[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 8, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1139-S1140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SENATE RESOLUTION 44--CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. ALEXANDER (for himself and Mr. Coleman) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                               S. Res. 44

       Whereas the first African Americans were brought forcibly 
     to these shores as early as the 17th century;
       Whereas African Americans were enslaved in the United 
     States and subsequently faced the injustices of lynch mobs, 
     segregation, and denial of basic, fundamental rights;
       Whereas in spite of these injustices, African Americans 
     have made significant contributions to the economic, 
     educational, political, artistic, literary, scientific, and 
     technological advancement of the United States;
       Whereas in the face of these injustices Americans of all 
     races distinguished themselves in their commitment to the 
     ideals on which the United States was founded, and fought for 
     the rights of African Americans;
       Whereas the greatness of America is reflected in the 
     contributions of African Americans in all walks of life 
     throughout the history of the United States: in the writings 
     of W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Alex 
     Haley; in the music of Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, and 
     Duke Ellington; in the resolve of athletes such as Jackie 
     Robinson and Muhammed Ali; in the vision of leaders such as 
     Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther 
     King, Jr.; and in the bravery of those who stood on the front 
     lines in the battle against oppression such as Harriet Tubman 
     and Rosa Parks;
       Whereas the United States of America was conceived, as 
     stated in the Declaration of Independence, as a new nation 
     dedicated to the proposition that ``all Men are created 
     equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
     inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and 
     the Pursuit of Happiness'';
       Whereas the actions of Americans of all races demonstrate 
     their commitment to that proposition: actions such as those 
     of Allan Pinkerton, Thomas Garrett, and the Rev. John Rankin 
     who served as conductors on the Underground Railroad; actions 
     such as those of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who shined a light on 
     the injustices of slavery; actions such as those of President 
     Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 
     and Senator Lyman Trumbull, who introduced the 13th Amendment 
     to the Constitution of the United States; actions such as 
     those of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice Earl 
     Warren, Senator Mike Mansfield, and Senator Hubert Humphrey, 
     who fought to end segregation and the denial of civil rights 
     to African Americans; and the thousands of Americans of all 
     races who marched side-by-side with African Americans during 
     the civil rights movement;
       Whereas since its founding the United States has been an 
     imperfect work in progress towards these noble goals;
       Whereas American History is the story of a people regularly 
     affirming high ideals, striving to reach them but often 
     failing, and then struggling to come to terms with the 
     disappointment of that failure before recommitting themselves 
     to trying again;
       Whereas from the beginning of our Nation the most 
     conspicuous and persistent failure of Americans to reach our 
     noble goals has been the enslavement of African Americans and 
     the resulting racism;
       Whereas the crime of lynching succeeded slavery as the 
     ultimate expression of racism in the United States following 
     Reconstruction;
       Whereas the Federal Government failed to put an end to 
     slavery until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, 
     repeatedly failed to enact a federal anti-lynching law, and 
     still struggles to deal with the evils of racism; and
       Whereas the fact that 61 percent of African American 4th 
     graders read at a below basic level and only 16 percent of 
     native born African Americans have earned a Bachelor's 
     degree; 50 percent of all new HIV cases are reported in 
     African Americans; and the leading cause of death for African 
     American males ages 15 to 34 is homicide demonstrates that 
     the United States continues to struggle to reach the high 
     ideal of equal opportunity for all Americans: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) acknowledges the tragedies of slavery, lynching, 
     segregation, and condemns them as an infringement on human 
     liberty and equal opportunity so that they will stand forever 
     as a reminder of what can happen when Americans fail to live 
     up to their noble goals;
       (2) honors those Americans who during the time of slavery, 
     lynching, and segregation risked their lives in the 
     underground railway and in other efforts to assist fugitive 
     slaves and other African Americans who might have been 
     targets and victims of lynch mobs and those who have stood 
     beside African Americans in the fight for equal opportunity 
     that continues to this day;
       (3) reaffirms its commitment to the founding principles of 
     the United States of America that ``all Men are created 
     equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
     inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and 
     the Pursuit of Happiness''; and
       (4) commits itself to addressing those situations in which 
     the African American community struggles with disparities in 
     education, health care, and other areas where the Federal 
     Government can play a role in improving conditions for all 
     Americans.

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, this is Black History Month.
  I look forward to Black History Month each year because it reminds me 
of my late friend, Alex Haley. Alex Haley died 13 years ago this month. 
I can still remember his funeral in Memphis and the big crowd there--
people from all over America, leaders like Jesse Jackson. I spoke too; 
lots of us did.
  There must have been 300 people in the room who thought they were his 
best friend. There were thousands of people around America and around 
the world who thought they were Alex Haley's best friend. He was a 
remarkable individual.
  I remember saying that Alex Haley was God's storyteller, because he 
could tell a story. I remember saying, too, that I think we just used 
him up because he was such a generous man with his time.
  After the funeral in Memphis, a procession drove to Henning, TN--not 
so far from Memphis--50 or 60 miles. We were there at the home where 
Alex Haley stayed in the summers with his grandparents.
  This was a Friday. The African flute played a beautiful melody. It 
was cold. It was cold in February.
  After the casket was laid in the grave, the stone was put there. On 
that stone were the words that Alex Haley lived his life by: ``Find the 
good and praise it.''
  I remember that afternoon as if it were yesterday, even though it was 
13 years ago. I remember Alex Haley as if he were perched here in this 
room looking us over.
  I remember Alex Haley not just because of his death during Black 
History Month 13 years ago, but because of how he lived his life during 
Black History Month in the Februaries before 1992. Almost every 
February would find Alex

