Congressional Record, Volume 151 Issue 18 (Thursday, February 17, 2005)

[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 18 (Thursday, February 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H770-H777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, February is designated as Black History
Month, and I want to take this opportunity to utilize this very
practical observance, or practical designation.
The observances have very practical values. Some people have said
they are useless and also they are insulting because our history goes
on all the time. Why do we need to single it out for just one month?
And if they are important, why only have one month?
Well, the way Americans do things, part of our culture and part of
our way of life is we do highlight things, days of observances,
holidays, special ceremonies, all these things are part of the way we
capture people's attention.

{time} 1430

I am grateful for the fact that the whole month of February is
designated as Black History Month. There was a time when there was no
such designation, and there was a gentleman named Carter G. Woodson who
resided here in Washington D.C. who worked for years to get a Black
History Week designation.
The purpose for his Black History Week designation was a practical
one. He wanted an opportunity to be able to highlight some of the
achievements of African Americans over the years. So the fact now that
television stations and corporations and various other people have
pitched in and they pay homage to Black History Month is an achievement
to be saluted. I congratulate the people who worked to have that done.
It is for us, both black and white, to understand ways in which we can
take advantage of the fact that this observance exists. You cannot
separate American history from black history or black history from
American history. The history of African Americans certainly is
interwoven with the history of the United States of America in a way
which can never be separated.
I would like to see us deal with black history as a continuum. The
fact that people in small groups or individuals made contributions
should not be played down. We are proud of the fact that you have a
whole series of individual achievements that were highlighted when you
start celebrating. We know that Thomas Edison had a black assistant who
played a great role in what he did. Alexander Graham Bell. The inventor
of the traffic light was a black man. Crispus Attucks was one of the
first people to fall in the Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks was a
black man. There are a whole bevy of achievements that are saluted.
We often bring up the Tuskegee Airmen and how it took black groups
highlighting the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II
before they were recognized nationally by the entire American public.
They did not fly in a segregated war. They were escorts for bombers
flying to Germany in World War II. They played a major role and should
have been recognized right away, but that was not the case.
So the separate recognition and the efforts made by people to
highlight their group achievements have been very important. Dorey
Miller, who was one lone individual, needs to be celebrated and
highlighted and maybe we will one day get an appropriate Congressional
Medal of Honor for Dorey Miller. Dorey Miller happened to be a black
man who was in the Navy, on one of the ships that was attacked on the
day of the Pearl Harbor raid. Dorey Miller was a cook. He was not
allowed to handle the guns at all. He had never been trained as a
gunner and generally was forced to stay away from any kind of combat
training. But on the day of Pearl Harbor, Dorey Miller shot down two
Japanese planes standing on the deck of the Arizona, I think it was,
with courage and skill fought back and deserves to be recognized. And
on and on it goes in terms of highlighting individuals.
I think as we highlight individuals, we also should understand that
the social and political and economic history is much more complicated
and has to be part of what we discuss as we observe Black History Month
in February. I would like to call the attention of the Members to the
fact that the Public Broadcasting System, which is under attack right
now for various reasons, from the left and the right, is not given the
kind of acclaim they deserve for producing magnificent programs. The
quality of their programming is really outstanding.
They did a series on slavery. That series ended last night. I saw the
last part of it. It is a magnificent series that introduces a number of
basic facts that most people have never known and others have
forgotten. It also highlights the passion and the fervor of the
struggle, the struggle on both sides, the struggle of the African
slaves to get free in this country and the struggle and fervor of the
people on the other side who wanted them very much to never be free
because they were property earning great profits. The magnitude of
those profits earned by slave labor was discussed at great length.
Everybody in this country needs to understand the role of slave labor
in the building of the wealth of America. They need to understand it
was not just the South but New York City was one of the biggest, it was
the second or

[[Page H771]]

third largest port where slaves came into the country. They need to
understand that although cotton was king and very profitable, it was
profitable not only for the people who grew the cotton in the South but
the mills in New England and in the North that made textiles also
profited greatly from the slave labor that produced the cotton that
they made into textiles. That piece of economic history is very
important to understand and comprehend.
People dismiss and consider it an insult when certain groups of
African Americans say that we do reparations. Reparations is not a
silly idea. Reparations ought to be considered because of the fact that
so much slave labor, free labor, labor taken with no compensation, went
into the building of this Nation, that there ought to be some
consideration in some way. I will not go into any great detail at this
point, but this Capitol was built by slaves. This Capitol was built by
slaves. Only recently have they discovered documents which certainly
make it quite clear that slave labor built the Capitol. They have the
actual records of how they contracted with the masters of the slaves
and paid them, I think, $5 a week or something for their slaves to
work. You can document it if you are interested in seeing it in greater
detail and if you doubt that that is the truth, but the Capitol was
built by slave labor and much of Washington and much of the east coast,
I assure you, in the early days, before the Civil War, was built with
slave labor as well.

