[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 22, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8531-H8535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENSE OF HOUSE IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND 
                           UNIVERSITIES WEEK

  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on 
Government Reform be discharged from further consideration of the 
resolution (H. Res. 293), expressing the sense of the House of 
Representatives in support of ``National Historically Black Colleges 
and Universities Week,'' and ask for its immediate consideration in the 
House.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, under my 
reservation, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) to 
explain the bill.

[[Page H8532]]

  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  The purpose of this bill is to recognize the 105 historically black 
colleges across this country that have served not only the interests of 
the black community, but this country, in providing a sound and 
fruitful education for people of color over the past many years in this 
country. We want to make sure that we recognize those institutions 
during this particular week known as National Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities Week, and the purpose of this resolution is 
to memorialize that.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, as 
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Civil Service, I have come to 
this House to support many resolutions. However, as a graduate of an 
historically black college; as a member of the Board of Regents of 
Morgan State University, as a father of a freshman at Howard 
University, and with five such universities and colleges in my home 
State of Maryland, I am especially pleased to endorse and support 
historically black colleges and universities.
  Historically, black colleges and universities should be commended in 
their success in educating not only the privileged among us, but the 
disadvantaged among us also. HBCUs have performed a remarkable task. 
They have educated almost 40 percent of this country's black college 
graduates, they have graduated 75 percent of black Ph.D.s, 46 percent 
of all black business executives, 50 percent of black engineers, 80 
percent of our Federal judges, and 85 percent of all black doctors.
  In addition, they have educated an estimated 50 percent of the 
Nation's black attorneys and 75 percent of the black military officers. 
The historically black health professional schools have trained an 
estimated 40 percent of the Nation's black dentists, 50 percent of 
black pharmacists, and 75 percent of the Nation's black veterinarians. 
HBCUs can claim these significant success rates because they maintain a 
philosophy of high scholastic achievement and career goals as well as 
an enriching social and cultural environment.
  Further, HBCU faculty are among the most scholared in our Nation's 
university system; and as role models provide quality educational and 
practical experience to HBCU students. HBCUs can also be credited with 
making the higher education financially attainable for those who 
otherwise would not be able to afford a higher education. This is 
extremely important because education is the key to the door of 
economic prosperity. That is why I commend Bill Gates, chairman of 
Microsoft, for pledging to spend $1 billion over the next 20 years to 
give college scholarships to thousands of academically talented, but 
financially needy minority students across the country. William Gray, 
III, President of the United Negro College Fund, will help administer 
the scholarship program.
  The students in this program and in the HBCU system as a whole not 
only receive instruction that propels them into blossoming careers but 
also receive a mandate to serve as leaders in our country and in the 
world. In essence, these schools have an enduring commitment to 
educating youth, African-Americans and other people of color, and the 
disenfranchised, for leadership and service not only to our Nation, but 
to our global community.
  As I have said, HBCUs open the door to opportunities and promote 
leadership and service. It should be noted, however, that these items 
do not become a reality if students are denied positions, promotions, 
or the chance to serve in certain capacities because of their race or 
ethnicity. HBCUs have produced congressional representatives, State 
legislators, writers, musicians, actors, activists, business leaders, 
lawyers and doctors, and this resolution recognizes not only 
historically black colleges and universities, but all of the people of 
color that they have educated.
  It also recognizes all of those educators and administrators who have 
touched children and young people over and over again, and indeed, 
touched the future. Today, I am honored to pay tribute to these 
historic and great institutions that have fortified our Nation's 
heritage and our future in education.
  Now it gives me great pleasure to yield to the distinguished 
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), who has had a history of 
consistently uplifting historically black colleges and universities not 
only in his home State of South Carolina, but throughout the country.
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, let me thank my friend from Maryland for 
yielding me this time. I want to also thank the leadership of this body 
for scheduling this resolution for debate, and the chairman and ranking 
member of this subcommittee for bringing this to the floor with their 
support.
  Mr. Speaker, the 105 HBCUs located in our Nation are monuments and 
testimony to the farsightedness and creative genius of those who have 
great faith and confidence in the promise of this great Nation. I 
shudder to think of where I would be today had it not been for Morris 
College in Sumter, my hometown. My mother and father both attended that 
school. I and one of my brothers attended South Carolina State in 
Orangeburg. Another brother and sister-in-law are products of Claflin 
College in Orangeburg. One of my daughters attended Benedict in 
Columbia and many other relatives and friends are alumni of Allen in 
Columbia and Voorhees in Denmark.

