[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H1050-H1056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      36-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ACROSS EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kennedy). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I take a Special Order today with 
my colleague, my friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton). We 
co-chair an organization, a group called Faith and Politics. It is 
truly a group that is bipartisan in nature. For the past few years, we 
have been engaging in what we call a dialogue on race. We have been 
taking Members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, back on a 
journey, a journey of reconciliation, back to places in Alabama: 
Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.
  Just a few days ago, to be exact, on March 2, 3 and 4, we had an 
opportunity as a group to travel again, a learning experience for many 
of us, so I thought it would be fitting to come to the House floor this 
afternoon and talk for a few moments about what we saw, what we felt 
and what we came away with from this trip to Birmingham, to Montgomery, 
to Selma.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is fitting and appropriate for us to have 
this dialogue today, this discussion, for today, exactly 36 years ago 
today, March 21, 1965, 2 weeks after Bloody Sunday, 700 of us, men and 
women, young children, elected officials, ministers, priests, rabbis, 
nuns, American citizens from all over the country, walked across the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge on our way from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize 
to the Nation and to the world that people of color wanted to register 
to vote.
  Just think, just a few short years ago in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, it was almost impossible for people of color to register 
to vote. You had to pass a so-called literacy test in the States of 
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. On one occasion a black man was asked 
to give the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. If you failed to cross 
a ``t'' or dot an ``i,'' maybe you misspelled a word, you flunked the 
so-called literacy test.
  Well, because of the action of the Congress and the leadership of a 
President, 36 years ago, and the involvement of hundreds and millions 
of our citizens, we have come the distance. And so tonight we want to 
talk about what has happened and the progress.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to yield to my friend and my colleague, the co-
chair of the board of Faith and Politics, the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Houghton).

  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, it is always an honor to be with the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) whether we are on the House floor or 
in Selma or any place. I had a wonderful experience with the gentleman 
from Georgia; Ambassador Sheila Sisulu; and Douglas Tanner, who is the 
president of the Faith and Politics organization in my part of the 
country, upstate New York; and it was fascinating talking about the 
gentleman's reminisces and experiences in Alabama, and also comparing 
those to Ambassador Sisulu's experiences in South Africa. It was 
absolutely great.
  I have a couple of comments I would like to make and then also, Mr. 
Speaker, of my friend, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I would 
like to ask a question at the end of this. Let me make a comment or two 
if I could.
  We had an extraordinary experience in Alabama. I had children and 
grandchildren, and it was a family affair because I wanted them to have 
the same sense that I did the first time I was down there of the 
enormity of this. We celebrate Washington's birthday and Lincoln's 
birthday and Labor Day, but this is something that we should put a fine 
point on because it did something to break us over a tidewater in this 
country which many of us did not feel at the time because we were not 
there.
  I was down there with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), and he 
is all dressed up as he is today and he is handsome and he has a nice 
suit on and he speaks well and he is a very dignified individual. And 
yet I think back to that time 36, 37 years ago when the gentleman was 
on the pavement having been beaten and bloodied and representing all of 
the aspirations that we have for fairness and decency in our society, 
and we were not there. We wanted to be there, but we were not there; 
but the gentleman from Georgia was there.
  I am a member of the World War II generation, and we are dying pretty 
rapidly. And someone said at the end of 2008 we will all be gone, but 
not so of the people of the gentleman from Georgia's generation and the 
people who fought those battles in Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery. 
You cannot listen, as you have heard me say so many times to this 
lovely lady, Betty Fikes, singing without understanding something about 
our country that one does not sense unless you sing the Star Spangled 
Banner or America the Beautiful. This is an extraordinary experience, 
and this is the lady who was singing at the time of the marching and 
the beatings and the death and the tragedy down there. These people are 
all alive. And so to be able to go down there and experience that, be 
with them, knowing that they are alive and still giving their message, 
their testament, is always an extraordinary experience.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question, if I could. Those of us 
who have seen the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) in action and were 
with Betty Fikes and with Bernard Lafayette and with so many others, 
look back and see something which was an enormous change in our whole 
philosophy. But as we know now, it was only one moment in time, it was 
only one incident and it did not cure our sense of discrimination in 
this country, it only opened it up. So the question I ask of the 
gentleman from Georgia, what do we do next? What are those things that 
we must continue to do not only to honor this legacy but to fulfill our 
pioneering spirit and try to make this a better place.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his kind 
words, and let me try to respond to his kind question.
  I notice several of my colleagues are here, and I want to give them 
an opportunity to say something. But any time we see racism, bigotry, 
see people discriminated against because of the color of their skin, 
because of their race or national origin, because of their sex or 
sexual orientation, for whatever reason people are kept down or kept 
out, we have an obligation, all of us as citizens of America, as human 
beings, to speak out and say something, to get in the way, to not be 
quiet.

