[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H431-H437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BLACK HISTORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, we passed a bill today which deals with black 
history. Black history is being featured this month, the month of 
February. A number of my colleagues said they might join me to go 
further in the exploration of important aspects of black history 
tonight. I welcome them.
  I also think that what I have to say tonight about the budget and the 
proposed Congressional Black Caucus alternative budget is very much 
related to our concerns with black history. There is an opportunity 
here with this budget this year and the budgets that come for the next 
10 years, an opportunity to deal with an overriding question that ought 
to concern more Americans, and that is what does one do about the 
impact and the long-term effects of the 232 years of slavery, the 232 
years which denied one group of Americans the opportunity to own 
property and to gain wealth and, therefore, all of their descendents 
are behind the rest of the American mainstream population because they 
did not have any people to inherit anything from; and it appears that 
for some reason that is related to them individually or genetically, 
that they just cannot keep up economically with the rest of America. If 
we look at it without looking at history and without examining the fact 
that 232 years of slavery denied the right to own property and to 
accumulate wealth, then one cannot explain the phenomenon.
  So, as we look at the preparation of the budget for this year in a 
time of great surplus; we are projecting a surplus over the next 10 
years of $1.9 trillion. We will have more in revenues than we spent, 
even after we take out Social Security surpluses and Social Security 
surpluses are put in a separate so-called lockbox, we still have, after 
preserving all of the surpluses in Social Security, we still have $1.9 
trillion projected over the next 10 years. It is an opportunity to deal 
with some deficiencies that have been on the books for a long time. It 
is an opportunity to emphasize the need for programs or the initiation 
of programs for people on the very bottom.
  We passed a bill today related to Carter G. Woodson and Carter G. 
Woodson's role in keeping the whole idea of black history alive. I am 
going to try to show tonight that we have an opportunity by examining 
black history, examining the history of African Americans in the United 
States of America, we have an opportunity to understand some greater 
truths and to understand how we can utilize the present window of 
opportunity in terms of a budget surplus of unprecedented magnitude 
which can allow us to take steps to make some corrections of some of 
the conditions that are highlighted when we examine black history, some 
of the injustices that are highlighted.

                              {time}  1830

  Carter G. Woodson never emphasized the concept of reparations, but at 
the heart of the matter of the concept of reparations is that somehow 
this great crime that took place in America for more than 232 years 
ought to be rectified. There ought to be some compensation.
  Every year, every session of Congress, the gentleman from Michigan 
(Mr. Conyers) for the last 10 years has introduced a bill which deals 
with reparations. I want to relate how the passing of the legislation 
related to Carter G. Woodson and the study of black history is related 
to the reparation legislation that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Conyers) introduces every year.
  I want to go beyond that and show how it is also relevant to a recent 
book published by the head of TransAfrica, Randall Robinson. It is 
called ``The Debt;'' D E B T, ``The Debt.'' Then I want all of that to 
come back and be applied to our development of the Congressional Black 
Caucus alternative budget.
  As I said, I will be joined by some colleagues of mine who will talk 
about various aspects of black history.
  I had a history professor when I was at Morehouse College who had 
great contempt for the whole idea of celebrating or in any way 
highlighting black history. He thought that when we pull out separate 
facts and dates and heroes from one set of people and we magnify that 
and make it more visible and try to build history around that, it was 
the wrong way to proceed; that scholars like himself always saw history 
as a complicated, interwoven set of developments, and we cannot really 
have history that highlights certain basic facts about one people or 
another.
  Well, I think that the scholar of history has a point there. We 
understand that when we are dealing with history as a matter of the 
record to be read mainly by other scholars and journalists and various 
people who have a great interest with dealing with history at that 
level, where it is most accurate, most comprehensive, there may be an 
argument.
  But in terms of popular education, the fact is that those same 
scholars and historians over the years were leaving out, totally 
leaving out consideration of any developments that related to African-
Americans or to slaves or the descendents of slaves, and that Carter G. 
Woodson wanted to let African-American children and adults know that 
here is a history that they are part of in the most constructive way.
  So he started by highlighting positive achievements of Negroes in 
America, positive achievements of the descendents of slaves and of 
slaves themselves. He highlighted the fact that Benjamin Banneker was 
involved, very much so, in the layout of the city of Washington.
  He was part of a commission. Benjamin Banneker was a black man. He 
was part of a commission that determined how Washington would be laid 
out. With the architect, L'Enfant, L'Enfant, he was there. Some parts 
of the plans were lost at one point, and Banneker restructured the 
plans from his memory, and played a major role in carrying out the 
grand design that we all see in Washington here in terms of the way the 
Capitol was laid out and the White House is placed in a certain place, 
and the Mall and the streets and all, that was part of the original 
grand design for Washington. There was a black man, Benjamin Banneker, 
involved. Nobody bothers to note that.
  So Carter G. Woodson was the kind of person, a historian, who felt 
that those little facts that are left out become important; the fact 
that Crispus Atticus was the first man to die in the Boston massacre, 
and the fact that he was black was not properly noted until people like 
Carter G. Woodson brought it to our attention. The role of blacks in 
various inventions and various other developments was completely left 
out until Carter G. Woodson brought it to our attention.
  I think Randall Robinson wants to go much further. His book is new 
and has just come out. He is raising the study of black history as part 
of American history to a different level. He sat in the Rotunda of the 
Capitol and looked at all of the friezes that are carved around the 
Rotunda today.
  He begins his book, his introduction, by discussing the fact that in 
that frieze and in that set of depictions that

