[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 13, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H311-H315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2001, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. 
Jones) is recognized for 40 minutes, the remainder of the time, as the 
designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone). He has stood up on this issue. 
Last year was my first term in the U.S. Congress, and there was not a 
greater voice on the issue of health care than that of the gentleman 
from New Jersey.
  I appreciate the gentleman yielding the balance of this hour as we 
celebrate Black History Month this year, and I thank the gentleman, who 
should let me know when he needs a speaker and I will be there for him.
  Mr. Speaker, Black History Month is an excellent time for reflection, 
assessment, and planning. A full understanding of our history is a 
necessary and crucial part of comprehending our present circumstances 
and crafting our futures. An understanding of our history helps 
illuminate and inform the present discussions concerning voter rights, 
particularly the travesty we recently witnessed in Florida, a social, 
political, and legal travesty ultimately sanctioned by the United 
States Supreme Court.
  At this time, the subject matter of our special order is black 
history. We are going to be talking about voting rights, and 
historically, the disenfranchisement that occurred through the years.
  It gives me great pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from Texas 
(Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black 
Caucus.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the 
gentlewoman from Ohio for yielding to me. I also thank her for her 
leadership in leading this series of speakers tonight here on Black 
History Month.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to open the Congressional Black Caucus' 
annual Black History Month special order. This is the year that we will 
focus on a very important area for every black American; that is, 
voting rights and election reform.
  We do this in the spirit of Sankofa. In Africa, Sankofa is more of a 
philosophy than a single word. It means that we learn from the past, 
work in the present, and prepare for the future. So in the first year 
of this new millenium, it is fitting that we honor African-American 
heroes and heroines, on whose broad shoulders we stand.
  Mr. Speaker, we must mention those who paved the way to freedom in 
thought and deed, such as W.E.B. DuBois, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. 
Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X. As Members 
of Congress, we must also take note of those who served in the 
political realm, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, Ralph Bunche, 
Barbara Jordan, Fannie Lou Hamer, Adam

[[Page H312]]

Clayton Powell, Marcus Garvey, Shirley Chisholm. I could go on.
  These African-Americans and countless others whom I have not 
mentioned by name are the reason that I am standing here today in the 
well of the United States House of Representatives as chairperson of 
the Congressional Black Caucus. They paved the way for me and for many 
of my colleagues in Congress.
  However, when I look at the past, we cannot forget essential elements 
of political representation and the right to vote. African-American men 
were first granted the right to vote as a result of the 15th amendment 
to the Constitution. That post-Civil War amendment to the Constitution 
guaranteed that newly-freed slaves would not be denied the franchise 
simply because they had been held captive.
  As a result of the 15th amendment and the use of Federal troops in 
the formerly Confederate States, black people were able to enjoy the 
fruits of liberty. They were able to vote, and their votes were 
counted.
  Between 1870 and 1900, there were 22 African-Americans who served in 
the U.S. Congress, and countless more serving in State and local 
governments. However, this era of reconstruction began to fade away, 
and in State after State the right to vote and to participate in 
democracy was whittled away by oppressive means such as the poll tax, 
the grandfather clause, and the literacy test. The right to participate 
was brutally wrenched away by the intimidation of the night-riding Ku 
Klux Klan and the questionable imprisonment of large numbers of black 
men on trumped-up vagrancy and other minor charges.
  We have to recall this history and be mindful, because we do not want 
to repeat it. But for most black Americans, the right to vote was a 
withdrawn promise that had been sacrificed at the altar of political 
expediency, the compromise of 1877 which allowed Rutherford B. Hayes to 
become President, who withdrew the last Federal troops from the 
Confederate States and ended the era of reconstruction.
  By 1900, segregation was firmly established. Jim Crow was the law of 
the land, and terrorism and lynching ruled the South. Between 1929 and 
1965, only eight black Members were elected to Congress. It would take 
the passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 to begin to 
restore African-Americans to the right to participate in representative 
government that every other racial and ethnic group in this country had 
freely enjoyed.
  This was under a Texas President. The President was Lyndon Baines 
Johnson. We stand here today with another Texan as President, and I 
know that he can do no less.
  Today the Congressional Black Caucus is 37 strong, dynamic, informed, 
and committed leaders. But here we stand, almost 40 years after the 
landmark 1965 legislation, and again are confronted with the question 
of whether African-Americans will be allowed to vote and whether their 
votes will count. In the words of the great Santayana, ``Those who do 
not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.''

