afraid to go there.
I knew that there were battles to be fought in North Carolina, but I
felt like
[[Page H1845]]
the people in North Carolina were more progressive than the people in
Alabama and Mississippi. And so I came away from this trip really with
an increased amount of admiration for the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis).
I wrote him a letter. It took me 3 or 4 weeks to write the letter to
him because I wanted to say exactly what I wanted that note to him to
say. And what I wanted to say to him was that there were those of us in
all areas of the south who were kind of around the margins of the civil
rights movement, doing little bits and pieces of things here and there,
and then there were those like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis)
and Fred Shuttlesworth who were right in the middle of this heated
battle and making what very easily could have been the ultimate
sacrifice, and was in fact for the young girls in Alabama and for other
people who participated in those movements.
I already loved and respected the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
I had read his book. I had heard about him. I had seen him on
television. But to be there in Alabama and to walk and ride through
that State where I now believe I was fearful of going allowed me to
come away with an even greater appreciation for those who are on the
firing line and making that ultimate sacrifice.
And so, I want to say publicly and with all sincerity that I thank
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). And I thank all of those
thousands of people, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner)
and all of those people who were not fearful, or even if they were,
they overcame those fears and they went and they made that sacrifice,
because it has made America what it is today and it has certainly made
it possible for us all to stand here and share these experiences, black
and white, Republican and Democrat, and to say to America that when it
comes to a unity of purpose and all of us being Americans, there is no
argument about that anymore. And in those days, there was an argument
about it.
We put that argument to rest, and we owe a great debt to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for doing that.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South
Carolina (Mr. Spratt).
Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, I shudder to follow that eloquence.
The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) and I grew up 30 miles
apart. He is from Charlotte, North Carolina. I am from York, South
Carolina. Not Alabama, not Mississippi, but still the segregated south.
I was 12 years old in 1954, about 18, 19, 20 years old when the civil
rights movement started. And while York County was not the same as
Neshoba, Mississippi, when the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) made
his first stop in Rock Hill, South Carolina, 13 miles from where I live
on the Freedom Rider bus, he was met by thugs in the bus station who
took him on, took him down, and he received the first of I guess many
batterings on the head, bloodied up badly.
But here is the profound point about it and the reason this
pilgrimage we made is so important to understanding ourselves as a
people and understanding what this movement is about. A police officer,
as I recall the story, had been standing on the sidelines watching the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) take the beating, and at some point
he sort of interceded and asked him, do you want to prefer charges,
which he could have done. And he said, no, I do not have anything
against him individually. I am against the system, the oppression, the
way it affects white people and black people, causes them to do things
like this. I did not come down here to get this man in trouble. I came
to lift us all out of this oppression.
In that same city of Rock Hill, about the third or fourth series of
sit-in strikes developed at the local McCrory's from a small, black
Baptist college called Friendship College. It started more or less
spontaneously, but they were following what was happening at North
Carolina A&T and what was happening at Nashville. And they did the same
thing in Rock Hill except they did something different.
When they were taken to the county prison, which, believe me, the
prison campus is not a place where anybody of any color would want to
be, when they were taken there, they did not post bond; they took their
toothbrushes with them and they stayed for the duration, 30 days.
The significance of what they did was not appreciated by those of us
who were outside onlookers. It was not appreciated by me until I read
Taylor Branch's book. Because SNCC at that point was just about broke,
they did not have money to send bail money up to get these young
college students out of jail, and they developed a motto that would
exonerate SNCC from having to come up with that money: ``Jail. No
bail.''
Now, my colleagues would think that that was just a bunch of hard-
headed college kids out to make a point. But the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Lewis), when I asked him about the significance of it, told me,
no, that helped us show the world that we were not just a bunch of
college kids out fighting for our rights, but it was something more
profound here.
There is a profoundness of doctrine about civil disobedience, a
profoundness of doctrine about nonviolence that we all need to learn in
this country today. And that is why this pilgrimage was more than just
some symbolic journey. We all need to learn this.
Every school child in America grows up and knows what Lexington Green
is. He or she should also know what Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham is.
Every school child in this country grows up and knows what Concord
Bridge is in Massachusetts and what happened there. He or she should
know what happened at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, too. It is a part of
our history.