We have an African-American museum that is about to be undertaken
here in Washington with the support of our government. It is going to
be a museum which brings all this together. We have achieved, finally,
the American Indian museum on the Mall that opened, I think, last year.
That American Indian museum pays proper homage to the original
Americans who were here when the explorers from Europe came. I think
that is very important. But proper homage has not been paid to the
Africans who helped to build this Nation, who were not here when the
Europeans came, who did not come voluntarily as immigrants, but who
came here kidnapped and in chains, but nevertheless their labor helped
to build America.
That African-American museum is going to be a part of the Smithsonian
Institute. That African-American museum will be partially financed by
the Federal Government and partially financed by private funds, I think
like the museum of the Holocaust, partially paid for with private funds
and some government funds.
The African-American museum is a great opportunity to accomplish what
I was talking about before in terms of the continuum, showing in a
continuation the economic, social, and political development of black
life in America and what the impact of African-American labor and
participation was here in America.
It is going to be on the Mall, I am told by my colleague, the great
John Lewis, John Lewis, who has participated in the making of a great
deal of African-American history. John participated the hard way. He
was a hero in the civil rights struggle. If you want to go back and
watch the films, you can see John on the Edmund Pettis Bridge getting
beaten up. You can see John in some film of the freedom rides where
they were trying to integrate the Greyhound buses, interstate buses.
You can see them beating John Lewis. So John Lewis was definitely a
part of history. It is altogether fitting and proper that John Lewis
has played a major role as we prepare for this museum to be developed
and opened on the Mall here. John tells me that it is going to be on
the Mall. There was some question about whether it would be located on
the Mall or somewhere else. There were people who said the Mall is
crowded now and there is no more room for another museum. There were
people who felt that there were other locations in Washington where you
should put the African-American museum; but I am so proud of the fact
that John reports, and I salute President Bush, John reports that
President Bush says he wants the museum on the Mall. He will support
the building of the African-American museum on the Mall.
We will have collected there the whole range of activities that go
into the making of the history of a people. I am certain that a lot of
things that have been lost will now be found. The records of the early
Members of Congress after the Civil War who were black, one has to
search very diligently to find out who was here, what kinds of speeches
they made and what the situation was and the whole drama that was
played out as they removed the more than 30 African-Americans who came
to Congress and the Senate shortly after the Civil War. That whole
drama is a story that needs to be told as there are many other stories
that need to be told.
The story needs to be told of what it meant for the early colonists
to have all that slave labor that was available through the slaves in
terms of overcoming the wilderness that was quite unfriendly and the
wilderness that had in many cases defeated the gentlemen who came from
Great Britain who were not prepared to do the kind of hard work that
had to be done to sustain a nation in the wilderness.
The story has to be told of how in the French and Indian wars, the
blacks fought side by side with George Washington and the Americans
against the French, and the Revolutionary War where blacks divided.
Some wanted freedom, they were promised freedom by the English and they
fought on the side of the English; and many more fought on the side of
the American patriots. George Washington had a major assistant who was
black, who has gotten lost in history out there and would be retrieved.
The whole history of how in New York City, the building of that city
and the movement of the black population from one place to another
would be retrieved in this African-American museum. Central Park was a
major location of an African-American settlement. That settlement was
unceremoniously bulldozed and removed later on. That story needs to be
told.
The story of the Negro burial ground in lower Manhattan which
recently received a memorial. A memorial was built there because we
have a Federal building that was being built on that ground over the
Negro burial ground, and the excavation process brought up skeletons
and indicated it was a ceremony and there was a protest. This is a 10-
year project that went on. Finally, the settlement was that they built
a memorial right there at the Federal building and they reinterred the
bones of those who had been dug up. I was at that ceremony, recognizing
the tremendous cost that was sustained by the African-American
community at that time.
Facts came to light as to terms of the volume, the large numbers of
people who were worked to death. They even took some of the bones to
various institutions and analyzed the bones and the trauma that had
been experienced by the bones and found out that necks were broken
because of the load that they had to carry, that spines were cracked
and the horror of slave labor you get from that Negro burial ground
memorial in New York.
That is one of many black history exhibitions and museums and
libraries across the country. They all make a small contribution. The
wonderful thing about having an African American museum on the Mall is
that it says to all of America, it says to the whole world, that we are
prepared to recognize fully the involvement, the contributions and the
role played by African Americans in the history of the United States of
America. Across the country we have a lot of small museums that deserve
to be examined. As you travel from one place to another, you can find
in many places various museums and cultural centers.