                              {time}  1945

  All six of these historically black colleges and universities are 
located in the congressional district that I am proud to represent here 
in this body. I believe in these institutions, and consider them to be 
national treasures.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, last year these institutions were collectively 
placed on the list of our Nation's most endangered historic sites by 
the National Trust of Historic Preservation. That action was a great 
testimony, as great a testimony as can be given, to what we ought to be 
doing in this body to preserve and protect these schools and their 
campuses.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope this resolution is the beginning of renewed 
interest in and support for these great institutions.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to my 
distinguished colleague, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), 
who has also been at the forefront of uplifting historically black 
colleges and universities throughout our country, and certainly doing a 
great job in her own State of Texas.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cummings) for his leadership, and I thank the chairman 
for joining us today and being supportive. This is a compliment to all 
of us in this House, Republicans and Democrats, for it is a bipartisan 
salute.
  I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), who offered 
this legislation to acknowledge historically black colleges.
  Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that there are 105 historically 
black colleges and universities in the United States. It is equally 
important to note that we stated there are colleges and universities. 
It means there are institutions who have undergraduate degrees and 
graduate degrees.
  As noted by my colleague, the gentleman from Maryland, many of our 
lawyers, doctors, Ph.D.s, and scientists in the African-American 
community have come from historically black colleges.
  I am particularly proud to come from a State with a number of 
historically black colleges, and if I might share the history of one, 
Texas Southern University, located in my district, it was founded, 
unfortunately, in the ashes of segregation. Heman Sweatt wanted to 
attend the University of Texas School of Law, but my State 
unfortunately in the late 1940s would not allow a black man to attend 
the State system. Yet, the law required that he be educated, so our 
school or our system in Texas devised, if you will, what some thought a 
second-class approach.
  In the basement of the law school or some of the buildings on the 
University of Texas, Heman Sweatt was offered a law school education. 
But out of his persistence and determination, Texas Southern 
University, originally called Texas State College, was founded.
  Many of the individuals who taught at that school are heroes 
themselves. I would like to note my father-in-law, Doctor, or Mr. 
Phillip Lee, I promoted him to doctor, but he is a hero to me because 
he was a Tuskegee airman. He brought that kind of quality and 
excellence to Texas Southern University.

[[Page H8533]]

  Mr. Biggers, John Biggers, one of the most outstanding African-
American artists in this Nation, was a teacher at Texas Southern 
University. Both my father-in-law and John Biggers were graduates of 
Hampton University.
  These universities are think tanks for our communities. They were the 
origins of some of the civil rights activism, where they promoted and 
encouraged young people to have self-esteem. They promoted learning and 
intellect and theory and thought.
  Many of us know Dr. Benjamin Mays of Morehouse. We are still reading 
his works. So many young men who graduated from Morehouse College can 
attribute their own self-dignity and humanity and intellect, such as 
Dr. Martin Luther King, from Dr. Benjamin Mays.
  These are wonderful schools, and I am delighted that those of us who 
are members of the Black Caucus, as well as those who are Members of 
this House, Republicans and Democrats, have not forgotten them.
  Might I also cite Oakwood College, of which I am a member of the 
board, in Huntsville, Alabama. It is a religious college but it is a 
historically black college, organized in the Seventh Day Adventist 
Church. It is a college that has educated religious leaders around this 
Nation. It has its own great history of civil rights activism, and it 
is a proud citizen or a proud asset of the great State of Alabama.
  Might I say that in the course of my work here in the United States 
Congress as a member of the Committee on Science, I have been very 
gratified to offer amendments to enhance our historically black 
colleges, along with other colleges. We have promoted the sharing of 
laboratory equipment, used laboratory equipment from NASA and our 
laboratories around the country, our research laboratories. We have 
provided technical assistance to the laboratories or to the schools, as 
well. We have encouraged the Department of Energy to look for its 
research partners in historically black colleges.
  We must remember that they are there, and that they are American 
treasures. As we remember that they are there, let me join my 
colleagues in promoting and asking and calling on the President to 
issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States and 
interested groups to conduct appropriate ceremonies, activities, and 
programs to demonstrate support for historically black colleges and 
universities in the United States.
  Just as I consider myself a preservationist on history in the United 
States of America, let us never forget the rich and rewarding part 
these historically black colleges all bring to the American history 
story, because in fact they started when times were bad. They are now 
here in times that are good. We should never forget from whence we have 
all come.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to my 
colleague, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), as he again is 
another person who has made historically black colleges and 
universities a major priority of his. He has synchronized his 
conscience with his conduct.