And the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) put it far better
than I. For 200 years just about, this country professed to be the
greatest constitutional democracy in the world. We lived under a
Declaration of Independence which guaranteed all men the pursuit of
happiness, equality. But it was not true. The Supreme Court of this
country said black people were not even people. The Constitution did
not even count them.
That was the kind of lie that this country lived. And these people,
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and so many others in these
places, made America rise up and live out the true meaning of her
creed. It was an enormous accomplishment. It was a second American
Revolution. No question about it.
Back when the Friendship Nine went to the county prison and stayed
there, told SNCC they did not want bail, one of the early organizers of
the movement in Nashville, Diane Nash, was in Atlanta; and she was so
moved by what they did that she drove her car to Rock Hill and got
picked up at McCrory's and taken to the county jail, and she stayed
there with them just to give them the spirit to persevere.
She said something about the movement once when someone had made a
paean to Dr. King, who was truly an American hero, no doubt about it.
She said, do not make him superhuman. Do not enlarge him beyond the
point that he is bigger than life itself. Because if you do, she said,
you will misunderstand the meaning of the movement.
There were all kinds of people involved in the movement. Rosa Parks
stands for the kind of participation that made the movement work, young
members like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), coming out of a
small rural community in Alabama and just following their gut
instincts. We made the movement. These people made the movement.
And if we understand that, and that is part of what we understand
when we go to Selma and Birmingham and Montgomery, if we understand
that, we realize that we do not need some big Messianic figure to come
lead us down the path to the future; it is our responsibility, all of
our responsibilities.
And the abiding message in this experience is, we can change this
country for the better and it is a responsibility of each of us to do
it.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Forbes), a very special member of the delegation who has always spoken
against discrimination and bigotry.
Mr. FORBES. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. And I
thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Upton) particularly for leading this delegation. It is an
important time for all of us, I think, in this country.
[[Page H1846]]
An old adage says that ``if you do not remember history, you are
bound to repeat it.'' This is a little bit more than just remembering
history, though. This is really asking us to dig deep within our soul,
as so many who led the civil rights movement, the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and some of the others that have been mentioned,
Bernard Lafayette, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King, literally hundreds of
people who broke with conventional wisdom and said that we should reach
deeper into America's soul and make this a better Nation.
{time} 2115
For me it was really, going into my fifth year in the Congress, one
of the most profound and emotional and important undertakings that I
have done since I have been privileged to represent the First District
of New York.
During the 1960s, during the height of the civil rights endeavors, I
was in my early teens, 11, 12, 13 years of age, and like my friend from
North Carolina, I saw what was going on in Alabama and as a youngster I
thought, ``That's not a place that I would ever want to be.'' But still
it was very remote to me, not unlike unfortunately the images we were
seeing in Vietnam. It was horrible. We were outraged. Our hearts were
broken. But it was happening somewhere far, far away, and particularly
for young people at that time, many who were challenged to move into
leadership roles as they grew older themselves. There was a remoteness
to that endeavor that I am embarrassed to admit. But I was privileged
to be part of this delegation on the 34th anniversary of what happened
at the Edmund Pettis Bridge that really was almost the apex of the
civil rights struggle. It allowed me as just one Member of Congress to
dig deep within my own being and to ask, ``Are we doing enough today to
continue to correct the wrongs?'' We are in this wonderful body and we
are all sent here ostensibly to meet the challenges, to make America a
better place, to correct the wrongs that we see around us.
I am moved tonight by the bipartisan spirit that engulfed us when we
went to Selma, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama just a couple of weeks
ago. It reminds me that as a Member of Congress, I take those lessons
and those reminders back with me in a very real way. I am hopeful that
as we move forward, that this one Member of Congress, being further
sensitized to the need to understand that yes, we have come a long way
since even the 1960s but we have not come far enough.
As my friend from Ohio reminded me and all of us, that the key here
is that we do it all together, that we figure out a way to meet the
remaining challenges in this most wonderful Nation on the face of the
earth, where people like John Lewis and other leaders could challenge
the conventional wisdom and say, we can be a better place. And it is
not about condemning what we are, it is challenging us to be better as
we move forward as a Nation. And so I first of all again want to thank
the Faith and Politics Institute, Reverend Tanner, Fred Upton, my good
friend John Lewis and all of the Members who were part of that
delegation, because you really made it a very real and moving
experience for me and allowed me to take some valuable lessons from
that experience. I will not only return for the 35th anniversary but
also hopefully in my daily work as long as I have this privilege to try
to be a better Member of Congress and work to meet the other challenges
that we face.