[[Page H432]]

are carved, we find no black people. He notes that fact as he ponders 
how the stones got to the Hill here, how the stones were lifted up. We 
had no cranes and no machinery.
  He notes the fact that to build the Capitol there was a request that 
was sent out for 100 slaves, 100 slaves to begin the work of the 
Capitol. That is how it started, those 100 slaves. Their masters were 
paid $5 a month for the work of those 100 slaves. That is a fact that 
we will not find anywhere in any of the books that the Architect of the 
Capitol has and the Capitol historian. They do not have those facts. We 
have to go hunt for them somewhere else.
  So the study of black history as part of overall American history 
becomes very important, either when we look at the details one by one, 
the accomplishments, heroes people overlook, or when we look at the 
broader issues of labor, economics: Who built this country, whose 
sweat, whose labor built the country. When we look at the facts there, 
there is an important lesson to be learned. There are some unpaid 
debts. That is why Randall Robinson has chosen to call his book ``The 
Debt.''
  Before we get to those kinds of concepts, and I often have young 
people ask me, why do not you and Members of the Black Caucus place 
greater emphasis on fighting for reparations? Why do you not throw down 
the gauntlet and demand that there be reparations for the descendents 
of slaves?
  The reparations idea is now very much accepted in Europe, and maybe 
the Japanese will accept it soon. They are holding back. They will not 
even apologize for the way they ravaged China, let alone concede that 
some reparations are owed. But in Europe they have accepted it.
  The Germans, the German industries, have now agreed that during the 
war we had Jews and other folks who were committed, forced to do slave 
labor in our factories, so the private sector has come together under 
the tutelage of the government and decided they are going to give $5 
billion to the living persons who can be identified as having been part 
of that slave labor. I think they ought to do something for the 
descendents of those people, too. I think the reparations also have to 
be spread to the people who died in the concentration camps.
  The government of Switzerland, along with the private banking system 
in Switzerland, has decided that they will establish a fund of more 
than $2 billion to admit that they swindled the Jews who were fleeing 
Hitler and came to Switzerland, and they wanted to hide their money. 
They swindled the descendents of those people by refusing to recognize 
that they had the money, and that they knew how to identify who it 
belonged to.
  All these years they have refused to do that, for more than 50 years. 
Now they are ready to give $2 billion in reparations, $2 billion to 
compensate the people who can be identified for what has been denied 
them.
  So the whole concept of something is owed, not by the Swiss bankers 
who are there now, because those who actually took the money and hid it 
are probably dead, but the banking system, the banking system feels it 
owes it; not by the corporate heads who were running the German 
companies at the time that they had the slave labor and people were 
forced to do slave labor in their factories, but the companies 
themselves have descendents, and the wealth they accumulated is part of 
the wealth that was accumulated during the time of the forced slave 
labor.
  Therefore, they are willing to contribute; reluctantly, but they are 
willing, coerced by the government a bit, but they are willing to 
contribute $5 billion in reparations. If reparations is acceptable in 
Europe, it ought to be acceptable in the United States, also. We ought 
to take a hard look at the concept.
  We have had one example in this Nation where we recognize the need 
for reparations. We did not exactly call it that, I think it was called 
compensation, or some other word, of the Japanese who were imprisoned 
during World War II.
  We voted, I voted, since I have been here, on a bill which provided 
compensation for those who were still alive who were people involved in 
that horrible situation where they were swept up from their homes on 
the West Coast and thrown into concentration camps. I think $20,000, if 
I remember correctly, per person was allowed. Many of these people are 
quite old and feeble and many have died, but we actually appropriated 
around $20,000 per person for the Japanese who were interned during 
World War II. So the concept of reparations is certainly not totally 
foreign to this Congress or to the United States culture.
  I am not going to dwell on that, however. I say to the young people 
who are insisting we should focus on reparations and have a showdown on 
reparations, I am as indignant and concerned as they are, but the 
practical thing to do is to try to get as close to some policies in the 
United States government that will have the same impact and the same 
overall effect. Therefore, opportunity should be emphasized.
  In this budget that we are going to prepare as a Congressional Black 
Caucus alternative, I want to emphasize maximum opportunity as a way of 
dealing with the descendants of slaves who are in various ways 
disadvantaged and left behind mainstream Americans because they did not 
have the chance to accumulate wealth in the past.
  Let their children have maximum educational opportunity, but going 
beyond their children, I say, let all poor children in America. Income 
should not be a barrier to attaining the best possible education. 
Every child born in America should understand that one way or another, 
he is going to have the opportunity to go to college, or go as far as 
he wants to go in attaining the education which will allow him to set 
himself free economically.