{time} 1445

In Richmond, Virginia there is the Black Museum and Cultural Center.
Out in Idaho there is the Black History Museum. Right here in
Washington, of course, we have the Anacostia Museum; and the Museum of
African American History in Boston; New York Institute for Special
Education in the Bronx, a small recent one; the Lucy Craft Laney Museum
of Black History in Augusta, Georgia; Charles H. Wright Museum of
African American History in Detroit, Michigan.
I am not going to read them all, but just to give some example of how
there is a body out there, maybe too few.
Rosa Parks Library & Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. I think the

[[Page H772]]

Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama is located in the same corner
where she refused to go to the back of the bus. That is very symbolic.
And the great National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is one of the
most dramatic of the museums. Memphis, Tennessee was where Martin
Luther King was assassinated. He was assassinated at the Lorraine
Motel, and that is the site of the museum. The Lorraine Motel has been
converted into a civil rights museum.
The University of Colorado Department of History has a museum; the
African American Museum in Dallas, Texas; the Howard A. Mims African
American Cultural Center in Cleveland; the African American Culture
Links throughout the country now on the Internet. Of course in New York
City we have the great Shimberg Library, which is probably the
definitive collection of books and materials about African Americans,
not just African Americans but Africans from time and memorial.
So we would like to take this opportunity in February, when we have
the observance and the attention is focused, to remind people that they
can go find out quite a bit about black history in these places. The
Public Broadcasting System's documentary which I referred to before,
that is available. People can get the documentary itself, and it would
be, I assure my colleagues, worthwhile to have a copy of that
documentary which does a very dramatic and human presentation of
slavery in America.
There are a lot of different Black History Month events that are
going on right now. Just to give a few examples, the Slave Life of
Mount Vernon is being performed at the Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens
in Mount Vernon here, not far away. The College of Notre Dame of
Maryland is doing a Soul Bake Sale. The Writing on the Wall is an
exploration of the recent renaissance of graffiti art as a form of
social critique. It goes back to Africa, at the Community College of
Baltimore. There is a Black History Month Film Series at the Walters
Art Museum, et cetera. Many other events are taking place this month
from here. Up to February 17, today, there have been many others.
Mr. Speaker, I will submit for the Record two items: the Black
History Month events in the metropolitan area, a listing of those
events; and the Black History and Culture libraries and museums listing
across the Nation.

Black History Month Events in Metro Area

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17

How Old Is A Hero
This musical production is a tribute to children of the
Civil Rights era., Where: Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center.,
Time: 4 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Soul Food Bake Sale
Feed your soul with goodies like homemade rice pudding,
sweet potato pie, poundcake, chocolate cake and more., Where:
College of Notre Dame of Maryland., Time: 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Soul Food Cooking Class
Learn how to prepare healthful soul food at the store known
for healthy food., Where: Whole Foods Market., Time: 7:30
p.m.
The Writing on the Wall
Explore the recent renaissance of graffiti art as a form of
social critique in this art exhibit by Aniekan Udofia.,
Where: Community College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus.,
Time: 11 :30 p.m.-1 :30 a.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18

Black History Month Film Series
This film series, ``Exploring African American Women
Through Film,'' includes ``Lift'' and ``Chisholm '72--
Unbought and Unbossed.'', Where: The Walters Art Museum.,
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19

African-American Historv at the Walters Art Museum
Celebrate Black History Month with an array of African-
American art forms., Where: The Walters Art Museum., Time: 10
a.m.-4 p.m.
How Old Is A Hero
This musical production is a tribute to children of the
Civil Rights era., Where: Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center.,
Time: 1 p.m.
Saturday Film Series
Explore the triumphs and struggles of African-Americans
throughout history., Where: Banneker-Douglass Museum., Time:
12:30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens ., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20

Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21

DJ Workshop Featuring Ron Brown
Washington hip-hop legend Ron Brown leads an instructional
workshop for aspiring and experienced DJs., Where: Community
College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus., Time: 11:30 a.m.-
1 :30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Come watch the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform
works from its classic repertory including Ailey's signature
masterpiece exploring African American spirituals., Where:
The Kennedy Center., Time: 7 p.m.
Hip-Hop Panel Discussion
A panel of experts discusses Hip-Hop Kujichagalia: Hip-Hop
and African American Self-Determination., Where: Community
College of Baltimore County, Essex Campus., Time: 12:20 p.m.-
1:15 p.m.
Presentation of Sistahs Speak Out: Hip Hop
Sistahs Speak Out performs live hip-hop., Where: Anne
Arundel Community College., Time: noon-2 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Come watch the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform
works from its classic repertory including Ailey's signature
masterpiece exploring African-American spirituals., Where:
The Kennedy Center., Time: 7:30 p.m.
Black History at the Aquarium
Spend the evening at the aquarium and see a presentation of
black watermen and a mini-lecture with David T. Terry.,
Where: National Aquarium in Baltimore., Time: 5 p.m.-9 p.m.
Black History Month Film Series
This film series, ``Exploring African American Women
Through Film,'' includes ``Lift'' and ``Chisholm '72--
Unbought and Unbossed.'', Where: The Walters Art Museum.,
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington., Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens., Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Come watch the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform
works from its classic repertory including Ailey's signature