  When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me do not get in 
trouble. But as a young person I got in trouble, and I saw many young 
people getting in trouble by sitting down. President Kennedy once said 
back in 1960, by sitting down on those lunch counter stools, we were 
really standing up. So by marching for the right to vote 36 years ago, 
we were helping to make America something better. So from time to time, 
we all have to get in the way.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I would advise the gentleman from Georgia 
that I will yield to somebody on the gentleman's side, and then I know 
that the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) wants to say 
something.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me recognize the gentlewoman 
from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month I was privileged to 
be one of 140 people of all walks of life, all ages, from all over the 
country and all over the world who joined the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Lewis), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), and the 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) in the Faith and Politics 
Institute on the fourth annual pilgrimage to Alabama.
  I blocked out that weekend early in the year because I wanted to go, 
but I did not anticipate the depth of feelings and emotion that 
pilgrimage would evoke. Revisiting the history of the

[[Page H1051]]

life-changing and Nation-changing events which occurred more than 40 
years ago, it is an experience even now that I will never forget. Yes, 
we went to the different institutes, museums, the historical sites, but 
it was also having several of the leaders of that important and 
tumultuous time with us to inform and guide us which made it come 
alive.
  As we walked through Kelly Ingram Park, prayed at the 16th Street 
Baptist Church, now a memorial to the four little girls killed by a 
bomb made not only of explosives but of hate, moved on to Montgomery to 
the First Baptist Church and to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist 
Church which Dr. King pastored, and which along with others was a 
central meeting place of that movement, and finally took that solemn 
march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, we knew that we had 
truly come once again treading our path through the blood of slaughter.

                              {time}  1430

  It was a time of introspection. How insignificant many of the things 
we squabble, worry and fret about became. I recall that during much of 
the movement, I was safely ensconced at St. Mary's College in Notre 
Dame, Indiana; and, though far away in many ways, the summer of 1963 
changed even those two campuses.
  Even more than before, I understood the level of indebtedness that 
all of us owe to the multitude of committed and courageous people, like 
John Lewis, Reverend Shuttlesworth, Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Bob Zelner, 
Betty Fikes and others who ministered to us that weekend, some well 
known, others unnamed, who believed in an America of justice, equality, 
fairness and respect and who were willing to sacrifice, bear painful 
beatings and even to give their lives, as too many did, to make it a 
reality. Unquestionably, all of us, like those who made this pilgrimage 
before, returned inspired, refocused and revived personally as well as 
for the work that each one of us do every day.
  Looking back at what we as a people had achieved because of the civil 
rights movement and taking stock of the many troubling events that have 
occurred over the past few years, we can see that although much change 
was brought about because of the movement, we have lost some ground. 
The need is clear more than ever that we must be vigilant and continue 
to walk in the way of those brave men and women, to forever secure and 
preserve the rights and privileges that they so courageously won. We 
still have so much more to work towards.
  Although I have heard it said before and I have heard the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) say it, I have said it myself, after this 
weekend it became even clearer that the right to quality health care is 
the major civil rights issue of this time. The civil rights movement 
that we had just revisited provided not only inspiration but living 
lessons for those of us who are thrust by need, time and circumstance 
into positions of leadership. We only hope and pray that we are as up 
to the task.
  We live today at the beginning of the third millennium in a country 
which spends more money than any other in the world on health care. Yet 
today hundreds of African Americans and other people of color, people 
in our rural communities, will die from preventable diseases and 
causes, all because in one way or another they have been denied access 
to quality health care.
  I want to say on behalf of the millions of Americans, both in the 
States and in the territories, that today, with a significant surplus 
projected, it would be another travesty of justice if the health care 
needs in this country were not fully addressed. Universal coverage must 
be provided and the disparities that exist for people of color in this 
country must be eliminated. This is our charge. Although different, 
this cause is no less just, and the movement must be no less fervent or 
steadfast.
  I want to take this opportunity to thank the Faith and Politics 
Institute and the many people who were a part of our pilgrimage this 
year for reminding me that with faith in God and belief in the better 
America that this country can be, that on all of the important 
challenges that face our community today we can and will overcome.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I would like now to yield to the 
gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson).
  Mrs. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I am going to, if I could, address my 
comments to my good friend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). I 
want to thank him from the bottom of my heart and that of my husband 
for allowing us to go with him and all of our colleagues and others to 
this most incredible experience in Alabama. I cannot relate to the 
gentleman from Georgia how extraordinary it felt to meet with and see 
him and Bernard Lafayette and Reverend Shuttlesworth and Bob Zelner, 
all of you and others who were such vital and vibrant parts of the 
civil rights movement in their youth. I can see him very easily back 
then now after that weekend. Perhaps he does not just have quite as 
much hair, but he has that same spirit and that same belief. It was 
extraordinary to be able to hear and exchange stories and tales from 
what I think is probably the most dramatic movement in the 20th 
century.
  There are two or three things that I learned and that had a 
significant impact on me beyond the visits that we made to the 
significant landmarks over the weekend. One thing that I learned that I 
did not realize before was what is the importance of the interwoven 
relationship of the gentleman's sectarian and political views, his and 
others', with deeply held religious views and beliefs, and how it all 
interrelated, and they used those beliefs in God and their beliefs in 
the righteousness of their cause to overcome incredibly overwhelming 
odds. That was a very important thing that I learned and something that 
I think carries forward and should carry forward always.
  I also learned how important the weekend was in providing an 
opportunity, as I mentioned in church on the Sunday we were there, for 
reflection and repentance. While I was raised in a different part of 
the country and am of a different race and perhaps somewhat of a 
different cultural background and, quite frankly, was too young at the 
time, in spite of that, I regret sincerely that I did not have an 
opportunity to play a more active role in what was the defining moment 
of the 20th century. But they gave us the opportunity to feel what it 
was like as best I could.
  I think the bottom line is, and one which I hope every single person 
who was with us got from this wonderful experience, was that through 
the reflection, through repentance, through all of that is the 
recognition, I think, that comes, and it is what we are all working 
for, and that is reconciliation. The gentleman from Georgia and so many 
others provided me the inspiration to work toward that goal. I could 
never thank him enough for giving me that opportunity.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me thank the gentlewoman for those kind and 
wonderful words. She added so much to the trip. We will always be 
grateful for her involvement.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), 
the Democratic leader who made the trip to Alabama.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his 
life, really, and his leadership and what he means to all of us. I want 
to thank him for holding this trip. I told him personally the other day 
how much I appreciated the work that he and his staff does to help the 
Faith and Politics Institute put on this weekend. This is the first 
time that I have had the chance to be with him. I have wanted to come 
and could not make it happen but was able to come this year.
  I want to thank all the Members, the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Houghton), the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), the Members who are here from our side who 
participated in this event. It was, in a word, moving to all of us to 
be part of this event. It was, in my view, one of the most important 
things that I have been able to do in my entire life. Because until you 
go to Selma and meet with some of your colleagues and hear the history 
of what happened and how it happened and what it meant in their lives 
and to see them still alive today and still fighting for these issues 
was truly moving.
  There is no substitute for it. There is no way to read about it. 
There is no