  Education is at the top of the list for the Congressional Black 
Caucus because reparations, the reparations opportunity can be 
delivered most effectively and most rapidly through education.
  There are many other items that we have on our list. We have housing, 
health, economic development, livable communities, foreign aid, welfare 
and low-income assistance, juvenile justice, and law enforcement. All 
of those items are part of a budget that is going to seek to rectify 
shortcomings of the past, and also to highlight the fact that in the 
present budget these same items, same concerns, have not been dealt 
with effectively.
  We endorse a large part of the budget that has been submitted by 
President Clinton. We endorse a large part of it, but we also would 
like to highlight a lot of omissions, a lot of deficiencies. We would 
also like to say that we do not think that that budget goes far enough 
in providing maximum opportunity, and we want to deal with that in the 
Congressional Black Caucus budget.
  I want to pause at this point and yield to my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), for her to make any 
observations she wishes to make with respect to black history.
  This is Black History Month, and as I said at the beginning, I think 
everything we are doing can be sort of woven together. The knowledge of 
black history in the past throws a light on what we have to do at 
present, and gives us some vision for where we have to go in the 
future. The details of black history are as important as the broad 
concepts that we need to guide us as we learn the lessons of black 
history.
  All of it is very important, and I think that we should have more 
than one month to deal with it. But we like to look at the month of 
February as just a time to highlight and to raise up the visibility of 
the relevance of black history, and that the rest of the year people 
would understand how it also has to be interwoven with our current 
concerns, as well as those current concerns being taken care of against 
a background and backdrop of past history.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very 
much for yielding to me.
  I believe that this is a time that sets the tone for Members coming 
to the floor of the House, no matter what month it is, to talk about 
the history of all of the people of the United States of America, so 
many have contributed in outstanding ways to our Nation.
  Frankly, I agree with the gentleman. I thank him for his opening 
remarks

[[Page H433]]

and the discussions that he will continue to have on reparations and 
the CBC alternative budget.
  But he is so right, that Carter G. Woodson started the African-
American or Black History Month as one week in February.

                              {time}  1845

  We now have the entire month of February, and if I might quote my 14-
year-old son Jason Lee, we should not be regulated even by the month, 
for African American history is a history of a people and the history 
of America.
  So I would hope that as we take to the floor of the House this month, 
my colleagues will join me in additional days that we will spend 
talking about African American history, and I would hope that we would 
begin to explain to the American people how intimately woven this 
history is with American history.
  Might I take a moment of personal privilege then to cite some 
historical factors, but as well to comment briefly on the term African 
American, because I believe I have heard some sense of concern. I know 
when the term first emerged I believe that Reverend Jesse Jackson was 
engaged in that discussion. As many people are aware, African Americans 
have been called many things. The more appropriate or I should say 
appropriate ones that I might want to use on the floor of the House 
would be colored, negro, black, and more recently African American.
  Might I say that that seems to me to be the more accurate expression 
for this population, and the only reason that I say that is that even 
if one came to this country by way of Latin America, by way of Central 
America, by way of the Caribbean, and they are a Negro or Negroid, it 
is most likely that their origins were on the continent of Africa. So 
that African American comes from that origin, and I do not believe we 
have any current debates going on that, but that is why most of us will 
more frequently use the term African American.
  In any event, what I would like to emphasize in my remarks this 
evening is that it is, in fact, a history of all of the people.
  I would like to just start my discussion by citing a text, the Slave 
Narratives of Texas, edited by Ron Tyler and Lawrence R. Murphy. I will 
not read the huge volume of narratives that are here. I would just 
commend it to our viewing audience, or at least those who may be 
interested in this topic. I would like to cite comments from Martin 
Jackson, which is under chapter 2, Memories of Massa.
  ``A lot of old slaves close the door before they tell the truth about 
their days of slavery. When the door is opened, they tell how kind 
their masters were and how rosy it all was. One cannot blame them for 
this because they had plenty of early discipline, making them cautious 
about saying anything uncomplimentary about their masters. I myself was 
in a little different position than most slaves, and as a consequence 
have no grudges or resentment. However, I can say the life of the 
average slave was not rosy. They were dealt out plenty of cruel 
suffering.''
  In this commentary, Slave Narratives, one will find glowing testimony 
by former slaves of how good the massa, or master, was; and then they 
find as well the violence and the viciousness of slavery being 
recounted.
  I think Martin Jackson says it well, and that is there was great fear 
and so that some of the memories were geared by the discipline that was 
given out or meted out to Africans and those who came and became 
slaves.
  I say that because it is important, as we recall African American 
history, that we should not be afraid to say that it is American 
history, and we should not be afraid to recount it over and over again, 
not out of hatred or hatefulness but out of the need to educate and to 
allow this country to move forward and to build upon the richness of 
its diversity and to solve some of the very problems that we confront 
today.
  Might I also draw your attention to Rosa Parks, her book, Quiet 
Strength. She again focuses on fear and focuses on the motivation that 
allowed her to sit down on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, opening the 
door to a whole entire movement and a whole sense of courage on behalf 
of then colored people or Negro people in America. She said, ``We 
blacks are not as fearful or divided as people may think. I cannot let 
myself be so afraid that I am unable to move around freely and express 
myself. If I do, then I am undoing the gains we have made in the civil 
rights movement. Love, not fear, must be our guide.''
  So she negates what has gripped many of those in our community, a 
sense of fear. It was fear that kept us in a segregated society, fear 
that no one any earlier than Rosa Parks, when I say any earlier I know 
there was activism and opposition to a segregated America before Rosa 
Parks but in a more forthright or very conspicuous manner, the one act 
that she did sort of set the tone of opening up the civil rights 
movement. She is commenting that we cannot be restrained from 
injustices or fighting injustices because of fear, and I think that is 
particularly important as we talk about African American history.
  African American history is recounting the contributions of great 
Americans, such as Booker T. Washington. We hear that quite frequently, 
commenting on W.E.B. DuBois, the debate between Booker T. Washington 
and W.E.B. DuBois, whether we hear that quite frequently they were at 
odds, whether they were in disagreement, their lives sort of overlapped 
each other to a certain extent.