[[Page H773]]

masterpiece exploring African-American spirituals., Where:
The Kennedy Center. Time: 1:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Cabaret
In celebration of Black History Month, the Theater Company
presents a spectacular evening of dinner, entertainment and
dancing. Where: Johns Hopkins University. Time: 6:30 p.m.
Illumination: Master Works
In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, this
display of African American Art is from the collection of
Harryette and Otis M. Robertson. Where: Towson University.
Life Opera
Hear a live performance of an original composition that
shows how the changes in music have complemented and mirrored
the lives of African-Americans. Where: Lexington Market.
Time: noon-2 p.m.
Saturday Film Series
Explore the triumphs and struggles of African-Americans
throughout history. Where: Banneker-Douglass Museum. Time:
12:30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington. Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens. Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday, February 27

Monday, February 28

Baldwin Over Cocktails
The National James Baldwin Literary Society presents an
evening of music and food, featuring readings of Baldwin's
work and other performances. Where: Mansion House Seafood
Restaurant. Time: 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
James Baldwin Black History Month Celebration
Come have a great night out featuring food, live music and
dancing all in support of The National James Baldwin Literary
Society in Baltimore. Where: Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Time:
5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Slave Life at Mount Vernon
In observance of Black History Month, interpreters
stationed at the Slave Quarters in Mount Vernon highlight the
lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated
the plantation home of George and Martha Washington. Where:
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens. Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Saturday, March 19

Telling Our Stories . . . Our Way
Authors who speak to the African-American experience
through various literary genres will talk to an audience of
adults and families. Where: Johns Hopkins University. Time: 9
a.m.-3 p.m.

Friday, April 8

Theatre Morgan presents Raisin, the Musical!
Theatre Morgan's grand finale of the season features the
talents of the Morgan State University Fine Arts Department.
``Raisin, The Musical'' is based on Lorraine Hansberry's ``A
Raisin in the Sun,'' which won the 1974 Tony Award for best
musical. Where: Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center. Time: 7:30
p.m.

Saturday, April 9

Theatre Morgan presents Raisin, the Musical!
Theatre Morgan's grand finale of the season features the
talents of the Morgan State University Fine Arts Department.
``Raisin, The Musical'' is based on Lorraine Hansberry's ``A
Raisin in the Sun,'' which won the 1974 Tony Award for
best musical. Where: Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center.
Time: 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 10

Friday, April 15

Theatre Morgan, presents Raisin, the Musical!
Theatre Morgan's grand finale of the season features the
talents of the Morgan State University Fine Arts Department.
``Raisin, The Musical'' is based on Lorraine Hansberry's ``A
Raisin in the Sun,'' which won the 1974 Tony Award for best
musical. Where: Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center. Time: 7:30
p.m.

Saturday, April 16

Sunday, April 17

Black History & Culture Libraries & Museums

The Black History Museum and Cultural Center, Richmond, VA,
http://www.blackhistorymuseum.org.
The Idaho Black History Museum, http://www.ibhm.org.
The Anacostia Museum & Center for African American History
and Culture, Washington, DC, http://www.anacostia.si.edu.
Museum of Afro American History, Boston, MA, http://
www.afroammuseum.org.
The New York Institute for Special Education, Bronx, NY,
http://www.nyise.org/blackhistory/.
The Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, Augusta, GA,
http://www.lucycraftlaneymuseum.com/.
Charles H Wright Museum of African American History,
Detroit, MI, http://www.maah-detroit.org/.
Museum of Afro American History, Boston, MA, http://
www.afroammuseum.org/.
DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL,
http://www.dusablemuseum.org/home.asp.
Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American
History & Culture, Baltimore, MD, http://
www.africanamericanculture.org/museum_reglewis.html.
African American Historical Museum & Cultural Center of
Iowa, Cedar Rapids, IA, http://www.blackiowa.org/.
Rosa Parks Library & Museum, Montgomery, AL, http://
www.tsum.edu/museum/.
National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN, http://
www.civilrightsmuseum.org/.
University of Colorado Department of History, Colorado
Springs, CO, http://web.uccs.edu/history/ushistory/
afroam.htm.
The African American Museum, Dallas, TX, http://
www.aamdallas.org.
The Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center,
Cleveland, OH, http://www.csuohio.edu/blackstudies/afam.html.
African American Culture Links, http://cobalt.lang.osaka-
u.ac.jp/krkvls/afrocul.html.