[[Page H1052]]

way to even see a television show about it and understand it the way 
you can when you are actually in the spot and meeting with these 
wonderful American citizens who improved our country so importantly. I 
felt like I was meeting with history. It would be kind of like meeting 
with patriots in Concord or Lexington or Gettysburg or some other place 
in our country where momentous events occurred that made our country 
what it is.
  It is also an understanding that the right to vote is basic to our 
democracy and that we have to always fight, even in today's 
circumstance, for people's right to vote. It is obviously a different 
fight today, but it was certainly that compulsion to want freedom and 
democracy that led the gentleman from Georgia and his colleagues to 
commit the heroic acts that went on then.
  And then, of course, to remember that 10 days after Bloody Sunday, 
President Lyndon Johnson came to this room and personally delivered his 
voting rights legislation and gave the most stirring address of his 
presidency. I doubt that would have happened, it certainly would not 
have happened in that time, if he had not done and his friends had not 
done what they did. President Johnson defined the national imperative 
to overcome the tyranny of discrimination and bigotry. President 
Johnson recognized, as President Lincoln had recognized a century 
before, that a nation divided could not stand. He got all of us to make 
a commitment to voting rights.
  I would like to quote one of the things that he said in his speech. 
He said, ``Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and very 
difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every 
American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason 
which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which 
weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.''
  It took a while longer, but he finally convinced the Congress to pass 
the Voting Rights Act. We stand today with the challenge before us 
again. We have to improve on our election process. We have been meeting 
in bipartisan ways to try to make that happen. I am convinced that if 
we have faith in one another and we work with one another, we can 
improve the election process in our country in the year 2001, in the 
year 2002.
  We are not there yet, I guess is what I am saying today. What we saw 
a few weekends ago, what the gentleman did 36 years ago was the 
beginning of another effort in our history to ensure the basic 
fundamental right of our democracy. He made great progress, and he is 
our hero because he did that.
  But we have a similar obligation now. In a different time with 
different issues, a different set of challenges, we have as much of an 
obligation as the gentleman from Georgia had 36 years ago to see that 
we ensure this right for every American today.
  It was an honor to be with him. I do not know of a time that I have 
spent in my life that was more productive or useful than that weekend. 
I thank him for making it possible. I look forward to working with him 
and Members on both sides of the aisle in the days ahead to try to 
advance these issues and these challenges to a more successful 
conclusion.
  We are on the road. We are not there yet. We are going to get there 
sometime soon.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I thank the leader for those kind and 
extraordinary words.
  Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield time to the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), who has been very active in Faith and 
Politics and has made these trips to Alabama.