  If we look closely, we will find that both of them had a vision or a 
tracking of where they wanted the people of color in this Nation to go. 
They wanted them to use their talents. Booker T. Washington in 
particular wanted them to be able to utilize the skills that they had 
learned out of slavery, the artisan skills of carpentry and painting 
and building and agriculture, because he wanted them quickly to be able 
to be contributing members of the society. W.E.B. DuBois realized that 
a race of people had to be many things. They had to be philosophers. 
They had to be inventors. They had to be physicians. They had to be 
scientists. And he wanted to make sure that if there were those willing 
to take the challenge, African Americans, as he went to Harvard, he 
wanted to make sure that America's racism and segregation and hatred 
would not keep such people down.
  I think it is important that as we reflect on the history of a 
people, as I reflect on my history, as I reflect on the history as it 
relates to America, that we study now more in depth, not in a cursory 
fashion, what did Booker T. Washington mean to America, what did W.E.B. 
DuBois mean to America? What did Marcus Garvey mean to America? To many 
of us who were in school, these individuals really were not taught in 
our own history classes. In fact, that was very much unheard of, to 
have books as I am citing. In Roland S. Martin's article in the Houston 
Defender, their tribute to African American history month, he noted for 
years a complaint of not being able to find enough information about 
black history has rung loud and clear from black parents, educators and 
community activists.
  School history books were and still are devoid of the accomplishments 
and contributions of African Americans. Save a glancing mention of 
slavery or Martin Luther King, Jr., black folks are basically absent 
from history books. His comment or his purpose of this article is to 
suggest that now with the Internet, information technology, the 
superhighway, we are not relegated to that, and he is encouraging all 
of us in this history to get our ``dot com'' together, to get on the 
Internet and search out the wonderful history of African Americans.
  I think it is well to note that as many of us grew up, we did not 
have the opportunity to be taught the history of African Americans. So 
the challenge is that as we are in this century, that we begin to study 
African American history not again as relegated to just a race of 
people but that it is truly African American history or American 
history.
  I am going to cite two more things, I would say to the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. Owens), and I am not sure if he is ready and I would be 
happy to yield to him, but I want to bring to everyone's attention 
several points, especially those that the gentleman has made, about our 
budget.
  I believe that the history of African Americans should also be the 
history of

