[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 27, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H614-H615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               THE COLOR LINE REVISITED: IS RACISM DEAD?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, it is my honor to 
begin the Congressional Black Caucus 2002 Black History Month Special 
Order. The theme of this year's national African American History Month 
is ``The Color Line Revisited: Is racism dead?''
  More than 100 years ago, in 1900, the great scholar, W.E.B. DuBois, 
addressed a pan-African conference in London where he said, ``The 
problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.'' It is 
now the 21st century and a major problem for this Nation is still the 
color line, but I believe that the color line is shifting, and shifting 
toward a better future.
  Certainly as a nation we could not have watched Vonetta Flowers 
become the first African American woman ever to win a gold medal in the 
Winter Olympics, ironically during Black History Month, without 
acknowledging that the color line is shifting.
  Certainly when we look at the progress among black-elected officials, 
we know the color line is shifting. In 1964, there were just three 
African Americans in Congress and 300 black-elected officials 
nationally. Today, those numbers have swelled to 9,000 black-elected 
officials nationwide and 39 Members in Congress, 38 being members of 
the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Yes, the color line is shifting; but the problem is still here. In 
our lifetime, in my lifetime, I have seen Nazism fall, Communism fall, 
Fascism fall, but why not racism? In our lifetime, we must cling to the 
belief that we as a united people will celebrate the death of racism.
  American-styled racism, loosely defined, is the belief that one race 
is superior to another. Upon this principle, slavery, Jim Crowism, 
lynching, economic exploitation, and many other forms of oppression 
were engraved in law and tradition.
  Can we now say racism is dead when 51 percent of African American 
children are living in poverty, while the civil rights movement fought 
for the right to vote in the sixties; and now in the new millennium we 
must fight to ensure that votes are counted, particularly in black 
areas?
  For example, one in 11 ballots in the predominantly black voting 
precincts in Florida were tossed out, according to a New York Times 
analysis of the Sunshine State's black vote.
  Racial profiling is alive. About 73 percent of motorists stopped and 
searched on a major New Jersey highway in 1999 were African Americans, 
even though African Americans made up less than 18 percent of the 
traffic violators.
  Disparities in sentencing and in incarceration have grown. African 
American men comprise 50 percent of the U.S. prison population, despite 
representing just 6 percent of the U.S. population.
  Reparations were refused to the survivors of the 1921 race riots in 
Tulsa, Oklahoma. The legislature refused this remedy, even though 
whites destroyed an African American community, killing 300 residents 
and destroying businesses and homes.
  But they are just a few examples, just a few. There are so many more.
  Moreover, when we witness the fights against affirmative action as a 
tool against African Americans achieving equality in employment and 
education, we can only conclude that much more must be done to bury 
racism.
  When we review even now that land has been taken from African 
Americans, that they have had to pay more for life insurance policies, 
we know that racism is not dead.
  But in my closing, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking 
in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 27, 1962, are appropriate: ``The 
problem of race and color prejudice remains America's greatest moral 
dilemma. How we deal with this crucial situation will determine our 
moral health as individuals, our political health as a Nation, and our 
prestige as a leader of the free world. The hour is late, the clock of 
destiny is ticking out. We must act now before it is too late.''
  I know the Speaker joins me in recognizing the tremendous 
achievements that African Americans are making to this Nation. When I 
get on an elevator to come up each day, I know that it was an African 
American who invented the elevator. Even turning on a light or stopping 
at a street light, we know that we have been part of it. Standing in 
this building, we know that African Americans as slave workers built 
this great Capitol of the Nation.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) 
to moderate the rest of the Special Order.

                              {time}  1745

  Ms. LEE. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the chair of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie 
Bernice Johnson), for her leadership on issues affecting African 
Americans, all minorities in this country, in fact, the entire country, 
for everyone and for bringing us together here tonight.
  As she reminded us so eloquently, in 1903 W.E.B. DuBois wrote The 
Souls of Black Folks and stated that, ``the problem of the 20th century 
is the problem of the color line.''
  Now here in the 21st century, nearly 100 years after the publishing 
of his groundbreaking work, we really do face many of the same 
problems, and they are further complicated by an economic divide.
  While African Americans have made great strides in many areas in the 
last 100 years, including the end of Jim Crow and legalized 
segregation, the color line is still evident and is still costly to 
African Americans and really to the entire Nation.
  Some feel that because legal segregation was ended and that the Civil 
Rights Act was passed and affirmative action exists in some States, 
some believe that racism has ended. But I ask you tonight to consider 
the unfortunate new manifestations of racism as they exist in the year 
2002 when we ask the question, is racism dead?
  There are more than 44 million people in this country without health 
insurance. Nearly 20 percent of African Americans have no health 
insurance.
  Thirty percent of children living in poverty are African American. 
That is about 3.5 million children.
  Forty percent of black men in urban areas do not graduate from high 
school.
  There are more young African American men under the control of the 
criminal justice system than enrolled in higher education.
  The unemployment rate for blacks is 12.2 percent compared with 5.5 
percent for white.
  Homicide is the leading cause of deaths for black males between 15 
and 24, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among young 
black males.
  Black men in inner-city neighborhoods are less likely to reach the 
age of 65 than men in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the 
world.
  Since December of 2000, over 130,000 AIDS cases were reported among 
women in the United States. Almost two-thirds of all women with AIDS 
are African Americans. And young girls make up about 58 percent of new 
AIDS cases among teens in the United States.
  Blacks are 10 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than whites 
and 10 times more likely to die from this disease.
  African Americans in this country were emancipated from slavery and 
given no compensation for their forced labor nor for that of their 
ancestors. Following this, legalized and institutional segregation 
marginalized African Americans to separate and unequal education, 
health services and protections under the law.
  This was the inequality that Dr. DuBois was speaking of in 1903, but 
these inequalities continued to exist and define the state of affairs 
for much of black America.
  Is racism dead? I do not think so. African Americans are still 
dealing with this terrible legacy of slavery, racism, social and 
political and economic marginalization.
  Until we erase the health disparities, education disparities, unequal 
economic opportunities, and ensure that there are equal protections 
under the law, including making sure, may I say, that the votes of 
African Americans are as likely to be counted as whites in

[[Page H615]]

our elections, we have to acknowledge, we have to be clear about this, 
that the color line does exist and that there is much to do in terms of 
seeking liberty and justice for African Americans.
  So the question now should be, what does this Congress and this 
administration have the will to do about this? We all have a duty, a 
responsibility to fight for equality and justice.
  As Dr. W.E.B. DuBois reminded us so eloquently 100 years ago, he 
said, ``By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the 
rights that the world accords to men and women clinging unwaiveringly 
to those great words which the sons of the fathers would feign forget, 
'We hold those truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable 
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness.'''
  Again, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice 
Johnson) for bringing us together tonight. As we celebrate Black 
History Month, as it comes to a close, let us celebrate our 
achievements but remain vigilant on the issues that affect the millions 
of African Americans in this country.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I would like to 
yield back my time and request that time be yielded to the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Lee).

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