                              {time}  1445

  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to come to the floor during this Special Order 
time to also pay special tribute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis). My wife and I have had the privilege of attending two trips to 
Selma; and even though we did not attend the one this year, we were 
there last year and the year before last and had the extraordinary 
opportunity to experience a sort of living history of what took place 
during that period of time.
  I know it must have been a thrill to go back to Selma this year and 
to maybe hug or greet the new mayor of Selma. I know the gentleman has 
been going back there for many years, but to have somebody like the new 
mayor just elected in Selma must have been an extraordinary opportunity 
and thrill for the gentleman after so many years of fighting for voting 
rights.
  I think part of what we learned on the trip is that voting is a 
precious right that we have in America, and it really comes home when 
you go to Selma and go to Montgomery and experience the opportunity to 
travel across the roads that the gentleman traveled and others traveled 
to gain that right for so many people. As we all lived out the election 
last November, it also I think gives us the idea that the right to vote 
is precious, and when people do not have that right and perhaps are 
denied that right, we can experience what the gentleman did back 35 or 
36 years ago to try to win it for a whole group of people that did not 
have it.
  I think it is a good message for all of us, to continue our efforts 
to make sure that when people go to the polls, the right is carried out 
in an accurate way and a way that reflects the will of the people.
  So it has been a great experience and a good lesson for all of us, 
that there are many things that we do when we are elected to these jobs 
in terms of introducing bills and coming on the floor and debating, but 
the opportunity to step outside of that role and to experience what 
people like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) have experienced and 
others have experienced I think is a good lesson for all of us in terms 
of what we can bring back to the House in terms of reforms that may be 
made as a result of that experience.
  So I congratulate the gentleman. As one who has tried to practice 
bipartisanship and support bipartisanship, I think the trip to Selma 
and Montgomery is one of the extraordinary bipartisan efforts; and I 
congratulate the gentleman, and Faith and Politics, and Doug Tanner and 
the work that he does and his organization. Doug works mighty hard 
around here to try to bring people together, and I know that there are 
grand plans to do something extraordinary next year, and I hope that 
Members of the House will look on the opportunities we have had at 
Selma to build on that for other opportunities with Faith and Politics 
and with the gentleman.
  Again, I thank the gentleman for giving all of us an opportunity to 
know him, know his experience, share his experience, and to really 
imbue in all of us the importance of how precious the right to vote 
really is for all of us.
  I thank the gentleman for this Special Order and the chance to say a 
few words.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. LaHood), my friend and brother, thank you for all your 
good work and for being so supportive of Faith and Politics and making 
those trips to Alabama.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from 
California (Mrs. Capps).
  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I am very grateful to the honorable 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I brought my pilgrimage book with me. I was hoping there 
would be this opportunity to have a Special Order. In a way it is a 
little bit like our pilgrimage can continue and can come even to life 
here in this place where we do our business, because that is actually 
what it was. It was a pilgrimage down into that countryside, to 
Montgomery, to Birmingham and to Selma and then to cross that bridge, 
and to do so with the leadership of one who was there, an esteemed 
Member of Congress, a leader here now.
  A few decades ago the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) was 20, 21 
years old, just a young boy, when he took upon himself that historic 
role. I see the gentleman with a different light now.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. The gentlewoman is making me a little younger, 
but I did have all my hair then.
  Mrs. CAPPS. The gentleman was very brave to do what he did then, and 
that kind of bravery is rare.
  I do not go on pilgrimages every day, and I do not see that kind of 
bravery around me very often; but I see it here. To have the leadership 
of our colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), the Faith 
and Politics

[[Page H1053]]

