[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.
____________________