Mr. Speaker, this is 60 minutes dedicated to the observance of black
history, taken by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to any Member of the Congressional Black Caucus
who wants to speak on this Special Order of the black history
observance.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. OWENS. I yield to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me,
and I thank him for his leadership in coming forward during this whole
month of February when the whole Nation is invited to think about the
history of African Americans and about their present effort to obtain
first-class citizenship.
I was just at the White House, perhaps last week, it was when the
President had a commemoration built around the new African American
Museum, approved by the House and the Senate, something that African
Americans have been trying to get ever since Civil War soldiers in
Washington, D.C. asked for a museum. I want to just say how much I
appreciate that the House and the Senate now have agreed that the
Congress will pay for 50 percent, and we will raise money, we in the
public, Americans of every background, for this museum here in the
District of Columbia to commemorate the history, the very long history,
a history as long as the history of the Nation itself, of African
Americans in our country who were central to building the Nation as we
know it, were critical to building its great economic might, and have
been late because of the tragic history of our country in claiming the
benefits and the rewards that most Americans are used to obtaining
within a generation or two of coming to this country.
To the gentleman from New York, from Brooklyn in particular, a very
distinguished member of a number committees, the Committee on
Government Reform, on which I serve; and especially the Committee on
Education and the Workforce, in which his long service has helped in
many benefits in education that are remarkably important not only to
African Americans but to our country, I say to him that I recognize
that we began with a theme about the Niagara Movement.
Some may wonder about the Niagara Movement, which in a real sense
started the 20th century movement for equal rights, the forerunner of
the NAACP. A number of Washingtonians

[[Page H774]]

were at that first call. I just celebrated the life of one of them,
Mary Church Terrell, a woman who in her eighties was picketing out in
front of public accommodations, yes, here in the Nation's Capital, a
southern city which was as segregated as any part of the South,
picketing to open ordinary accommodations. This woman was the first
member of any Board of Education in the United States; a very
distinguished history, and one of only two women who put out the call
for African Americans to come from around the country to talk about
what they should do as the 20th century dawned to eliminate racism and
discrimination in our country.
I want to note the extraordinary two works of Dr. David Levering
Lewis, a historian who has won the Pulitzer Prize for his volumes on
the life on W.E.B. Du Bois. This is the intellectual father of the
civil rights movement, the first black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard
University, a man who in many ways was responsible for what remains the
intellectual underpinning of black aspiration in America.
This is an extraordinary work. I have just finished Volume 1 and am
just beginning Volume 2. He had a very long life, died on the day that
the March on Washington gathered here in his late nineties. So no
wonder it took two volumes. But it was his remarkable life, a life that
in a real sense takes us on a journey of 20th century America for what
blacks have encountered and how their effort to obtain equality in our
country has proceeded. I recommend it to anyone who is interested not
only in serious history but in wonderful writing and in events that in
a real sense help us understand a lot of what is happening today. It is
extraordinary work, which is why I think it won the Pulitzer Prize in
the first place.
The second black to graduate from Harvard with a Ph.D. was one far
less well known than W.E.B. Du Bois, whose name is so closely
associated with the NAACP. He worked for the NAACP for ``The Crisis,''
their publication, for decades. He was central to its formation.
But less well known is the second black person to graduate from
Harvard, Carter G. Woodson. As Dr. Du Bois was the intellectual father
of the NAACP and of the Civil Rights Movement, Carter G. Woodson was
the man who discovered black history at a time when almost no publisher
would even publish works, even serious works like his own, about
African American history, and now he is regarded by his peers as one of
America's great historians. Carter G. Woodson proceeded right here in
the District of Columbia to do his own work in a brownstone located in
the historic Shaw area, organizing his own organization, the
Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which
continues to this day; his own presses.
When I was a youngster going to segregated schools in the District of
Columbia, there was a Negro history bulletin that came every other
week. So he somehow managed to do on-the-ground education of ordinary
blacks like us in the schools, and to do some of the most important
writing of history, in the professional sense, that has ever been done.
He started the whole effort to not rewrite but to write American
history.
People have to understand that much of American history as it
described African Americans could only be called defamatory. Not only
did it not bring out the contributions of African Americans, it defamed
African Americans, built in the prejudices and discrimination of the
larger society. It took a great intellectual like Carter G. Woodson to
begin the process of undoing that.
Now we have Ph.Ds from all the great universities. We see some of
them on television telling the story of African American life in the
many documentaries, for example, that are being shown.
The gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) mentioned that the Capitol
was built by slave labor. I want to reinforce that. The Capitol was
built, yes, by slave and free labor, and there were also immigrant
labor who contributed to it. But this House and the Senate passed a
resolution indicating that we should find some way to take note of the
fact that this very place where we now stand, we owe to the labor of
free and enslaved blacks. Some of the enslaved blacks were simply
brought here to work by their masters. The masters were paid; the
slaves were not.
Some, frankly, were runaway slaves. My own great grandfather who came
to Washington in the 1850s was a runaway slave. He did not work on the
Capitol, but he certainly worked on the streets of D.C., because one
could work on the streets. They were building D.C., and they did not
ask them who they were unless the master came and found them, and under
the Fugitive Slave Law, he could take them back. So that was always a
real risk. But working on the Capitol, I am sure those were, as it
were, well-documented slaves.
But, Mr. Speaker, until now the legislation which requires a task
force to be formed to make sure that this commemoration takes place has
not been formed. I know that the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Pelosi) has sent a letter to the Speaker, simply reminding him of that,
because I am sure that that must be an oversight.
But the Visitors Center is about to be completed and the time to take
care of this is when we are under construction. If I may express my own
opinion, nobody wants, or at least I do not want, a statue of some
slave in the Capitol. That is not what we are after. Some kind of
tasteful reminder of this place and how it came to be has by statute
been mandated, and I simply draw to the attention of both sides of the
aisle that we have not done the start-up work to getting the
appropriate kind of memorial of some kind built.
I mean, I think of the Vietnam Memorial. Nobody, when they thought
there was going to be a Vietnam Memorial, ever envisioned that it would
be that wall that now is a virtual place of worship.