Institute, the Reverend Doug Tanner and the leadership of this place, 
it is remarkable.
  It is an honor to serve in the House of Representatives. It is an 
honor to represent my district, as each of us feel that so keenly, to 
come and do our constituents' business here, to enact legislation. But 
this place is so much more than that. This place breathes and lives the 
history of brave men and women who have made this country great, who 
have made this country, the United States of America, what it is today.
  We are so fortunate that some of that history is still alive with us 
and our colleague here, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), the 
wonderful men and women we were able to meet in Alabama as we visited 
the Civil Rights Institute, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Civil Rights 
Memorial, First Baptist Church, Rosa Parks' visualization of her 
experience on that bus, Brown Chapel AME Church; and then, arm in arm, 
to walk across, after the church service, it is really impressive to me 
how much this living history that has given us the voting rights that 
we enjoy in this country now came out of places of worship in the 
South, and in the North as well, because that was the inspiration, that 
was the moral force that enabled this bravery to occur and this hard-
fought freedom to be won. That is the inspiration that it was.
  I was so pleased that our family could include many of our family 
members, and that my daughter Laura could join me, because it is very 
personal; and it is religious, it is moving, to be called upon to 
examine in ourselves where was I during this time in our country's 
history, and where am I now.
  As our leader, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), was 
stating, the challenges are not over; and in many respects the 
pilgrimage has not passed either. It is still going on, and we must 
reexamine.
  My colleague talked about inequality in health care, a basic right 
that we want for all of our people around the world, and surely in this 
country; and the voting issue is still before us. Election reform is 
much needed now, and here we are in the House talking about this. I 
believe the leadership is called for from us, in a bipartisan way, to 
address this most fundamental right.
  If people were killed, and it was a bloody Sunday indeed, that was 
the impetus for the Voting Rights Act of the sixties, then surely we 
cannot defame that spilled blood by resting on the laurels of that day; 
but we must reexamine the inequalities which exist today, whether it is 
in machines or whether it is practices; and we have a responsibility to 
make sure that when we see injustice, that we put a stop to it, that we 
ensure that every single citizen of this great land has every access to 
vote, to express that most fundamental right of democracy. After all, 
people died for that. They died for that in our lifetime.
  I believe now that we must, in this dawning of a new century, live up 
to their expectations of us and our leadership.
  So, again, I was one of the fortunate people to take that pilgrimage; 
and if it ever occurs again and there is an opportunity, I hope that 
others will join with us as well. I commend the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Lewis) and the leadership that as a young person the gentleman 
showed so mightily with his friends and his fellow folks there who did 
a brave thing, and that we can have this opportunity through the Faith 
and Politics Institute and the corporate sponsors that make that happen 
for us as well. This is a big commitment on folks' part, and so I thank 
the gentleman for letting me take part in that.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, 
the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), so much for going on the 
trip and participating as a wonderful person on that trip and 
participating in this Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield now to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller).
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me express my thanks and 
appreciation to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for making this 
trip possible. This was indeed a very moving experience for me 
personally, as it was for all of us who participated in that unique 
weekend. It was a chance to, as people talked about, walk through 
history. It was an amazing walk through history.
  I kept asking myself that weekend, the gentlewoman from California 
(Mrs. Capps) and I often were there together, what was I doing back in 
those days? I was an undergraduate at the University of Florida in 
those days, just as a young guy enjoying the fraternity life and not 
thinking about it. But you would read things in the paper about what 
took place at the 16th Street Baptist Church. We were there, with the 
girls, where the bombing took place.
  We walked across the bridge in Selma. You start thinking how did our 
country allow this to happen, and why was I not more involved in trying 
to help end it, like the gentleman did? The gentleman was a leader.
  You talk about the young John Lewis. It is kind of fun seeing the 
photographs from the early days. Which one is John? Did he really have 
that much hair back in 1961, 1962, 1963? We saw his photographs in the 
museums. The gentleman is a hero. He helped lead that effort.
  I appreciate that the gentleman brought people with us there. Bob 
Zelner flew in for it, and Bernard Lafayette, who is a delightful 
gentleman. He actually grew up in my area, the Tampa, Florida, area; 
and his father was able to be there. And being with, and I cannot 
remember the old elderly gentleman from the Dexter Avenue Baptist 
Church.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Deacon Nesibitt was the deacon who brought 
Martin Luther King, Jr. to the church in Montgomery.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. In 1956. This is fascinating. This is the 
history. We have the deacon of the church who went to Atlanta and 
talked Martin Luther King out of going to Savannah and coming to 
Montgomery and making his mark in history too and helping lead that 
effort. That is the part of the history that you get to be part of.
  A book I am reading right now, I do not know how much time we have, 
so I do not want to use up the time of other speakers, is ``America 
Afire.'' It is a delightful book, but it is talking about the founding 
of our country. I was just reading about how in the late part of the 
18th century when we were voting and drafting the Constitution, it was 
white men, Christian, basically, landowners that were involved in it. 
It is amazing that they wrote a document that could evolve.
  That is the great thing about our country. You feel proud, as 
horrible as what the African American community went through for 
generations in this country, the fact is we have survived, and we are 
going to go forward.
  This was an effort that I think is so inspirational for me. I 
appreciate the opportunity. At the conclusion, going to the Brown 
Chapel, I went to more churches on a weekend than I normally do. I go 
to church, but not as many as the gentleman took me to over the 
weekend. And the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge was special.
  I am going to encourage all my colleagues, especially on my side of 
the aisle, I am standing on your side of the aisle today, but this was 
certainly not a partisan event. I congratulate the gentleman for what 
he has done, leading in the non-violence effort. That was important, 
the gentleman's phase of it. Hearing Bernard talk about that too, how 
you learned to be non-violent. When people approached you with violence 
and you could tolerate that, I just do not know what I could do under 
those circumstances.
  So I commend the gentleman, and really my admiration and respect is 
great for you, because now I learned more about it. I thank the 
gentleman for giving me that opportunity. I really sincerely appreciate 
it. I will work to get more of my colleagues 2 years from now to 
participate when we have another one of these.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman so much for 
participating as part of this trip to Alabama.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield time to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-
Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished 
gentleman from Georgia, and I would like to say to the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Miller), who made a symbolic gesture, which we appreciate, 
because the gentleman is right, this is not partisan, this is really a 
coming together,