                              {time}  2045

  We have read the past. We remember many of the past. All of us that 
are here remember the march from Selma to Montgomery. And, Mr. Speaker, 
for all of these reasons, I believe it is imperative that the first 
thing we address in the 107th Congress is election reform.
  As far as I am concerned, the entire integrity of our democracy is at 
stake for voting, and having one's vote counted is the very crux of any 
democracy. And our reputation and standing in the world is on the line. 
The world is watching to see if America, the matriarch of democracy, 
will right the wrongs of the election system which was so badly exposed 
in the last Presidential election, not just in Florida, but many other 
States around the country, including my home State of Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, last week, at the Democratic Caucus retreat in 
Pennsylvania, we were visited by our President, and when I was able to 
ask him a question, I asked him to support comprehensive election 
reform for this fiscal year 2002. In his budget, he responded 
positively. Election reform must be a part of the national discussion 
now, and we must solve the inadequacy of our system in time for the 
2002 election cycle. But in order to do that, we would like to pass 
election reform legislation, not later than the 4th of July of this 
year. That is the anniversary of the United States claim of 
independence from the British system which refused to allow American 
colonists representation.
  We do not want any American to be refused representation. If we enact 
legislation by this date, State and local officials should have 
sufficient time to implement uniformity of our election system that it 
so critically needs. However, they must also be given adequate 
resources and incentives to ensure the blessings of liberty for all 
Americans.
  Now, our critics may say why is the Congressional Black Caucus 
talking about election reform? Why are they not talking about education 
reform, tax policy, the budget, maintaining a strong national defense, 
health care reform, fighting the scourge of AIDS in the U.S., and in 
Africa where this dreaded disease is killing entire villages and 
societies, to them I say we will address these issues, and the 
Congressional Black Caucus plans to be at the forefront of all of these 
issues and many others.
  But we strongly believe that our liberty and our democracy will not 
be free until we fix our election system such that the public and the 
world must have faith that in any election held in the United States, 
that the true winner wins, then the confidence that the world has in 
our great democracy will be damaged beyond repair. If we do not do it, 
our reputation will be damaged beyond repair.
  We cannot allow this to happen. I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, the 
world is watching. And as I have visited outside this country since 
that election, the question has been posed, would not the American 
people go to the UN and ask for elections to be overturned if they did 
not feel that it was a fair election? And yet, the greatest power of 
the world has not raised the question about this election.
  So it is over, and it has been decided by the Supreme Court, but we 
cannot move on. And so in this month of black history, as we reflect 
and as we celebrate our history and think about our African American 
mothers, fathers, ministers, teachers, officers, firemen, nurses, 
doctors, lawyers, painters, maids, maintenance people and any other 
community leader, we must say to them that your vote is as important as 
a vote of the Supreme Court, for it is us who must elect a President, 
and we cannot do it until we are assured that our election system is 
fixed.
  We simply must fix this system to ensure that we have a bright future 
for America. Remember, the words of Santayana, remember the past or we 
might be condemned to repeat it.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, in 1901, the last black to leave 
Congress as a result of the Jim Crow laws was George Henry White from 
North Carolina, who stood up on this floor and declared, ``you have 
excluded us. You have taken away the right to vote, and so I am the 
last one to leave.''
  This, Mr. Speaker, is perhaps the Negro's temporary farewell to the 
American Congress. But let me say, Phoenix-like, he will rise up some 
day and come again. These parting words are on behalf of an outraged 
heart-broken, bruised and bleeding, but God-fearing people, fateful, 
industrious, loyal people, rising people, full of potential force.
  The Congressional Black Caucus, 37 strong, are the Phoenix that have 
risen up, just as George Henry White said back in 1901.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek).
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio 
(Mrs. Jones) for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my illustrious sister and colleague who 
has given us a chance to help America understand what Black History is 
all about and what it means to all of us and to my colleagues.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to stand with my 
colleagues tonight to celebrate, educate and share the rich culture and 
accomplishments of African Americans. God has been good to us. The 37 
Members of us who have been able to now reach the pinnacle of success 
in the United States Congress. To date, we not only celebrate African 
American history month, but American history as well.