In closing, I would like to also thank the gentleman from Alabama
(Mr. Hilliard) for his hospitality, the great way in which he received
us and opened up his heart so that we could learn a little bit more
about the wonderful Alabama that has come. I thank him for his
leadership on this as well.
Mr. HILLIARD. One of the things that I think I learned from this
experience was the lessons that we get from being with one another, not
in this Chamber but away. I got to know some of you who I had barely
spoken to in the four terms that I have been in this body. That gave me
an opportunity to learn and to know of you as individuals. That was so
gratifying to me, because I know you as persons. I do not see you as
just another Congressperson or just as a number, not as a Republican or
as a Democrat but as a friend. I really appreciate having that long
weekend, spending that long weekend with you and getting to know you as
individuals.
I would like to take the opportunity to invite you back for another
long weekend for the millennium march. It will be bigger, it will be
better, we will have more participants, and hopefully we will have many
people who, like you, will see life as it is unfolding in the United
States, a better place for all of us because of what John Lewis and so
many others like him did in the past. Thank you for coming and you are
welcome back to come in March of the year 2000.
Mr. UPTON. Just prior to the gentleman from Alabama giving his
statement there just now, a number of us asked our friend Doug Tanner
and some others, I know that based on our pilgrimage, there will be a
lot of us that would like to cosponsor legislation to make that little
park just across the river by the real start of the Edmund Pettis
Bridge a national park, a national shrine.
We are looking for you to lead that effort as it is in your district,
congressional courtesy. But if you wait too much longer, you are going
to have some other people. We are offering that up, but I know a lot of
us here, Republicans and Democrats, would like to cosponsor that effort
and help you see that become a reality. As people gave their remarkable
tales here on the floor tonight and what it meant to them, for some
reason, about a little more than a year ago, John Lewis and maybe Amo
Houghton and a few others, Jay Dickey, Doug Tanner, sort of had me on a
list, and we got together down in a little room in the Capitol, EF-100,
and we talked about racism and what we could do. We can always pass the
laws, but until something really happens at the grassroots, nothing is
really going to happen. We talked about a number of different
resolutions that we were offering up. I think the gentleman from
Georgia then was in the middle of writing his book and how we could
come together. A couple of weeks later, he asked me on the House floor
if I might make the pilgrimage to Selma in 1998. When he gave me the
weekend, March 6, the first weekend, I knew that I had major
commitments back home in Michigan, that I could not do it, but somehow
we juggled some things around and I flew down just for the day. I had
never been to Alabama, ever. I flew down that Sunday morning, caught
the first flight out at National Airport at 6 a.m. or whatever,
terrible storm, got down just in time to hear John's sermon in the
church. His sermon reflected a little bit on who would have guessed,
me, John Lewis, 33 years later, coming here to preach in the same
church where Dr. King had preached and seeing some of the changes but
knowing we had so far to go.
We walked across the bridge, we took a bus ride, we had a long
discussion about racism and bigotry and what it meant in our own lives.
We came back. The gentleman then came back to my district. We had a
tough scene this last summer. We had the Klan come to my district for
the first time that I can ever remember. They were not welcome. Yet
they had the right to come. As you and I both met with a number of
leaders in my hometown, we discussed how we ought to deal with it. You
went back to really sort of the roots of what you wrote about in your
book and your life, about nonviolence, how we ought to make it a
nonevent, and we did. And in the end, they canceled their visit the day
that they were supposed to come, though they came a few months later,
and they found out that there was no welcome wagon out and people for
the most part ignored them. The reaction was perfect.