{time} 1500

It does not have any soldiers on it; it is just a wall with some
names on it. In the District of Columbia, we have a Civil War memorial.
It is the first memorial to the hundreds of thousands of African
Americans who actually served in the Civil War. What it has are a
listing of all those names. They served in the Navy and the Army. We
got those names by working with Howard University, and there they are.
It is not a wall; it is another kind of an edifice. But it is, by the
way, the only one of its kind, the only memorial to African Americans
who fought for their own freedom and for one Nation, indivisible, at a
time when they were not free, because when you entered the armed
services, and talk about some volunteer soldiers, these were real
volunteer soldiers, they did not give you your freedom in return. In
order to recruit you, they did not say, You serve us, you are free. You
were still a slave.
These are men who fought for their country at a time when we were in
danger of becoming at least two countries. At the very least, let us
begin here in the Capitol by remembering those who were black, some of
them not free, who helped build the very place where we meet every
week.
Mr. Speaker, I do note that during this African American History
Month, Black History Month, we just lost two great Americans, Shirley
Chisholm and Ossie Davis. These were one-of-a-kind historic figures;
Shirley Chisholm not only because she was first, but she was first in
many ways.
She was first in what she was willing to do to break barriers, the
first African American woman elected to Congress, the first to run for
President of the United States. I was in Florida at her funeral. She
will be remembered. Indeed, she will never be forgotten.
She said she did not want to be remembered for being first. Shirley
Chisholm understood what was important. She believed that you have to
do something in order to be remembered. To many of us, her being the
first black woman to come to Congress was doing a whole lot. For her it
was not doing a whole lot. But her record in this House is an
indication that it was.
But I think we would all do well to remember that before she died she
did not even want to be remembered for what she is most likely to be
remembered for, and that is being first to have the guts to run for
President and being the first to become a Member of the House of
Representatives itself.
As a woman, I count myself and the 22 other African American women
who have come since as her living legacy. None of us had to encounter
what she encountered, which was a House with

[[Page H775]]