[[Page H313]]

  The history of African Americans is intricately woven into the 
framework of this country. We helped to build this country. We love 
this country.
  None of us are who we are simply by some kind of divine intervention. 
We are who are because of many experiences and the many people with 
whom we have come in contact with, and because of those who have gone 
on before us. We have made a great difference in this country and a 
great difference in our own lives.
  Many of those who have proceeded us in this life and in this body 
have fought hard to give us the right to vote. Some, Mr. Speaker, have 
even died. The right to vote is a fundamental right of all Americans, 
and it is not to be taken lightly. It is a part of our quest as the 
Congressional Black Caucus to be sure and emphasize the fundamental 
right of all Americans to vote.
  And, I believe, it is the responsibility of government to protect 
this so basic and fundamental right, which has been guaranteed to all 
its people. It seems to me and the people that I represent that after 
what took place this past fall, that our government has let us down.
  In my own case, my grandfather was a slave. He had no rights at all. 
I grew up in a southern town, Tallahassee, Florida. My father used to 
take me to the State Capitol. Every inauguration day, he came to see 
the governor take his seat; that was the only time we were welcome in 
our own State Capitol. It was a public building, but we were not 
welcome. We are welcome today.
  America has changed. America will continue to change, but we must 
have America understand that it is still a basic human right for 
everyone to be treated fairly and for everyone to have the right to 
vote.
  Within my lifetime, every conceivable effort was made to keep African 
Americans from voting and to keep our votes from being counted. My 
generation, like my parents' and grandparents' generation struggled 
mightily against poll taxes that we had to pay before we were allowed 
to vote, and literacy tests that required African Americans, and only 
African Americans, to recite whole sections of State constitutions or 
answer obscure questions to the satisfaction of examiners who could 
never be satisfied.
  African Americans are alive today who were denied the right to vote 
in white-only primaries and who had to search for polling places that 
were moved with no notice in the black community, or moved so far that 
it was hard to get to them.
  I remember the intimidation of being greeted at the polls by 
disdainful and unhelpful poll workers, or even police officers at the 
doors. So, please, refrain from telling us to get over it. We cannot 
get over the many years of hurt and shame and disdainful action on the 
part of some and of our country.
  African Americans today remember when the district lines for cities 
and counties and legislative districts were gerrymandered and drawn to 
exclude our neighborhoods or to dilute our vote. We remember how 
registration records would disappear when we showed up to vote and how 
the law, administrative procedures and the official discretion of 
public officials, were used to postpone and delay our attempts to 
assert our rights.