As we thought about this trip this year, and Amo Houghton was the
cochair last year, the Republican cochair along with Jim Nicholson, our
Republican national chairman and the former governor of Colorado last
year as well, I was privileged to be asked to cochair this group and
really spend a night or two in Alabama, to have listened to the stories
of so many Members last year when they talked about their meeting with
Governor Wallace. I can remember Sherrod Brown and you going to visit
him literally in, I do not know if it was a hospital or his room, but
he was not doing so well. Of course he has passed away today. And the
white Members were not anxious to have their picture taken with him,
thinking about all of the efforts that Governor
[[Page H1847]]
Wallace had done at the schoolhouse door and everyplace else. Yet you
had forgiven him, peace in your heart. He knew that he had erred, he
had asked for forgiveness and in fact he came around.
As we read your book, John, and listen to your words, your wonderful
words about leading the nonviolent effort, to see the courageous
struggle that you went through and to visit the sites, whether they be
in Montgomery or Birmingham, to see where Rosa Parks was taken off that
bus, to look in the church where Dr. King first spoke or first became a
minister, to see the shrine in the basement of the four wonderful,
beautiful little girls who were killed with a bomb on a Sunday, to go
through that wonderful museum in Birmingham, to see really, to touch
the jail cell, to see the bombed-out bus that you and others had ridden
at some point, to walk through that park, to see the dogs with their
fangs out and to learn from Bernard Lafayette that in fact one of the
German shepherds had a gold-plated tooth that the police riled up when
he charged those kids.
We are so thankful for the work that you did to really help change
America for the better. The reason that this pilgrimage was so
important was for us to know where we are going, we have got to know
where we have been. We know where we have been now, those of us that
were not from there, and we know that we never ever want to go back.
Yet there is work that we have to do. As Republicans and Democrats, as
Members in this Chamber and the other and across the country, we have
to make sure that there is no room in our hearts for hatred, for
bigotry or racism. It is your footsteps and it is your leadership and
it is your grace that allowed us to see the path that you took that
helps give us the conviction and the courage and the perseverance to
continue that path.
We are so appreciative of that love and of that work, John.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me thank my friend and colleague and each
of you for all of the kind words and everything that you have said
tonight. But you must keep in mind, I was only one participant in a
struggle. It was a community of participants, not a leader but just one
individual in a community of individuals participating in a movement. I
think our trip has brought us closer together.
I ran into Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. last Sunday at church. She
said to me, ``John, I was so moved, I was deeply moved, I can never
tell you how moved, to see all those Members of Congress in Selma,
Alabama during the first weekend in March.''
I think that is why we have to go back. I am glad our colleague,
Congressman Earl Hilliard from Alabama, has extended an invitation for
us to come back for the 35th anniversary of the march from Selma to
Montgomery. We must go back. Because I think in this process, we help
America to become a circle of brothers and sisters, what I like to
call, really in the movement what we call a band of brothers and
sisters, a circle of trust. We build a sense of community. We move
toward that period and that place of laying down the burden of race. I
think as we move into the next century, we have to be the leaders,
saying that as a Nation and as a people, we must lay down the burden of
race. It is too heavy a burden for us to bear. I think what we have
displayed tonight with the help of our good friend Doug Tanner and
Faith and Politics, that it is something that we can share, not just
with each other but back in our districts, in our States and for the
whole Nation. If we can build just pockets of the beloved community,
here on Capitol Hill, here in Washington, maybe we can build it around
America, and maybe we can bring peace to the world community.
{time} 2130
Madam Speaker, I think we got to keep it going, and this should not
be the end, it should be just the beginning.
Mr. LaHOOD. Madam Speaker, I just want to say I know there are a lot
of Members who are sitting in their offices reading mail and probably
signing mail and doing all kinds of work, and what I would say:
The invitation has been extended to Members for next year to go to
Selma to celebrate the 35th anniversary, and if there are Members who
care about race relations in America, and if there are Members who care
about improving race relations in America, and if there are Members who
care about really improving race relations in their own State, in their
own district, I hope they will talk to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis) or any of the rest of us about the opportunity to go to Selma
next year and celebrate, commemorate, the 35th anniversary. It is a
great opportunity, and it is a great learning experience.
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr.
Dickey).
Mr. DICKEY. I do not want my colleagues to leave yet. But I want to
say something. All this talk about the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Lewis), it has got some down sides to it, and let me just tell my
colleagues what they are.
If we build him up so much, he might choose to come into my district
again and campaign against me. So what I want to say, John, is you are
invited to come into Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on all of the even-numbered
years, but I do not want you coming back again.