[[Page H434]]

everyday people; the everyday people in our communities, whether it be 
our pastors in the religious community, religion being so much a vital 
part of our own history; whether it be people who have overcome 
obstacles, because again I think we fool ourselves if we continue to 
ask a race of people who lived 400 years in slavery not to talk about 
both collectively but as American society how slavery impacted us, even 
in this now 21st century. It impacts the legislative agenda of so many 
of us, of which we would hope that we would have a bipartisan support 
on issues like affirmative action, on issues like the Voters Rights 
Act, on issues like racial profiling, on issues like equitable funding 
for historically black colleges.
  I want to bring to our attention a young man by the name of Jerick 
Crow. I had the opportunity of meeting him. He wrote a personal note to 
me in this book that was written about him, ``Thank you for your help 
with issues dealing with violence and youth.''
  Jerick was an African American youth, quite handsome I might admit. 
His picture is in the book as a third grader, and I would like to bring 
our attention that in the book there are hard lessons, because Jerick 
now is in a wheelchair. He is one of those African American young men 
statistics who was in a gang that wound up in a violent result, not 
losing his life but certainly losing his ability to be mobile.
  He talks about his life. He talks about the fact that his father 
died; and so he was one of those statistics, not of his own doing, a 
child without a father. He talks about that he did have dreams and 
aspirations, but all of a sudden something came over him. He stopped 
studying. He stopped doing his homework. He had failing grades, and 
then all of a sudden he did something that many of our young African 
American men, young men, young boys do and are still doing, and that is 
joining gangs. I bring that to our attention in a discussion of African 
American history because I think we are remiss if we do not take the 
collective history of our people and why ills fall upon them.

  He has turned his life around, but part of the tragedy of the gangs 
in our community and the violence in our community again is because 
there were not enough legislative initiatives or collective community 
understanding of how our history impacted how we functioned as a race 
of people, how being isolated without a father, how not having the 
support systems that really sometimes came out of segregation, how not 
addressing the question, no matter how some of us may feel it is 
serious and others may look at it humorously, the issue of reparations.
  When I say that there was never any compensation to African Americans 
because of slavery, in fact, when we discuss it now, and I am almost 
positive that if anyone is listening in my hometown, I would say to the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens), we can be assured that 950 Radio, 
one of the conservative talk shows that come on every morning in 
Houston, that unfortunately most of the listeners and callers in, 
including the host of that particular radio show, a good friend of 
mine, we have had an opportunity to talk over the years, continues to 
bash those of us who would raise issues that are controversial; 
controversial as they relate to race, the need for affirmative action, 
again the need for addressing the question of racial profiling, the 
need for addressing the divisiveness of flying a Confederate flag over 
a Federal building. I think part of it is because America has not 
accepted in a collective and collaborative fashion that African 
American history is a history of America. If we would do that, we would 
go so much further in solving these problems.
  Let me cite one other feature and note. This is not to put Los 
Angeles in a negative light, but I do want to cite racial and ethnic 
tensions in American communities, poverty, equality and discrimination. 
This was a report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In 
fact, today we were in a Committee on the Judiciary meeting and it was 
dealing with the budget, and there was a great deal of discussion, 
unfortunately not bipartisan discussion, of criticism of the United 
States Commission on Civil Rights, and many of us were trying to make 
the point do we not want the Committee on the Judiciary to stand on the 
side of enforcing civil rights? Do we not want to have any budget that 
may be passed by this House in a bipartisan way increase funding for 
civil rights?

                              {time}  1900

  Let me just briefly say that this report coming out of May 1999, 
which is one of the reasons why we may not get the kind of funding that 
we should get because people are offended by the truth, it says, racial 
and ethnic bias, the revelation of former LAPD Detective Mark Furman's 
racist comments during the O.J. Simpson trial brought to the floor the 
existence of racial tension within the LAPD.
  While many officers thought Detective Furman's attitude was an 
aberration, others maintained that such attitudes were widespread. Many 
perceived that racial and ethnic tension within the department is 
increasing.
  Mr. Speaker, in August 1995, six black civilian detention officers 
and a black police sergeant filed suit alleging that the city, the 
police department, the police commission are condoning overt racism and 
failing to deal with the complaints of discrimination.
  Why am I saying all of this? Mr. Speaker, as I was saying in 1995, a 
lawsuit was filed by members in the LAPD and civilians to indicate that 
the officials were condoning overt racism.
  As I was saying, this is a part of African American history. It is a 
part of American history. It is a part of how we relate to each other 
today. We are always reminded that if we do not know our history, we 
are doomed to repeat what was history. We are doomed to repeat it, or 
we are doomed to go through it in the future; that is why the 
commemoration of African American history is so very important, because 
we have to reach for it.
  We have to find it. We have to get people to seek it out. I believe 
it is more of our colleagues, more Americans informing themselves about 
real African American history, the glorious success stories that we 
have, the whole litany of outstanding African Americans which we all 
applaud, but also get down into the nitty and gritty of slavery, 
reading slave narratives, getting a full understanding of that very 
dark time in our history; the Civil War and what that meant, 
Reconstruction, when there was a great jubilee that we as African 
Americans were free and that we would be welcomed as equals in American 
society, and then the ugly head of Jim Crow rose up in the 1900s.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that we must speak about African American 
history throughout the year, because we will never get to the point of 
passing the hate crimes legislation, of getting racial profiling to the 
floor, which I hope that we will see a positive result tomorrow in the 
Committee on the Judiciary, but then to the floor, to the Senate and 
signed by the President. We will never understand what affirmative 
action is about in Texas and in Florida, where they are trying to 
overrule it or override it.
  We will never understand the importance of a Congressional Black 
Caucus budget. And we will continue to have conservative talk shows who 
malign African American elected officials, because they speak a 
different language of generosity than they might think is appropriate, 
unless we come together and study our history in an appropriate manner.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend the fact that we now can find our history on 
the Internet. I would like to commend Dr. Louis ``Skip'' Gates, my 
colleague who probably soon will be called the new father of African 
American history, professor at Harvard, who has now put the African 
American encyclopedia on the Internet.
  I think we can have a better understanding if we learn each other's 
history, if African American history becomes the kind of history that 
is living; that is accepted; that is widespread; and that all people 
understand it, so that we can make this country better.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the remarks of the gentlewoman from Texas, 
(Ms. Jackson-Lee), of course, were pertinent in every way in terms of 
the three items that I have put forth here tonight.
  The gentlewoman has mentioned the juvenile justice and law 
enforcement problems that we have had for a long, long time in America, 
whether the law and the government became the arm of