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding to me.
  I, too, rise in support of this resolution to recognize this week as 
National Black College Week.
  I also want to take the opportunity to commend and congratulate my 
good friend, the gentleman from Maryland, for the outstanding work that 
he has done, not only on behalf of black colleges and universities, but 
on behalf of people throughout these United States of America.
  For more than 150 years, the historically black colleges and 
universities have played a vital role in providing students with an 
exceptional education. These institutions have significantly increased 
educational access for thousands of economically and socially 
disadvantaged Americans, particularly young African Americans. HBCU 
students have gone on to be recognized as a strong influence for the 
common good, both on campus and in the communities where they are 
located.
  I know firsthand the value of historical black colleges and 
universities, for I, along with three of my brothers, four of my 
sisters, four nephews, four nieces, and I guess a host of cousins all 
attended a historically black college, which is now the University of 
Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
  In fact, three members of my staff across the street all graduated 
from historically black colleges and universities, Morehouse, Central 
State, and Fiske.
  Mr. Speaker, this week is definitely a good week to recognize HBCUs 
and their contributions to society, but it is also a good time to 
recognize and pinpoint some of their needs. For many years, 
historically black colleges and universities as a whole have made ways 
when there were no ways, have had to make do, wondering how they were 
going to make it.
  As a matter of fact, I recall the President of my university from 
time to time calling meetings of students to talk about whether or not 
we were going to be able to make it through the year. He was not only 
an educational genius, but a most compassionate man, President Lawrence 
Arnett Davis. We called him Prexie.
  So many of us had very little money. I never will forget going to 
college with $20 in my pocket on my 16th birthday, wondering how I was 
going to make it. How would I do it? But because of the compassion of 
the individuals who were there, because of their recognition of me, 
because of their understanding, I was obviously able to attend, to 
graduate, and then to move on and become a Member of the most august 
body perhaps on the face of this Earth, the United States Congress.
  So I will always have gratitude for the important role that these 
institutions have played, but I will also always pledge to do 
everything in my power to make sure that other young people who are 
uncertain about their future will have the opportunity to experience 
the offerings of these tremendous institutions.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush), who has also been a leader with 
regard to issues confronting our educational system throughout our 
country, but particularly in Illinois.
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the gentleman from Maryland 
for his efforts on behalf of the historically black colleges. I want to 
commend the chairman for his untiring efforts on this particular 
resolution.
  I also want to commend the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. 
Clyburn, for his work, for his authorship of this particular 
resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 293, a 
resolution which expresses the sense of this House of Representatives 
in support of National Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
Week, which began on September 19, 1999.
  Historically black colleges and universities, HBCUs, are post-
secondary academic institutions founded before 1964 whose educational 
missions have historically been the education of African Americans. 
Located in various regions of the United States, there are now about 
105 HBCUs in existence.
  HBCUs consist of a mixture of community and junior colleges, 4-year 
colleges and universities, and both public and private institutions. 
HBCUs enroll less than 20 percent of African-American undergrads, but 
HBCUs award one-third of all bachelor degrees and a significant number 
of the advanced degrees earned by African Americans throughout this 
Nation.
  Since inception, HBCUs have stood poised as a catalyst for 
educational opportunity for generations of African Americans. These 
institutions were born of the belief that post-Civil War black freedmen 
should become immediately educated. These 105 institutions which were 
created for this purpose today continue to provide quality higher 
education and professional nurturing to a broad mixture of diverse 
individuals, including people of other ethnic backgrounds and racial 
origins.
  Today I rise to commend these institutions and their faculties, their 
students and their administrators, those individuals who have created 
this initial goal of providing quality higher education to African 
Americans and others.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. Speaker, I just want to relate that I am a product of Albany, 
Georgia. When I was in the kindergarten going to my first school in 
Albany, Georgia, as a 5-year-old, I always approached

[[Page H8534]]