And another point: The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry), which
makes two Arkansans that went on this trip; there was not any other
State, is not another State that had two people. Or North Carolina it
is? Excuse me. I will have to say that we matched North Carolina. But
Marion also campaigned against me in the last election. I do not know
what it is that is about me, but I want to be serious about it in this
sense: that what we do politically does not matter; what we do with the
heart does. And the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and I are
connected in the heart, and I want to thank him for that.
And I wanted to talk to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood).
Mr. LaHOOD. There are actually two Members from Ohio, too, just to
make sure.
Mr. DICKEY. Is that right?
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Actually there were three Members from Ohio. Sherrod
Brown, Tom Sawyer and I can tell you what it is about you that gets
these guys in your district.
Mr. DICKEY. Just because the gentleman is on that side of the aisle
does not allow him to do that.
Mr. LaHOOD. It has something to do with being from Arkansas. I think
that is what he was getting at.
Mr. UPTON. We had two Members from the great State of Michigan.
Mr. DICKEY. I just wanted you all to chime in. That is the only
reason I brought it up.
I want to get into an exchange with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
LaHood) about how, what he thought of Southerners during this time, and
I will chime in as well.
Mr. LaHOOD. We only have 1 minute left, and I am afraid that it would
not be enough time for me to explain what I think about Southerners.
Mr. DICKEY. I am talking about at that time. I think we got another
hour.
Mr. UPTON. Does the gentleman from Georgia have the next hour? Is
that right? I think we do, so we can go a few minutes, could we not?
General Leave
Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members,
and we had many Members on the trip that were not here tonight, may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
on the subject of my special order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I am by profession an educator and a
historian, and from March 5th to March 7th, not only did I become a
student of our nation's civil rights history, I saw history come alive
during the pilgrimage to Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. To be led by
civil rights leader and my distinguished colleague, Representative John
Lewis, was an honor in itself.
The events which took place in Alabama were pivotal in our nation's
civil rights movement. ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail,'' the 16th
Street Baptist Church bombing and the Bloody Sunday march were crucial
experiences to America's collective psyche. It was Martin Luther King,
Jr., and his devoted supporters who forced Americans to acknowledge the
injustices committed against our fellow American citizens.
Race relations is extremely, if not more, relevant today. The painful
lessons learned in
[[Page H1848]]
Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma continue to be experienced by minority
populations all over the United States. The struggle for political
recognition and participation continues not only in the African-
American populations, but now in the fast-growing Hispanic American and
Asian Pacific Islander American groups. It is only in the past few
decades that we have seen the mobilization of Hispanic and Asian
Pacific Islander communities, and who knows what racial-oriented
movements will awaken at the dawn of the next millennium. My point is
that these movements are crucial to our nation's maturity and
diversity, they are integral to our constant drive to faithfully
implement the democratic principles on which our Constitution is based.
I took my youngest son, Raphael, to Alabama, because I felt that it
was crucial for young generations to learn the history of the civil
rights struggle. The American people did not achieve the Voting Rights
Act or establish the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice
because these were the ``right'' things to do to help achieve equality
in the United States. Our young adults must understand that it was
through the toil, and sometimes blood, of courageous brothers, sisters,
mothers, fathers, students and teachers who accomplished these feats.
The people of Guam are going through our own civil rights struggle.
We are American citizens, yet we are unable to vote for President. The
opportunity to determine vote for our island's future political status
has been stymied by numerous political and administrative obstacles.
The Pilgrimage to Alabama would not have been made possible without
the leadership of Congressman John Lewis and Congressman Fred Upton,
without the efforts of Congressman Earl Hilliard, and without the
sponsorship of the Faith and Politics Institute. I take this
opportunity to thank them for their diligent efforts in ``keeping hope
alive.''
I encourage my colleagues to continue to learn from the lessons
taught in Alabama.
Mr. UPTON. I just want to again thank the Faith in Politics Institute
and the wonderful leadership of Doug Tanner and a terrific staff who
really planned hours and many weeks to get this thing done the right
way, and it was done the right way, and I know that Members will be
anxious to go next year and to expand our circles and to do whatever we
can to help end the scourge of racism and bigotry across this land.
____________________