[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 27, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1249-S1250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        2002 BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today in honor of Black History 
Month, a 76-year tradition recognizing and celebrating the 
contributions of African-Americans throughout our history.
  Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves, earned his 
bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Chicago in my 
home State of Illinois, before continuing his studies at Harvard 
University and the Sorbonne in Paris. Since African-American history 
had barely begun to be studied or even documented, Dr. Woodson 
established what is now called the Association for the Study of Afro-
American Life and History and founded the Journal of Negro History. In 
1926, he started Negro History Week and chose the second week of 
February because it marks the birthdays of two men who have had a great 
impact on African-Americans: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. 
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Woodson and those who have followed him, 
we now celebrate the outstanding achievements of African-Americans past 
and present during the entire month of February.
  Illinois has a rich African-American legacy. Gwendolyn Brooks was the 
first African-American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1968, she 
was named the poet laureate of Illinois. In 1985-86, she was the Poet 
Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and focused 
her efforts on encouraging elementary school students to write poetry.

[[Page S1250]]

  Black History Month is also a celebration of lesser-known African-
Americans, and I would like to recognize the far-reaching contributions 
of Illinoisan Lloyd Augustus Hall. Mr. Hall was a chemist who earned 
more than 100 patents in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. 
His work revolutionized the meatpacking industry, and his method for 
sterilizing spices is used today to sterilize medicine, medical 
supplies, and cosmetics. He was the first African-American elected to 
the National Board of Directors of the American Institute of Chemists, 
and President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the American Food for 
Peace Council in 1962.
  Today, Illinoisans continue to build upon Dr. Woodson's legacy of 
preserving and celebrating African-American history. Last month, Jewish 
leaders at the Beth Emet synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, released a 
restored recording of a speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave there 
44 years ago. It took months of digital forensic audio techniques to 
clean background noise and to convert the reel-to-reel tape to compact 
disc, but the effort was well worth it, and Dr. King's words then are 
still instructive today.
  Dr. King observed that there had been three distinct periods in our 
nation's history of race relations: slavery, segregation, and 
desegregation. He also declared that the issue of civil rights is ``an 
eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our 
nation'' and looked toward a fourth period--a period of real 
integration.
  This month, we honor the great strides made by African-Americans in 
overcoming obstacles and color barriers. But I am afraid we have not 
yet reached Dr. King's goal of real integration. The unemployment rate 
for African-Americans has jumped to 9.8 percent, over four percentage 
points higher than the rate for all workers. The 2000 Presidential 
election illustrated the disenfranchisement of thousands of African-
American voters nationwide, whose votes did not count. There is 
disturbing evidence that some law enforcement agencies and agents 
``profile,'' or make pre-determinations about, people based on their 
race.
  Dr. King noted the important role that we in the Federal Government 
must play in addressing issues such as these. In his 1958 speech at 
Beth Emet, he said, ``As we look to Washington, so often it seems that 
the judicial branch of the government is fighting the battle alone. The 
executive and legislative branches of the government have been all too 
slow and stagnant and silent, and even apathetic, at points. The hour 
has come now for the Federal Government to use its power, its 
constitutional power, to enforce the law of the land.''
  The time indeed has come for Congress to show that it is no longer 
slow and certainly not apathetic. I have been working for several 
months to try to extend unemployment benefits and to help unemployed 
workers continue their health benefits. I proposed an amendment that 
would have increased weekly unemployment benefits by $25 or fifteen 
percent, whichever is greater. It also would have expanded coverage to 
part-time and low-wage workers, helping nearly 80 percent of the laid-
off workers who currently are not receiving benefits.
  In addition, I am an original cosponsor of the bipartisan election 
reform measure and introduced an amendment to eliminate the unnecessary 
special treatment of punchcard voting systems. The overwhelming 
majority of African-American and Hispanic voters use the punchcard 
system, which loses at least 50 percent more votes than optically-
scanned paper ballots. My amendment would have reduced the number of 
these discarded votes by permitting a voter to verify the votes he or 
she selected on the ballot and notifying the voter if more than one 
candidate had been selected for a single office. The voter also would 
have had the opportunity to change the ballot or correct any error 
before the ballot was cast and counted.
  I am also an original cosponsor of the End Racial Profiling Act of 
2001, which prohibits law enforcement agencies and agents from engaging 
in racial profiling and provides for enforcement in civil court. This 
legislation would also require Federal, State, and local law 
enforcement agencies receiving Federal grants to maintain adequate 
policies and procedures designed to eliminate racial profiling. 
Furthermore, I have introduced the Reasonable Search Standards Act to 
prohibit U.S. Customs Service personnel from searching or detaining 
individuals based on racial and other discriminatory profiling 
criteria.
  The official theme for this year's Black History Month is ``The Color 
Line Revisited: Is Racism Dead?'' This month, and every month, we must 
push forward until the answer to this question is a resounding ``Yes.'' 
We must continue to fight for economic opportunity, equal justice, and 
equity in education and health care. While we celebrate the 
accomplishments of African-Americans throughout our history, we must 
build upon those achievements, until we can finally reach Dr. King's 
vision of real integration.

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