  The Voting Rights Act was supposed to change all of this, Mr. 
Speaker, and the government was supposed to be a protection and helpful 
and on the side of equality and inclusion. In the case of Florida, 
government has failed us miserably.
  During the last election, voting machines and equipment and precincts 
where African Americans lived predominantly were of the oldest vintage 
and the poorest quality. Ballot procedures were unclear and overly 
complicated.
  A disproportionately large number of votes cast in African American 
neighborhoods were disqualified. It is clear that the phrase ``voting 
rights'' is only a mere platitude to many of our justices and 
government officials. One local official was even ignorant enough to 
opine that it was not anyone's fault if people could not understand the 
directions on the ballots.
  What a shame in a country that leads the entire world. It is a 
failure of government and our electoral system when any person who 
wants to vote, any person who wants to vote is denied the opportunity 
to do so.
  It is a failure of government and our electoral system when courts, 
the laws and government officials do not do everything humanly possible 
to ensure that every vote is counted and that the final vote is 
correct.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, it is a failure of government and our electoral 
system when the outcome of an election is certified without counting 
all the votes. Never again, the Black Caucus says in its old refrain, 
must we allow hard-working, tax-paying Americans to be disenfranchised.
  Never again must we allow voters who did everything they were 
supposed to do who studied the issues, who did their civic duty and 
went to the polls and who voted in massive numbers to not have their 
votes count.
  Never again must we refuse to count all the votes cast.
  I encourage this Congress, and with the help of the Congressional 
Black Caucus, we will help America understand and we will help this 
Congress to make fundamental election reforms.
  It is the highest priority for us and for all Americans to ensure 
that what happened in Florida this past election never happens again. 
Never again, Mr. Speaker.
  To protect the integrity of our Nation's election system, we must 
move with all deliberate speed to make sure that what happened in this 
past election will never happen again.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues have already said, 
we cannot get over it. Every time someone raises their voice to 
question the results of the most recent election, we are told to get 
over it. Well, I am not ready to get over it, and neither are millions 
of Americans who watched with horror as the votes of so many people 
were discounted, and the Supreme Court that we had every reason to hope 
would protect the rights of all citizens went out of its way to trample 
on those rights.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague, the gentleman from the great 
State of New Jersey (Mr. Payne).

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from the great 
State of Ohio for conducting this annual black history hearing. 
Congressman Stokes did it so many years, and she has certainly filled 
in the gap.
  Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, I rise to join my 
colleagues in reaffirming our strong commitment to voting rights and 
our determination to ensure fairness in the electoral process. Of 
course I was active during the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 
1960s when I marched in the South and Selma and other places and 
welcomed Dr. Martin Luther King to my hometown of Newark. I am keenly 
aware that many people gave their lives so that future generations 
could freely exercise their right to vote: Medger Evers, Martin Luther 
King, Malcom X, and others.
  During the Presidential election dispute in Florida, we heard many 
reports of voter intimidation and irregularities in the voting process 
in predominantly African-American precincts. Unfortunately, this is not 
new and it is not confined to Florida or the South in general.
  In my home State of New Jersey, during the recent Senatorial 
election, white voters began receiving phone calls in the middle of the 
night between midnight and 4 a.m. on election morning telling them that 
African Americans were urging them to vote and to vote Democratic. Of 
course the process was to anger voters, waking people up in the middle 
of the night, as a way of disrupting the flow.
  In New Jersey, Republicans actually have to seek preclearance from 
the Department of Justice under a consent decree before they do 
anything out of the ordinary because of past widespread election 
abuses. Their voter intimidation tactics have included hiring off-duty 
police officers as so-called ``ballot security'' police; videotaping of 
voters at African-American polling places; the posting of threatening 
signs warning that potential voters could be arrested and sent to jail.
  There was a high profile incident in New Jersey which gained national 
attention when a top campaign official in the gubernatorial race 
bragged about paying African-American ministers to keep minority voters 
from the polls, all lies.

[[Page H314]]