[[Page H435]]

injustice and inequality in so many ways, and the gentlewoman 
recommended that in the Congressional Black Caucus' Alternative Budget 
we put in items and we address it in terms of making certain that there 
are funds there to deal with the problem of continuing injustices, 
profiling and abuses of the law. I commend the gentlewoman for that.
  Mr. Speaker, I also would like to highlight the fact that the 
gentlewoman said Dr. Gates, Skip Gates, who is now I think the Encarta 
Africana, is on disk, and our encyclopedia is on the Internet.
  He might be called the modern father of African American history 
taking after Carter G. Woodson.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, he is a martyr. Mr. Speaker, I 
do not take anything from Carter G. Woodson at all. I did put on there 
martyr or future, may be the future, that is all.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, Skip Gates, we may in the future be proposing 
legislation around him. Today on the floor, I want to commend the 
people, the Members of the House, more than two thirds of the Members 
of the House voted for this bill, which calls for the Carter D. Woodson 
National Historic Site Study Act of 1999. It was introduced last year, 
and we passed it today.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just indicate what it proposes to deal with. 
Congress finds the following: Dr. Carter G. Woodson, cognizant of the 
widespread ignorance and scanty information concerning the history of 
African Americans, founded on September 9, 1915, the Association for 
the Study of Negro Life and History, since renamed the Association for 
the Study of African American Life and History.
  The association was founded in particular to counter racist 
propaganda alleging black inferiority and the pervasive influence of 
Jim Crow prevalent at that time.
  The mission of the association was and continues to be educating the 
American public of the contributions of black Americans in the 
formation of a Nation's history and culture.
  Dr. Woodson dedicated nearly his entire adult life to every aspect of 
the association's operations in furtherance of its mission.
  Among the notable accomplishments of the association under Dr. 
Woodson's leadership, Negro History Week was instituted in 1926 to be 
celebrated annually during the second week of February. Negro History 
Week has since evolved into Black History Month.
  The headquarters and center of operations of the association was Dr. 
Woodson's residence located at 1539 9th Street, Northwest, here in 
Washington, D.C.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill proposes that not later than 18 months after 
the date on which the funds are made available for the purposes of this 
act, the Secretary, after consultation with the mayor of the District 
of Columbia, shall submit to the Committee on Resources of the United 
States House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources of the United States Senate a resource study of the Dr. 
Carter Woodson home and headquarters of the Association for the Study 
of African American Life and History.
  The study shall identify suitability and feasibility of designating 
the Carter G. Woodson home as a unit of the national park system. It 
shall also include cost estimates for any necessary acquisition, 
development, operation and maintenance and identification of 
alternatives for the management, administration and protection of a 
Carter G. Woodson home.
  This would be, in our opinion, a vital, small first step in 
recognizing the fact that this Capitol ought to contain many more 
resources related to African American history.
  Mr. Speaker, we are able to get two thirds of the Members of Congress 
to vote for this, and it moves us forward. We hope, and we will 
continue to fight to get passage of John Conyers' bill on reparations. 
He calls for the commission to study reparation proposals for African 
Americans.
  That bill has been here for many, many years and not been able to get 
passed, but this bill proposes to, quote, acknowledge the fundamental 
injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United 
States under the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865, and to 
establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, 
subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination 
against African Americans and the impact of these forces on living 
African Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on 
appropriate remedies and for other purposes.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is vital. We are only calling for a commission 
to study proposals for reparations. It relates as much to African 
American history as any item we could put forth.
  I am going to close with a discussion of The Debt, the book by 
Randall Robinson which picks up the theme of reparations. I am going to 
show how that relates to our Congressional Black Caucus alternative 
budget. Before I do that, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Mrs. Meek).
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) for yielding to me.
  As I stand here each day in the hallowed halls of this Congress, I 
cannot but be reminded of the broad shoulders upon which I stand. I do 
not think that every Member of Congress understands how far we have 
come, the 39 African American members of the Congress.
  They just accept us as being knowledgeable colleagues. They accept us 
as being friends and many of us as neighbors. I do not think many of 
them realize the struggle that got us here and the struggle that still 
continues in this country for equality of opportunity for African 
Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, it is our duty every day of the year to remind people 
about this experience and where we are going from here and what we must 
do.