[[Page H1054]]

and I want to thank the gentleman for his remarks and for his remarks 
about the experience.
  I am a repeater, three-timer, and I appreciate very much the idea and 
the vision that came from Faith and Politics, but from the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Houghton), to be able to cause us Members of Congress who legislate to 
stop for a moment to reinvigorate ourselves and really take to hand the 
reality of what we do every day, and that is that we work with laws on 
behalf of the people of the United States, because they have the 
privilege of voting for us, and we have the privilege of being elected 
and the privilege of serving.

                              {time}  1500

  So this particular pilgrimage to Selma is so very special and, in 
particular, this year, because more than any other time in 2000, I 
think some of us felt that we were literally brought to our knees at a 
time that for many of our constituents was very troubling during the 
November election. There were a multitude of responses: anguish, anger, 
disappointment, despair. I do not know if we could have found our way 
if we had not had the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) to remind us 
in his eloquence, even during that time frame, to be grounded, to be 
strengthened by those who were strong enough in 1965 to persist for the 
right to vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I know the story has been told many times, and I know 
there are others here, so I just want to quickly say, we all know that 
the gentleman tried on more than one occasion to gather himself and 
others to walk across the bridge and that it was not a time of lack of 
fear; and that when he walked, it was not that, oh, we know we are 
going to make it, he and Hosea Williams and the other throngs of 
individuals. It was not a frivolous walk.
  The gentleman from Georgia worked for a long time to develop a sense 
of nonviolence, but as well the commitment to nonviolence. I think 
people need to understand that, that it was not a walk of lightness and 
that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) had to study and to adopt 
and to commit to himself that he would be nonviolent, and he walked 
across that bridge, the Edmund Pettus Bridge that will remain deep in 
our hearts, and it was a day of violence. It took courage to go, it 
took courage to stand, it took courage to pray, and as well, it took 
courage to be able to come back again.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from Georgia, in the time that he 
has taken us there, along with the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Houghton), we have not just walked across a bridge, we have discovered 
each other and we have discovered a fulfillment of the fundamental 
right to vote under our Constitution and what it truly means to 
overcome.
  I think with that, I would almost challenge each of us that we can do 
that in this very House. We can really come together around issues that 
help those who cannot speak for themselves. I hope that this recounting 
of the Selma story, where Members on different sides of the aisle and 
different backgrounds, actually sat down and spoke to each other but, 
more importantly, I say to the gentleman, we heard each other, with 
testimonies and song, and to be able to touch and feel Bernard 
Lafayette, our eloquent speaker, to be able to be in the churches where 
Martin spoke, to eat some of the good cooking that was there during 
that time, to be hosted by the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) 
and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus); to be able to sing the 
songs, I have never felt a deeper feeling by singing those songs. There 
is a certain way to sing them, and certainly we had them sung the right 
way.
  So I would simply close by saying to the gentleman that I have been a 
threepeater and I expect to go again, but I expect, hopefully, to, more 
importantly, as I see many of the youngsters who are here for their 
spring break, soaking up democracy and soaking up our process, I hope 
they have an opportunity to know that we do other things, commemorate 
and commend that march on Selma, that bloody Sunday that generated the 
Voter Rights Act of 1965. As we move toward electoral reform, let no 
one be ashamed of what happened as much as what does not happen, if we 
do not fix the system and make it right in tribute to the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), our hero, along with so many others, that we 
reinforce the right to vote and the value of democracy in this Nation.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas 
(Ms. Jackson-Lee). I thank her so much for participating, and not only 
on the march, the journey of reconciliation, the dialogue, but for 
participating in this Special Order today. I thank the gentlewoman for 
her leadership.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield time to the gentlewoman from 
the State of California (Ms. Lee).
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished and 
courageous gentleman from Georgia for yielding and for organizing this 
Special Order, and for also leading one of the most memorable journeys 
of my lifetime.
  Let me take a moment to convey my deepest gratitude to the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for his sacrifices, his leadership, and for 
his tolerance, which he has demonstrated throughout his life as he 
fought and as he continues to fight for freedom and for justice. I also 
want to thank the people of Alabama for their heroic and their noble 
struggles, for I know for a fact that because of their blood, sweat, 
and tears, I am here today serving as a Member of Congress.
  Now, during our visit to Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, we talked 
about where we were during those tumultuous times. Some felt guilty, 
but everyone felt gratitude. But I would dare to say that all of us 
felt galvanized to redouble our efforts for equality and justice and 
realize just how blessed we are to be Members of Congress, for we 
actually have a second time and a third time to make a difference in 
the lives of people in this millennium.
  This pilgrimage was very personal for me, whether visiting the 16th 
Street Baptist Church where four young and beautiful African-American 
children died as a result of a ruthless bombing or touring the National 
Voting Rights Museum in Selma or marching across the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge in Selma. I was reminded of my childhood in Texas where I was 
forced to drink out of the colored-only water fountain or not allowed 
to go to movie houses or my dad, dressed in his military uniform, with 
his family, being told that he could not be served at restaurants. Yes, 
all of these painful repressed memories surfaced, experiences which I 
seldom talk about. But for me, I say to the gentleman, this visit 
provided really some breakthroughs personally; and I thank him for 
that.
  Now, as we toured Rosa Parks Museum and Library and during our visit 
to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. King served 
as pastor, and during our moments at the First Baptist Church and while 
worshipping at Brown Chapel AME Church, I reflected on the unfinished 
business of Dr. Martin Luther King and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis) and all of those who shed their blood for the right to vote. Of 
course, I was reminded of thousands of African Americans and others who 
were disenfranchised in the recent elections. During our visit to 
Alabama, several people told me, now I understand why you and other 
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus protested the ratification of 
the Electoral College vote and walked off the floor of Congress. Our 
pilgrimage to Alabama certainly provided additional inspiration to work 
on electoral reform so that never again will the lives and legacy of 
those known and unknown be denigrated by denying the people the right 
to vote.
  Mr. Speaker, let me emphasize the importance of educating young 
people about the civil rights movement. Many young people of color, 
many African Americans really do believe that integration always was, 
that the right to vote always was. The history of the civil and human 
rights movement has all but been ignored in American history books. 
Many young people believe that the ability to sit anywhere on the bus 
or to eat at a lunch counter just always was. Many young people believe 
that riding in any car on a train instead of the colored-only car just 
always was.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, the Faith and Politics mission to Alabama reminded 
us of times passed and that we owe a debt