  As members of the Black Caucus, we are here to say that we will stand 
up for the right to vote guaranteed by the Constitution and reinforced 
by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  At the top of our agenda for this Congress, we should be having a 
thorough review of voting problems and an investigation into the 
disenfranchisement of thousands of voters. Combating voting abuses and 
ensuring fairer elections in the future is the best way for us to honor 
the memory of those heroes that I mentioned before.
  It is ironic. In 1981, we had an election for governor that was only 
a few thousand votes out of the 3 or 4 million votes cast in New Jersey 
decided the outcome. At that time, it was this ballot security group 
that came out and intimidated voters and so forth.
  In Florida, we heard the Supreme Court decide the future of this 
country by stopping the vote and giving the election to the now-
President George Bush. The Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment 
involving the equal protection under the law, an amendment stating that 
you cannot have different standards in different counties for looking 
at votes. But it is very ironic that the 14th Amendment came about 
after the Dred Scott case where Judge Taney said that Dred Scott, who 
was a slave and was taken from his slave State to a free State, that 
the owner could not continue to have him as a slave, but Judge Taney 
said, yes, blacks have no rights that white men have to observe.
  The 14th Amendment was passed in the middle 1860s to say that there 
is equal protection under the law and therefore the Dred Scott decision 
was overturned by the 14th Amendment. It is ironic in Florida the 14th 
Amendment, which was used to free Dred Scott, was used to deprive 
African Americans of their right to vote.
  As I conclude, I once again thank our chairperson of this night for 
her leadership.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, ``get over it; get over it.'' That 
is what those in power often say to people whose rights have been 
violated yet still have the audacity to raise their voice in protest. 
Get over it. We have heard that whenever our objections make it 
inconvenient for those in power to peacefully relish the fruits of 
their wrongdoing.
  But it is important that this Nation understand why so many people 
cannot get over this one. The inability to get over it is not based 
upon stubbornness or misdirected anger or a victim mentality or an 
eagerness to play the race card. It is the logical and understandable 
by-product of years, decades, and even centuries of concerted efforts 
to disenfranchise minority voters in this country. We must not look at 
this as an isolated incident, a fluke, or an aberration because it is 
not. Instead, we must view it in its proper historical context.
  When we do this, we see why the debacle in Florida is the latest, but 
certainly not the only example of why the long struggle to win the 
franchise is not over.
  Attempts by blacks to gain the right to vote go back even back before 
the Civil War.
  We have already heard some of the testimony and statements given my 
colleagues, and I note that I have been joined by another one of my 
colleagues, who I would like to give an opportunity to be heard.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield time to my colleague, the gentleman from Alabama 
(Mr. Hilliard).
  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, today is one of those days that we set 
aside to pay tribute to our forefathers, their history, and what they 
have done for America.
  When you consider all of the groups that have come to America and 
when you consider all of the contributions that have been made, there 
is no question that the contributions of African Americans to this 
country is so immense and so extraordinary it cannot be recorded in its 
entirety anywhere in the pages of American history. It is just that 
vast. But when we think of the manner in which African Americans were 
brought to this country, we think of slaves. We think of someone who 
had no freedom. We think of someone who was physically restrained and 
in many cases physically incarcerated.
  But the loss of freedom is not just being physically restrained or 
physically incarcerated.
  When a person mentally sets up a defense because of rejection or 
because he is treated differently, that also is a form of slavery.
  When a person is denied the right to vote, when a person's vote is 
not counted, that also is a loss of freedom. It is a shame and an 
unpardonable sin that in the year 2001 African Americans still do not 
have rights and freedoms that all other Americans enjoy because of the 
views of this country and its majority.
  In the past election, African Americans were encouraged to vote. 
Every manner and every medium of communication were used to get them to 
vote, to get them to the polls. And all the while we were making those 
plans, there were those who were making plans to minimize that effort. 
We were talking of ways of getting people to the polls, ways of 
encouraging them to vote, and there were those who were thinking of 
ways to intimidate them, ways to keep them from voting, methods of not 
counting their votes.
  That, Mr. Speaker, was a destruction of freedoms. That set up a form 
of slavery. We must eradicate all vestiges of slavery. The only way 
that can be done is to ensure that every American, every American, has 
the right to vote and has his vote counted, has his vote counted in 
every way and every town. That is the way of freedom.
  So when we look at all of the great things that African Americans 
have done for this country, all of the great things that have been done 
to build this country to where it is now, we must recognize that in 
that greatness is the right of freedom, the right of freedom, and the 
right of citizenship. So as we celebrate black history of African 
Americans this month, we must remember that America is not free until 
every citizen is afforded all of the freedoms that every other American 
enjoys.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as we continue this special order, 
many want to know why we have chosen to focus in on the electoral forum 
and to replay what happened in Florida. It is history. It is history 
that many of us lived through. It is a history that we do not want our 
young people in this country to forget. It is a history where we want 
to encourage those who are out listening to us to remember how precious 
the vote is, to not be discouraged and not feel that we cannot talk 
about this, to not think that their vote does not count.
  We should be more encouraged that now more than ever we must bring 
all of our people to the polls. We must turn out as many as we can. We 
must educate our people on the issues that are coming to the ballot. 
There is not a Presidential election again for 4 years, but there will 
be elections in every city and State over the next 4 years and we must 
have our voice heard.
  Attempts by blacks to gain the right to vote go back before the Civil 
War. In the 40 years prior to the Civil War, none of the new States 
that joined the Union recognized black voting rights. By 1869, 4 years 
after the Civil War had ended, only 6 northern States had extended the 
franchise and no State with a large black population had accepted the 
notion of black suffrage. Obviously prior to the Civil War, none of the 
slave States granted the vote to blacks.
  Following the Civil War, the Federal Government made numerous efforts 
to expand suffrage rights to blacks. Southern States intimidated and 
blocked newly freed slaves from voting by using literacy tests, the 
grandfather clause, poll taxes, ``white primaries,'' and other schemes. 
Southern States did all in their power to continue to subjugate their 
former slaves. Only when the Federal Government stepped in and sent 
Federal troops into the South were blacks able to vote.
  Nevertheless white Southerners continued their efforts to recapture 
political control of State governments. Recognizing the vote as the 
great equalizer, they immediately set about undermining the 15th 
Amendment. In ``From Freedom to Slavery,'' noted historian John Hope 
Franklin cataloged a number of tactics used during that period that are 
disturbingly similar to some of the things that we saw in Florida: 
``Elaborate and confusing election schemes, complicated balloting 
processes, and highly centralized election codes were all statutory 
techniques by