nobody in it that looked like her. She deserves to be remembered for
what she did for our country, for what she did for African Americans.
I do want to say about Ossie Davis, because I am still, as I was when
he was alive, awed by his multiple gifts, it is very hard for me to
understand people who have more than one gift. Most of us do not have
even one. But here is a man who died nearing 90, therefore who lived
through the worst days of segregation, and somehow or the other was
able to press himself to bring his gifts out.
Those gifts were across the board. Those gifts were the gift of
language, his gift as an actor, his gift as a producer, his gift as a
leader of the civil rights movement, his gift in letters and in arts,
and his gift as a playwright. Heavens, would that any of us, even those
who are just being born black, be able to do in their lives as well
even one of those things Ossie Davis will be remembered for.
We remember people in Black History Month precisely because they
encourage us to do better, because they did it against far greater
odds.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to say a word during this shooting war
about the role of African Americans in the United States military,
because if there is any moment to remember them and if there is any
time to remember those who now serve, it is now.
I have just come from a hearing this morning on the treatment of the
National Guard and Reserve when it comes to their health care. My
congratulations to the chairman of the committee who called the
hearing, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), the chairman of
the Committee on Government Reform. This is not the first hearing he
has had on this matter.
Mr. Speaker, the hearing was called because members of the National
Guard and Reserve have complained about being treated as, for lack of a
better word, I will call it second-class soldiers. They are not
regularly enlisted soldiers. They are soldiers who are citizen
soldiers, called forward in numbers we have never seen before. Almost
50 percent of the troops in Iraq are National Guard and Reserve.
When they are injured, they are not treated as enlisted people are
treated. They are sent and held at medical hold companies, and these
are scandalously underserved companies where they could not get medical
treatment. The hearings have helped to focus on this and provide some
improvements.
But what made me think of them to today is the history of
disproportionate service by African Americans in the armed services of
the United States ever since the war that created our country, the
Revolutionary War. This urge to serve, often, perhaps most often, as
volunteers, it does seem to me we should note during this Black History
Month.
Dr. David Lewis in his volume begins to describe African Americans
coming back after World War I. After you fought that kind of war, World
War I, you kind of get your gumption, and even though the majority of
African Americans lived in the South, we do note that that is when you
had the great decade of lynchings, because so many of these African
American soldiers came back, particularly to the South in the United
States, and assumed that they should act like first-class citizens.
It was perhaps the most shameful decade of our country, and certainly
the treatment of these World War I veterans was perhaps the most
shameful chapter in American history because of the upsurge of
lynchings, many of them men just released from a war that is still very
much debated, World War I, where people still try to find out why we
were there, why did it happen. It resulted in all the aftermath.
Woodrow Wilson tried to make sure, though, that such a war never
happened again, and World War II was brought about in part because of
the failings of World War I.
I want to note the extraordinary over-representation of blacks in the
Reserve and National Guard. Many of them, like so many volunteers in
the Army today, are there first to serve their country, and, secondly,
because they do not have the same economic rights that my son, that
your son and your children have, and service in the volunteer Army is a
way to go to college, a way to get a job. Any treatment of them other
than first-class treatment in a war like this, a very controversial
war, is very much to be criticized until we do much better.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, may I say that among those who are serving in
this war are young men and women from the District of Columbia, the
same as those who have served our country in every war since the
Revolutionary War, and, if I may say so, very specifically in
disproportionate numbers. For example, in the Vietnam War the District
lost more men than did 10 States, and yet this is a city.
I have gone to a number of funerals; I have gone to Arlington
National Cemetery. And just as the first from the District of Columbia
served without a vote, so today not only do my constituents serve their
country without a vote. They pay taxes, second per capita in the United
States, without a vote.
That is bad enough, Mr. Speaker. But on top of that, to go to war
without a vote, where your Member cannot vote one way or the other, and
yet you volunteer for war, it seems to me that that ought to call to
question whether or not the people of the District of Columbia ought to
have equal representation in the Congress of the United States.
There is a young man working in my office, his name is Emory Kosh,
and he spent a year on the front lines in Iraq. When he came back,
somebody told him I was looking for staff assistants. He came and I was
pleased to hire him. I must tell you, I congratulate the armed services
and I congratulate his parents, because he has been such an excellent
worker.
The armed services has done a great deal for African Americans
because it was the best and continues to be the best equal employment
opportunity employer in the United States.
But this young man stepped forward just as the Congress opened with
two of his buddies from the District of Columbia who had graduated from
high school here, and they asked for a meeting with the gentleman from
Illinois (Speaker Hastert) and our leader, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), simply to ask for the return of the vote in
the Committee of the Whole to the District, a vote that I won in the
103rd Congress and which was taken back from me when the Congress
changed hands.
They came to say, if I may paraphrase them, it would be a first step
toward voting rights, and they came because they were about to see what
we saw January 30, with the people of Iraq getting the very voting
rights in their parliament that these three young men, who were just
back from Iraq, did not have.
So they used the occasion to remind the Congress that they were proud
to serve, they would serve again, they were volunteers, but that our
country had an obligation to them and their families and that was to
allow them the same representation, the same equality in the Congress
that interestingly they felt they had in the armed forces of the United
States.
Mr. Speaker, I draw that to your attention during Black History Month
because I want my colleagues to understand that not all of this is
history. In the District of Columbia now I am talking about a majority
black population, about 60/40 black. But for 150 years the majority
here was white. It is because the Congress of the United States has
exercised an undemocratic proprietary sense of this city to intervene
into its local affairs and to deny the citizens of this city the same
rights that you insist upon for your citizens.
Remember that during Black History Month. Remember that black people
in the District of Columbia, white people in the District of Columbia,
anybody in the District of Columbia, because they live in the capital
of their country, the proud capital of their country, are least proud
of not having the same rights, particularly when Emory Kosh and other
young men and women find themselves this very day in Iraq, Afghanistan,
and all over the world serving their country in our name.
It is not history, Mr. Speaker, it is here and now; and we must take
action here and now to make it history, to make it yesterday, just as
slavery was yesterday, just as Jim Crow in the Nation's Capital was
yesterday, just as the segregated schools I went to in the Nation's
Capital were yesterday.
Let us make unequal representation in the Congress of the United
States

[[Page H776]]

yesterday, make it history, for black, white, Hispanic and people of
every background who live in the District of Columbia, who live in
their Nation's Capital.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentlewoman
from the District of Columbia. Her point is that history is still
continuing, and in the African American history museum that I spoke
about before, there probably should be a section for unfinished
business.

