[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 41 (Thursday, March 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E473-E474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNIZING THE LEADERS OF CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST FOR THEIR LETTER TO 
              PRESIDENT BUSH REGARDING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2003

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and commend the 
leaders of the community-serving Church of God in Christ on their 
poignant and powerful letter to President Bush regarding Affirmative 
Action. I encourage my colleagues here in the House and all Americans 
to read this important letter.
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I wish to insert the letter into the 
Record.


                                Church Of God In Christ, Inc.,

                                    Memphis, TN, January 23, 2003.
     Hon. George W. Bush, President,
     The White House,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear President Bush: We write to you as the leaders of the 
     community-serving Church Of God In Christ on the matter of 
     Affirmative Action and the recent actions of your 
     Administration toward millions of Blacks in America seeking 
     equal opportunity and participation in the economic, cultural 
     and political life of the nation.
       We are deeply disappointed in the actions of your 
     Administration regarding the legal briefs that your Justice 
     Department submitted to the Supreme Court opposing equal 
     opportunity for Blacks in the form of Affirmative Action as 
     practiced by the University of Michigan.
       We note that the Republican Party has in recent years 
     failed to speak with a unified voice in favor of redressing 
     the grave effects of the historic wrongs committed against 
     African-Americans in this country, which continue to reduce 
     and constrain the life opportunities of their descendants. 
     Despite the past strong leadership of Republicans such as 
     President Richard M. Nixon, who implemented robust and 
     vigorous measures in employment, minority contracting and 
     university admissions to wipe away the effects of past anti-
     Black discrimination, we now observe that since the 1980's, 
     your party has rapidly retreated from the historic Republican 
     ideals of equal opportunity and racial justice.
       We see that your Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, 
     made a strong statement supporting intensive ongoing 
     implementation of Affirmative Action. This seems to put him 
     at odds with others in your Administration and party, as well 
     as many of your proposed judicial nominees, on the best way 
     to redress the continuing exclusion of Blacks from the 
     economic benefits of American Society. We support Secretary 
     Powell's position and think that other Republicans would

[[Page E474]]

     do well to follow his lead in standing for strong support of 
     Affirmative Action.
       The reason Affirmative Action is needed is due to the 
     historic experience of Blacks in America. The experience of 
     Blacks in this country is without analogue and is unique due 
     to the nature of American enslavement of millions of Blacks 
     during the founding of the republic and thereafter. The 
     political, social, cultural and economic effect of racial 
     exclusion because of slavery, which continued in the form of 
     Jim Crow laws and currently operate through more subtle forms 
     of racial prejudice, result in Black Americans having a 
     special and unique set of claims for redress by the body 
     politic.
       This month you celebrated the legacy of the Reverend Dr. 
     Martin Luther King, Jr., and pledged yourself to renewed 
     efforts toward equal opportunity. The way to turn your words 
     into something beyond empty rhetoric is to support concrete 
     action towards equal opportunity in the form of Affirmative 
     Action. Even Dr. King called for ``compensatory measures'' to 
     help Blacks approach parity in employment opportunities, 
     income wealth, entrepreneurship and other indicators of well 
     being in this country. While we believe that race should not 
     be the only factor in Affirmative Action efforts, we do 
     believe that it is valid to take account of race as a factor 
     when opportunities are distributed among people in society 
     today.
       With greater effort expended by your Administration and 
     others yet to come, we look forward to the day when 
     Affirmative Action will no longer be necessary. That will be 
     when America has finally attained the level of equal 
     opportunity, inclusion and sense of beloved community for all 
     citizens.
       The Black community seeks the opportunity to be 
     strengthened so that eventually it can stand upon its own 
     feet, having the effects of past racial exclusion and 
     discrimination erased and able to enter into the fullness of 
     the blessings of America. Your Administration's active 
     support of the Black community in this matter could be among 
     the greatest legacies of the party of Lincoln.
       We pledge to pray for you and your administration that you 
     might encounter the Divine Wisdom in this matter.
           In Christ,
                                                  G. E. Patterson,
                                                 Presiding Bishop.
       The General Board: C. E. Blake; C. D. Owens; L. E. Willis; 
     J. N. Haynes; P. A. Brooks; G. D. McKinney; W. W. Hamilton; 
     L. R. Anderson; N. W. Wells, R. L. H. Winbush; S. L. Green, 
     Jr.

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