  Mr. Speaker, I think it was Martin Luther King who said that we do 
not have time, it has to happen now, we cannot keep putting it off by 
saying let us push this back on the back burner, but let us talk about 
it now.
  Mr. Speaker, I think about men like former Congressman Robert 
Elliott, who served in Congress from 1842 to 1884. He was one of the 22 
African Americans to serve in Congress during the Reconstruction.
  Mr. Elliott's last term in the Congress was highlighted by his 
eloquent support of a civil rights bill designed to secure equality for 
and prohibit discrimination against African Americans in public places.
  Mr. Speaker, think of it, it is ironic that we are still fighting 
that battle. As long ago as Mr. Elliott stood in Congress and fought 
it, the African Americans here today are still fighting to be sure that 
there is equality of education and equality of opportunity, and there 
is equal justice for African Americans.
  It is ironic, and it is a charge that we must continue to keep. It is 
also a challenge of this Congress to be sure and keep that forever in 
front of them.
  In his January 1874 speech before Congress, Congressman Elliott said, 
and he sounded to me very much like my colleague the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Owens), I keep talking about the resounding ring of these 
words and how they happen to be repeated. ``I regret that at this day, 
it is necessary 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.''
  And my colleague from New York (Mr. Owens) just talked about 
reparations. The gentleman just talked about equality of opportunity or 
a budget that really focuses upon the needs of all of American 
citizens. According to the former Congressman Elliott he said, ``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 the 
advocacy of this great measure of national justice.''
  Mr. Speaker, I compare that again to the gentleman's presentation, 
how he talked before the 300 years of slavery and how it has been a 
negative impact on people of color.
  And my former Congressman goes on, Elliott, to say, ``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 
response from your gratitude.
  ``In the events that lead to the achievement of American 
independence, the Negro was not an inactive or

[[Page H436]]

 unconcerned spectator. He bore his part bravely upon many 
battlefields, although uncheered by that certain hope of political 
elevation which victory would secure to the white man.''
  Mr. Speaker, Elliott went on to detail the participation of black 
Americans in America's wars for independence at the Battle of New 
Orleans and the other historic battles and the commendations that black 
soldiers have received.