[[Page S1140]]

Haley on an all-night red-eye flight to Tennessee from a speaking 
engagement in some distant place so he could drive to some small 
Tennessee town and fulfill a commitment he made months earlier to a 4th 
grade teacher to help her students celebrate Black History Month.
  Teachers loved Alex Haley's visits because he had wonderful stories 
to tell, stories of Frederick Douglass, of Thurgood Marshall, of Martin 
Luther King. Of the heroes and heroines, both black and white of the 
underground railroad, of Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, W.E.B. Dubois, 
James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison.
  But the most riveting of all the stories that Alex Haley told those 
children were the ones Alex learned sitting on the porch steps in 
Henning, TN, in the summertime, listening to his great-aunts and his 
grandmother tell stories of his ancestor Kunta Kinte. He used to say 
his Great-Aunt Plus, rocking on the porch, telling those stories, could 
knock a firefly out of the air at 15 feet with an accurate stream of 
tobacco juice.
  Once Alex Haley rode across the Atlantic Ocean for 3 weeks in the 
belly of a freighter to try to imagine what it must have been like for 
Kunta Kinte to be captured in the Gambia, Africa, and brought to 
Annapolis and sold as a slave. Alex spent 13 years tracing what had 
happened between the arrival of Kunta Kinte, his seventh generation 
grandfather, and Alex's own birth.
  Alex Haley discovered one important piece of that puzzle when 
speaking in Simpson College in Iowa in the early 1970s. He told 
students and faculty there that he had found the name of the man who 
had bought Kunta Kinte on the Annapolis dock, but Alex could not trace 
what had happened after that.
  A faculty member arose and said, Mr. Haley, my seventh generation 
grandfather purchased your seventh generation grandfather. Alex stayed 
with that faculty member for several weeks and because of that 
encounter was finally able to weave together the rest of the story of 
the struggle for freedom which became America's best-watched television 
miniseries, the story of ``Roots.''
  It is in the spirit of Alex Haley that I offer this resolution 
celebrating Black History Month. This resolution honors the 
contributions of African Americans throughout the history of our 
country. It recommits the Senate to the goals of liberty and equal 
opportunity for every American. It condemns the horrors of slavery, of 
lynching, of segregation, and other instances in which our country has 
failed to measure up to its noble goals, and it pledges to work harder 
to improve educational, health, and job opportunities for African 
Americans and for all Americans.
  African Americans were brought forcibly to these shores in the 17th 
century. From that dark beginning, however, they have overcome great 
obstacles and continue to do so, to take a prominent place among the 
many people of diverse backgrounds who have come together here to form 
a single nation. African Americans have made and continue to make 
significant contributions to the economic, educational, political, 
artistic, literary, scientific, and technical advancement of the United 
States of America.
  I have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the study of American 
history. One of our national tragedies and embarrassments is that our 
twelfth graders score lower on the national assessment of educational 
progress on U.S. history than on any other subject. We should be 
ashamed of that. Senator Reid, the Democratic leader, Senator Kennedy, 
other Senators on this side, and I have worked together to try to 
change that.

  This is our opportunity--in a month devoted to black history--to 
especially recognize the history of African Americans in this country 
and to recognize that it is one of the greatest examples of our 
national quest to reach the high ideals set for us by our Founding 
Fathers. The Declaration of Independence dedicated us to the 
proposition that ``all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are 
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.''
  Our history is one of striving to reach this lofty ideal. The 
treatment of African Americans is our most egregious failure. Slavery, 
lynching, and segregation are all examples of times when this Nation 
failed African Americans. We failed to live up to our own promise of 
that fundamental truth that all men are created equal.
  However, for every time we have failed, we have struggled to come to 
terms with that disappointment and we have recommitted ourselves to try 
again. Where there once was slavery, we passed the thirteenth and 
fourteenth amendments abolishing slavery and declaring equal protection 
under the law for all races. Where there was segregation, came Brown v. 
Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act. There are so many moments 
like these in our history and it is these moments we also celebrate 
with this resolution.
  In addition, I do not believe we should simply rest on the 
accomplishments of our past. We celebrate and remember our history so 
we can learn its lessons and apply them today. Today's wrongs are 
begging for attention. African Americans in this country face 
significant and often crippling disparities in education, in health 
care, in quality of life, and in other areas where the Federal 
Government can play a role. The best way for each one of us, and for 
the United States Senate, to commemorate Black History Month is to get 
to work on legislation that would offer African Americans and other 
Americans better access to good schools, better access to quality 
health care, better access to decent jobs.
  There is no resolution we can pass today that will teach one more 
child to read, prevent one more case of AIDS, or stop one more violent 
crime. However, I hope by joining me and supporting this resolution, 
the Members of this Senate will also join me in finding ways to look to 
the future and continue to contribute to this work in progress that is 
the United States of America.
  I don't know what my friend Alex Haley would say about this Senate 
resolution, the one I am about to introduce, or that Senate resolution. 
But I do know how he lived his life. I do know how he celebrated Black 
History Month. He told wonderful stories about African Americans and 
other Americans who believed in the struggle for freedom and the 
struggle for equality. He minced no words in describing the terrible 
injustices they overcame. He said to those children he had flown all 
night to see that they were living in a wonderful country of great 
goals, and while many in the past had often failed to reach those 
goals, that we Americans always recommit ourselves to keep trying.
  So, Mr. President, today I introduce a Senate resolution celebrating 
Black History Month, and it is in the spirit of Alex Haley that I offer 
it.

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