[[Page H1055]]

of gratitude to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Rosa Parks, and all of those heroes who made it possible 
for people like me to pick up the baton and fight to end institutional 
racism, unequal education, universal health care, to fight for that; to 
fight for affordable housing, for a clean environment, a livable wage, 
and to fight for people who have been left out of this economic 
prosperity.
  In closing, let me just encourage each and every Member of Congress 
to participate in this magnificent pilgrimage. It is really a privilege 
and an honor to be able to meet with men and women and break bread with 
them, those men and women who were on the front lines, taking bold 
risks to make America a better place. It was because of them that 
democracy was actually forced to confront and address its 
contradictions.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia. I want to thank all 
of those with the Faith and Politics Institute for really putting this 
together. I hope that everyone in this body and all of our young people 
can benefit from the great work that the gentleman is doing, because we 
certainly have benefited from the struggles which took place during 
that time.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, I want to thank you 
for going on the trip and for participating in this Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I now yield time to the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Etheridge), our colleague and friend.


                Announcement by the Speaker pro tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kerns). The chair will remind all 
Members to address one another by State delegation rather than by first 
names.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I 
thank the gentleman from Georgia, or really, from Alabama. It was great 
to be in his native home State and for the opportunity for me and my 
son, who is a school teacher, to go and visit. Let me tell the 
gentleman what came as the result of it.
  My son taught third grade and is now working with children who really 
have deficiencies in reading and math, who are trying to get to grade 
level. As the gentleman knows, he took a lot of video footage while he 
was there of the gentleman and Bernard Lafayette and Fred Shuttlesworth 
and others and Dick Gephardt, our leader. But what he has done now that 
he has gotten back, he has taken that footage and is tying it to North 
Carolina during that very same period, using it for staff development 
for teachers as well as young people.
  Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from Georgia for letting me 
walk through history with heroes of history, for helping stimulate and 
revive my thinking about Brown Chapel, the Pettus Bridge, for the 
things that happened that really changed this Nation for the better. To 
all of my colleagues who have not been, I would say to them, they need 
to go to understand. My colleagues really need to go to understand. We 
can read the history books, we can even see the videos, but until you 
walk through history and you walk through the museums and the parks and 
you see how children were abused, children who were innocent, denied 
the opportunity for an education, how children were attacked by dogs 
and water hoses and all of those other things that today we shudder to 
even think happen, but they were commonplace.
  As we walk through history, we appreciate the right to vote, and for 
those who have always had it, they do not understand how important and 
precious it really is. How precious is human decency and basic common 
sense and housing, as we have talked about. Let me thank the gentleman 
again and Faith and Politics for making it available. I planned to go, 
as the gentleman well knows, a couple of times, and other things 
happened. I am glad I went, I am glad this became a bipartisan venture.
  I have been to Birmingham before. I have been to Montgomery on 
business. But if someone has not been on this trip, a walk through 
history, one really does not understand how important it is for 
America. I guess I was heartened, I would say to my friend, by the 
strength of human will. No one can know unless they go or no one can 
truly understand the total commitment of a whole community from the 
smallest child to the oldest person, until you get to Montgomery, and 
you understand they were willing to walk for you. You do not understand 
until you walk through the park in Birmingham and you see what children 
went through and adults and how people were willing to give up their 
lives.
  Yes, we have challenges today. We need to stand on the shoulders of 
people like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), Martin Luther King, 
and others who have laid a foundation, but the challenges are still 
here for those of us in this body. Not just access to education, but 
equal opportunity to education for every child, the chance for a child 
to get a college education when they have the ability, but not the 
money; health care opportunities for our seniors and others, and yes, 
the right to vote and the obligation and right to have that vote 
counted. In America in the 21st century, there is no excuse to repeat 
the problems of history in the past.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a long, unfinished agenda, but to my friend from 
Georgia, let me thank him for making this available for our colleagues, 
and I would encourage others of my colleagues to go. Not only will they 
benefit, but their constituents will benefit immensely and America will 
be a better place for it.
  Again, I thank the gentleman again for his courage of nonviolence. 
After having walked through the footprints of history, I have 
questioned myself on many days: could I have stood knowing the abuse 
that I was about to take. I do not know the answer to that.