school with a certain awe, because located directly across the street 
from the grade school where I entered into kindergarten was Albany 
State College.
  I believe that Albany State College and my experience of watching and 
being involved in that environment have created a foundation that have 
helped shape my life and have made me the person that I am today. It 
created in me a yearning for education. It created in me a struggle and 
a strive for excellence.
  I know that historically black colleges throughout this Nation have 
provided doctors and lawyers and engineers and professionals of all 
types. I want to commend these institutions because I know that the 
reason the 1st Congressional District of Illinois is an outstanding 
district, the reason that it is a productive district is because, in 
the 1st Congressional District, we have a number of HBCU graduates from 
all walks of life.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, it gives me great 
pleasure at this juncture to yield to the distinguished gentlewoman 
from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton), a lady who also has put on her 
priority list and made a major priority the lifting up of our 
historically black colleges and universities.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to just commend the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cummings) in his leadership and the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) for joining him and bringing this resolution and 
what it means to, not only the African-American community, but what it 
means to America itself to be able to be institutions that give young 
people an opportunity that would not have had an opportunity.
  A mind is a terrible thing to waste is what the college fund now 
says. But, indeed, just think of the minds that have been turned on and 
the contributions that have been made.
  I am also a graduate of a small historically black university, which 
is a small Presbyterian school in North Carolina. But I want to speak 
also, not only to the uniqueness in terms of speaking to people who may 
not have had the resources, but also the unique opportunity that they 
have to bridge between the educational institution that they have to 
offer and the community, our land grant colleges throughout the Nation, 
particularly 1890 land grant colleges that make the transition between 
community and education, again, the valuable services they do for 
agriculture and for land grant and development of communities.
  So the community development, economic development, providing that 
kind of transitional university that makes a difference in the vitality 
and the survivability of our communities.
  So not only do they educate us as individuals, as an adult, but they 
reach out in the community and provide that continuous transition.
  Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) for 
his leadership and the vision and having the country to recognize the 
value that these institutions played for the United States, not only 
for African-Americans.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, as I conclude, I first 
want to thank the other side and the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Ose) and certainly the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough), the 
chairman of our Subcommittee on Civil Service, and our chairman and our 
ranking member of the committee.
  It does make me feel good to know that this is a bipartisan effort 
that we have all joined together to recognize these historically black 
colleges and universities.
  The gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) said something 
that really I think hit home, and that is that a lot of times I think 
when we look at these historically black colleges and universities, we 
look at them for the benefit that they have brought to the African-
American community. But the fact is that what these institutions have 
done, they have produced people who have gone out to become leaders and 
to make our entire society a better society and to make our world a 
better world. So it is the epitome of what can be done when people are 
given opportunity.
  I have often said that one does have all the genetic ability one 
wants to have. One can have all the will one wants to have. But if one 
is not given the opportunity, one is not going to go anywhere fast.
  So with that, I just want to just leave one note with us as I close. 
Mary McLeod Bethune founded that Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona 
Beach, Florida. She tells about how that college was started. I will be 
very brief, but I think this is very significant in her own words.
  She says, ``I went to Daytona Beach, a beautiful little village, 
shaded by great oaks and giant pines. I found a shabby four-room 
cottage, for which the owner wanted a rental of $11 a month. My total 
capital was a dollar and a half, but I talked him into trusting me 
until the end of the month for the rest. This was in September. A 
friend let me stay at her home, and I plunged into the job of creating 
something from nothing.'' Something from nothing. ``I spoke at 
churches, and the ministers let me take up collections. I buttonholed 
every woman who would listen to me.
  ``On October 3, 1904,'' almost 100 years ago, ``I opened the doors of 
my school, with an enrollment of five . . . girls . . . whose parents 
paid me fifty cents' weekly tuition. My own child was the only boy in 
the school. Though I hadn't a penny left, I considered cash money as 
the smallest part of my resources. I had faith in a living God, faith 
in myself, and a desire to serve.
  ``We burned logs and used charred splinters as pencils, and mashed 
elderberries for ink. I begged strangers for a broom and a lamp.'' I 
haunted the city dump and the trash piles behind hotels, retrieving 
discarded kitchenware, cracked dishes, broken chairs, pieces of old 
lumber. Everything scoured and mended. This was part of the training to 
salvage, to reconstruct, to make bricks,'' listen to what she said, 
``to make bricks without straw. As parents began to gradually leave 
their children overnight, I had to provide sleeping accommodations. I 
took corn sacks for mattresses. Then I picked Spanish moss trees, dried 
and cured it, and used it as a substitute for mattress hair.
  ``The school expanded fast. In less than 2 years I had 250 pupils.'' 
She goes on to tell how she built this school almost 100 years ago.
  The fact is that, since that time, many, many people have graduated 
from that school and gone on. Their children and their children's 
children have done well and have graduated. So that is the history, and 
that is why I guess we see so much excitement from the members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and others because these schools have, 
indeed, played a very significant role.
  I want to thank again the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) and the 
other side for joining.
  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. CUMMINGS. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution strongly. I 
want to commend the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) and the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) for this resolution in support 
of national historically black colleges and universities.
  I do not believe I can match the eloquence of Ms. Bethune in her 
recitation of her early days, but three things have struck me this 
evening of particular importance, and I wanted to reinforce them.
  Ms. Bethune said ``something from nothing.'' What more telling 
comment about the story of America than something from nothing. How apt 
to this evening to have that shared with us, the story of the founding 
of Bethune-Cookman.
  The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) talked earlier about 
the promise of this great Nation and that the promise of this great 
Nation is available for all, needs to be available for all.
  In the initial comments tonight of the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Cummings), he hit on what that promise is. I think the first words out 
of his mouth were ``education is the key.'' It remains the key. It is 
the key in my family. It is the key in his. It is the key in every 
family across this country. Get the education. Use one's mind. Use 
one's talents, whatever they may be, to make something from nothing.
  I am sitting here getting fired up over this, frankly. Before we wrap 
up,