[[Page H315]]

which blacks were disenfranchised,'' he wrote.
  Sounds familiar, does it not. The Hayes-Tilden deal of 1876 sold out 
blacks and signaled that the Federal rights to protect the former 
slaves would yield to States rights, which would put blacks at the 
mercy of hostile State governments. That deal nullified the 15th 
Amendment and restored exclusive political controls to whites.
  The ingenuity of opponents of the franchise for black Americans is 
what prompted the United States Supreme Court, in a series of voting 
rights cases, to remind the Nation that ``The 15th Amendment nullified 
sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination.'' 
Nonetheless, efforts at disenfranchisement continued throughout the 
first half of the century necessitating Congress to enact the 1957 
Voting Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Those laws aimed at 
protecting the voting rights of African Americans were passed after a 
long and shameful orgy of lynchings, capped by the assassinations of 
Harry T. Moore in Florida, Medger Evers, Michael Schwerner, James E. 
Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Viola Liuzzo in Mississippi.

                              {time}  2115

  There is one major difference, however, between past 
disenfranchisements and what we saw in Florida. Traditionally, we could 
generally count on the Federal Government, particularly the Supreme 
Court, to step in and stop the rampant violations of minority voting 
rights in this country. Sadly, that is no longer the case.
  In our last election, our U.S. Supreme Court not only failed and 
refused to protect voting rights, it used a ludicrous constitutional 
argument to actively thwart voting rights, and in so doing validated 
the obnoxious tactics we watched with such horror. Knowing this, why 
are people so surprised that so many of us look at the Florida 
situation not as a fluke but as a continuation of a pattern of 
disenfranchisement? Anyone looking at this in the context of the 
history of voting rights in this country would understand why we will 
not just get over it. We will not just get over it. We will not just 
get over it.
  I thank my colleagues for listening and participating in this Special 
Order on black history and voter reform and the history of voting in 
our country.

                          ____________________