                              {time}  1515

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), my colleague and my friend.
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by just acknowledging the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman's place in 
history. Sometimes we are here working with you every day, and we do 
not appreciate how much you mean to all of us and to our country.
  Mr. Speaker, I suppose today that there are a couple of people in 
this country who are living now who played a more significant role 
perhaps than the gentleman did in the civil rights movement, but only 
maybe one or two, maybe not that many.
  It is just that small a group that made this huge difference for all 
of us, and it is important to acknowledge that and to thank the 
gentleman and to tell all the Members who serve with us every day that 
we serve with a very special Member, with a very special man who, not 
only in this country but around the world, who is known for what he has 
done to make human rights real for people and to inspire others around 
the world to fight for human rights.
  I thank the gentleman for being our colleague and our friend and for 
permitting us to be with the gentleman on this pilgrimage.
  Let me say, when the gentleman was starting out, I was a little 
younger than the gentleman. I was probably about 11 years old back 
then, living in a place called Lake Providence, Louisiana, in the 
northeastern part of the State in the Mississippi Delta, though. I know 
that the gentleman knows how tough it was back then.
  The things the gentleman recounts in his book, Walking With the Wind, 
are things that I went through as a young boy as well.
  I remember when my mother and others in our family were trying hard 
to get the right to vote and to pass a literacy test. When my mother 
finally got this done in 1926, she was only one of five people in our 
parish to have the right to vote. I remember her trying to teach other 
people in our little living room there how to recite the preamble to 
the Constitution, how to recite the Presidents in order from 1 to 20 or 
so, and how to compute their ages, the year, the month and the day.
  They struggled with these things, as would have the whites in that 
area back then, but they did not have to take it. They had just as 
little schooling as the black folks had, but did not have to take the 
test.
  I remember when in 1966 the Federal registrars came to town after the 
passage of the Voting Rights Act.
  In 1966, there was a line formed around the little courthouse a lot 
like

[[Page H1056]]

you might have seen in the pictures in South Africa, a long line of 
folks in our little town. And the stories told by my mother who was up 
there watching this line and had a fellow named Vaughn, Henry Vaughn, I 
remember his name, who came to that line and said to my mother and her 
friends and to Reverend Scott, who was then our local civil rights 
leader, Reverend Scott, why are all your folks lined up like this? 
There is not a one of them who is fit to hold an office. Who you all 
going to put in? Reverend Scott said, I do not know who we are going to 
put in, but there are some folks we want to take out.
  There is a power in the vote that went to those folks that never had 
it before. Mr. Vaughn approached them because they would have the power 
to vote. It is a power that none of us ought to take for granted, that 
none of us ought to diminish in the way we treat it, that all of us 
ought to embrace at this point in our lives and remember those 
shoulders on which we stood back in those days.
  There were lessons to be learned as we went through this pilgrimage 
with the gentleman. We were reminded of all the times that I went 
through in my life with my mother and her friends and my family and all 
those families like her. Because, as the gentleman points out in his 
book, it was not just the big people at the top. It was the foot 
soldiers of the movement that made the movement, people like my mother 
and others and the ladies we met and the gentleman we met down there 
with the gentleman in Alabama. It was those folks who made the 
difference.
  There is a book, I say to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), 
that says But For Birmingham, and if the gentleman had not taken the 
ride in 1961 and come through Birmingham and had it happen there, if 
the gentleman had not started that movement back then with others, the 
gentleman's colleagues, young people, it shows what young people can do 
with their lives if they commit themselves.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kerns). The time of the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) has expired.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield to the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) an additional 10 minutes.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Any additional Members may seek an 
additional 5-minute Special Order by unanimous consent.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the 
House for 5 minutes.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Massachusetts is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.

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