[[Page H8535]]

one of the speakers spoke of the contributions of these 105 
historically black colleges. I went and I checked, I did a little 
research as to how it affects this particular body. I went through the 
list of sponsors of the resolution, my curiosity being: I wonder how 
many of them went to these black colleges.
  I just want to put that in the Record how this forum, how this body 
benefits from the past efforts and future efforts of these colleges and 
universities. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) has an 
honorary degree from a number of these universities: Bishop State, 
Central State, Howard, Morgan State, Spelman College. There are others 
here.
  The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) graduated from Fisk 
University. The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) graduated from Fisk 
University. The gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown), the gentleman 
from Florida (Mr. Hastings), the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek) 
have degrees from Florida A&M University. The gentleman from Maryland 
(Mr. Cummings) has a degree from Howard.
  The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard), the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Hastings), the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek), the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Wynn) and again the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Waters) have degrees from Howard.
  The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) has a degree from 
Jackson State University. The gentlewoman from South Carolina (Mrs. 
Clayton), she has a degree from Johnson C. Smith University. The 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. 
Hilliard), and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) have degrees 
from Morehouse College.
  The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson), the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Towns), and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) have 
degrees from North Carolina A&T State University.
  The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) serves on the board of 
trustees for Oakwood College. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Clyburn) has a degree from South Carolina State University. The 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson) has a degree from Southern 
University A&M College. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), 
as I said, has a degree from Spelman. The father-in-law of the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) has a degree from Texas Southern 
University.
  This is what America is all about, people taking their education and 
giving back. We have to go no further than the walls of this forum to 
find the positive benefit.
  I thank the gentleman and his colleague for bringing this resolution 
forward. Something from nothing, we ought to put that on the face of 
this building, because it is so apt.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I want to thank the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) for what he just said, because I 
think that it sends the word out from this place that historically 
black colleges and universities have, indeed, made a tremendous 
contribution.
  As the gentleman was talking, I could not help but think about my own 
history with a mother and father who never got out of elementary school 
because they were denied the very opportunities that I was given. But I 
will never forget going to Howard University and being embraced by the 
faculty there.
  We have not talked a lot about the faculty and the administrators at 
these schools, but I can tell my colleagues, they are some very, very 
special people who look at each one of these children, not as a 
statistic, but as someone that is like their own child. They want to 
make sure that their children, that their children, and they see them 
as their children, are raised up to be the very best that they can be. 
That is not to say that that does not happen at other schools. But I 
can speak for Howard, and I ask speak for some other historically black 
colleges and universities.
  The fact is that the gentleman from California is right. If we look 
just within the four walls of this chamber and look at all of those 
people who have been touched over and over again by historically black 
colleges and universities, it says a lot.
  When I dropped my daughter off at Howard University a few weeks ago 
as she began her freshman year as a second-generation college-attending 
person, I said to her one thing. I said, Jennifer, I am excited about 
your possibilities. I think that, when we look at historically black 
colleges and universities, it is exciting, and we become excited about 
young people's possibilities because we know that they will be 
embraced. We know that they will be planted in soil that is firm and 
fertile so that they can grow and be the best that they can be. All of 
it boils down to opportunity.
  Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cooksey). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 293

       Whereas there are 105 historically black colleges and 
     universities in the United States;
       Whereas black colleges and universities provide the quality 
     education so essential to full participation in a complex, 
     highly technological society;
       Whereas black colleges and universities have a rich 
     heritage and have played a prominent role in American 
     history;
       Whereas black colleges and universities have allowed many 
     underprivileged students to attain their full potential 
     through higher education;
       Whereas the achievements and goals of historically black 
     colleges and universities are deserving of national 
     recognition; and
       Whereas Senate Resolution 178 would designate the week 
     beginning September 19, 1999, as ``National Historically 
     Black Colleges and Universities Week'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved,
       That the House of Representatives--
       (1) supports the goals and ideas of ``National Historically 
     Black Colleges and Universities Week''; and
       (2) requests that the President issue a proclamation 
     calling on the people of the United States and interested 
     groups to conduct appropriate ceremonies, activities, and 
     programs to demonstrate support for historically black 
     colleges and universities in the United States.

  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________