                              {time}  1915

  I could go on and on in some way sort of laying out to my colleagues 
the history that makes it such a cogent thing for us tonight, not only 
tonight but this entire month and throughout the year, to secure 
equality for and prohibit discrimination against African Americans.
  I am also reminded of several Members of Congress, the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. Owens) greatly included in this great victory of this 
great journey, this great exodus that we are on every time we stand on 
this floor to try to bring equality to all.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to say to the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Owens) to just recall that Frederick Douglass was one of our 
greatest scholars and one of the ones who, during his time, was called 
the unofficial president of American Negroes. And this was in the years 
before and immediately following the Civil War.
  No one represented the hearts and minds of African American people 
more than Frederick Douglass. He died in 1895. He was an abolitionist 
who believed that he and other African Americans could contribute most 
by being politically active in the anti-slavery movement. Douglass 
wrote and spoke often about freedom.
  On September 24, 1883, Douglass spoke of a commonality, and I 
underline ``commonality,'' between the races in their allegiance to and 
aspirations for the Nation and called on America to make its practice 
accord with its Constitution its righteous laws.
  In closing, Douglass said, ``If liberty, with us, is yet but a name, 
our citizenship is but a sham, and our suffrages thus far only a cruel 
mockery, we may yet congratulate ourselves upon the fact that the laws 
and institutions the country are sound, just and liberal. There is hope 
for people when their laws are righteous.''
  And that is what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) has done. I 
have been here in the Congress almost 8 years, and he constantly 
reminds us of the history that we must never forget. I think he is the 
only one that makes this a daily affair, this affair of African 
Americans and the history which preceded us, and making us to be sure 
not to forget that this does not happen again, that we continue on this 
route, that we will always be en route to freedom and justice for all.
  I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Owens), for his scholarship and his foresight for being sure that black 
history becomes more than a month but remains throughout the year.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. 
Meek) for her kind remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald).
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) for his constant reminder of how 
important education is to all children but especially African American 
children and the need to bring quality education to the regions of the 
Congressional Black Caucus members in providing a strong and quality 
education that includes computers in every classroom and students to 
have a computer at every desk. We thank him so much, and he continues 
to shed that light each night as he does on this floor.
  I would like to also congratulate my two female colleagues who came 
before me to speak about this important month that we celebrate, 
commonly known as Black History Month. Some of us call it African 
American History Month. But irrespective of the title, it is to bring 
celebration to those who have come before us who have served with 
distinction and honor not only in this House but throughout this 
country in making America what it is today.
  Mr. Speaker, as the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Women's 
Issues, I rise today to pay homage to the many African American women 
whose invaluable efforts have made it possible for me to stand here 
before my colleagues today. These women have struggled and fought 
against all odds to ensure that America would be a country where 
resources and opportunities are available to men, women, and children 
of all ages, races, and religions. It is with immense pride that I 
stand here today and honor some very important African American women 
who have served here in Congress.
  One such woman was Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who became the 
first African American woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress from New 
York in 1969 and in 1972 became the first African American female to 
run for President of the United States.
  Congresswoman Chisholm was a strong advocate for women's rights, 
universal access to day-care, the environmental protection, and job 
training. What a legacy she left.
  Continuing her legacy pioneered by her was Congresswoman Barbara 
Jordan, who was elected from the great State of Texas in 1973 and 
impressed the world with her outstanding oratorical ability as well as 
her integrity, leadership, and dignity during the Watergate hearings.
  She rose to national distinction when she became the first African 
American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic 
national convention in 1976. Her legacy as a champion of the people is 
evident in many of her outstanding speeches. Her words ring true even 
today, as we remember her saying, ``What the people want is simple. 
They want an America as good as its promise.'' What an outstanding 
woman she was.
  A preeminent example of a woman's ability to juggle family and a 
career was our great Congresswoman from the State of California, 
Congresswoman Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, who was elected in 1973 from 
that great State of California. She distinguished herself not only 
through her leadership, having made sure that the women who serve in 
the salons have health benefits, but she became the first woman of 
Congress to give birth to a child while in office. Her commitment to 
public service, however, did not end when she left Congress, as today 
she serves as one of the most influential members of the Los Angeles 
County Board of Supervisors.
  The epitome of loyalty to family and civic values was set as 
Congresswoman Cardis Collins, who was elected in 1973 to complete the 
term of her husband, Representative George Collins, following his death 
in a plane crash. She remained in the House for 23 years, holding the 
title of the longest of any African American woman to have served in 
the House of Representatives. She was a valiant leader as a ranking 
member in holding the line on the Committee on Government Operations.

  Congresswoman Katie Beatrice Green Hall was elected from the State of 
Indiana in 1982 and earned a place in history as the sponsor of the 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday legislation that was signed into law 
by then President Ronald Reagan. She was a strong advocate of 
education, too, being a former teacher.
  And then, Mr. Speaker, history was made after 90-plus years of not 
having an African American in the Senate until Senator Carol Moseley-
Braun became the first African American woman ever elected to serve in 
the U.S. Senate to represent the great State of Illinois in 1983. She 
served with distinction.
  We can recall that Senator Carol Moseley-Braun sponsored the National 
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act. The Act is designed to 
identify and preserve significant sites in more than 29 States. She was 
recently appointed as the ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
  Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate this month of African American History 
and find ourselves navigating through the joys and challenges of this 
new millennium that is about to embark, let us gain strength in knowing 
that the road is a little smoother, the battles a little easier, and 
the burdens a little lighter because we stand on the shoulders of these 
great women, women such as those I have mentioned and those who are 
coming behind us and the countless others who will come after us. Let 
us always remember that they endured

[[Page H437]]

the public responsibility of office and the private responsibility of 
womanhood.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald) for her comments.
  I would like to close with quotes from the book by Randall Robinson, 
The Debt.

       No race, no ethnic or religious group, has suffered so much 
     over so long a span as blacks have, and do still, at the 
     hands of those who benefited, with the connivance of the 
     United States Government, from slavery and the century of 
     legalized American racial hostility that followed it. It is a 
     miracle that the victims-weary dark souls long shorn of a 
     venerable and ancient identity have survived at all, stymied 
     as they are by the blocked roads to economic equality.
       At long last, let America contemplate the scope of its 
     enduring human-rights wrong against the whole of a people. 
     Let the vision of blacks not become so blighted from a 
     sunless eternity that we fail to see the staggering breadth 
     of America's crimes against us.

  Solutions to our racial problems are possible, but only if our 
society can be brought to face up to the massive crime of slavery and 
all that it has brought. Step by step, in every way possible, the 
members of the Congressional Black Caucus are seeking to force the 
issue of having America face up to the need to compensate, the need to 
have special policies and programs which understand and recognize this 
long history of deprivation that was perpetrated against the people.
  The Congressional Black Caucus budget is relevant, very much 
relevant, to all that black history lessons teaches. We will overcome.

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