{time} 1515

One of the pieces of unfinished business certainly is the fate of the
District of Columbia respective of full representation in the House and
the Senate.
I would like to say that the gentlewoman from the District of
Columbia had mentioned some individuals, and that is very much a part
of the history that is ongoing, and I hope that there will never be a
minimizing of the role that has been played by individuals like Shirley
Chisholm, like Ossie Davis.
But more closer to home, today is the 80th birthday of Congressman
Louis Stokes. Congressman Stokes was an outstanding Member of Congress
serving on many different committees: the Select Committee on
Intelligence, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and the
Committee on Appropriations. The kinds of things he got done while he
was here are legendary, and I hope that history does not lose track of
the achievements of Congressman Stokes.
A few days ago, at the ceremony for Shirley Chisholm, Congressman Ron
Dellums was here. Ron Dellums is one of the most brilliant minds in
America today still; but certainly when he was here, he had a chance to
exhibit one of the most brilliant minds one would want to find on
matters related to the military and international events. And Parren
Mitchell also I hope will not get lost in history. These are people who
served during the time that I have been a Member. Parren Mitchell from
Maryland was a genius in the area of economic development. And he got
started some things that continue and have been broadened to set aside
for Federal contracts that started for minorities and was, of course,
broadened to include women, and it continues.
So we do not want to lose track of the heroes who might inspire our
young people. One of the great values of the African American history
museum is that it will bring all of this together. We have a great
problem with our young people in terms of them understanding what the
history has been and understanding what the challenges are. And I think
that to have physically located in one place these kinds of items, such
as blacks in the military, and there will be a section related to what
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia was saying before, not
just the role of blacks in World War I and World War II, but it goes
all the way back to the war of 1812 and the Revolutionary War. There
have been very few wars that have been fought where a major role was
not played by African Americans.
So the stream of history, we want to make certain that that is
properly handled; and then the mosaics, the little pieces, the
individuals who made history should be a part of that in the proper
places, and some of these heroes that I have just mentioned certainly
should not get lost. The record and the inspiration and the
achievements of Louis Stokes, Parren Mitchell, and Ron Dellums should
live on forever.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for his
vigilance and for sponsoring this Special Order. I also thank him for
his constant work and hard work with regard to education, fully
understanding that as we celebrate Black History Month that a people
cannot rise unless that people is educated. So I thank the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Owens) very much for all that he does every day.
Mr. Speaker, those who have no record of what their forebearers have
accomplished lose the inspiration that comes from history. These wise
words were spoken by the Father of Black History, Carter G. Woodson. In
1926 he initiated Negro History Week, a week-long celebration of
African American cultural heritage. Woodson knew that self-respect
sprang from self-knowledge. He knew that an awareness of our history
was crucial to our dignity and essential in our fight for equal rights
in this country.
Carter G. Woodson also knew, as we know, that African American
history is American history. African American history and American
history is the sound of slaves invoking the Declaration of
Independence. It is Sojourner Truth fighting for all of her sisters as
she demanded, ``Ain't I a woman?'' It is the sorrow of spirituals and
the joy of jazz. It is the horror of crosses crackling aflame in
moonlight, of strange fruit dangling from treetops, of poverty and,
yes, of pain.
And it is the bravery of freedom fighters desegregating buses, lunch
counters, and schools. Mr. Speaker, African American history is the
diverse tapestry of people who compose this Congress.
Carter G. Woodson would be proud to see that Negro History Week has
blossomed into a month of events celebrating the giants of African
American arts, letters, science, sports, and politics. He would delight
in the flurry of assemblies in schools that showcase the inspirational
stories of Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks, both of whose birthdays
fall in the month of February.
But Carter G. Woodson would be saddened that this flurry of attention
to black history peters out as the snows of February melt out into the
warmer days of March. He would realize, Mr. Speaker, that we still have
a battle to wage and we are not stopping at February.
We will fight for education funding, for Social Security, and for
health parity between blacks and whites. We will not accept that the
mortality rate for African Americans is 30 percent higher than for
whites. We will not accept that homicide is the leading cause of death
of black men. We will not accept that 21 percent of African Americans
are without health insurance, and we simply will not accept that
changing Social Security is a solution to these fundamental inequities.
President Bush has declared the theme of this year's Black History
Month to be the Niagara Movement. This movement, led by W.E.B. Du Bois,
called for civil rights and civil liberties for all. In DuBois's
``Address to the Nation'' at Harper's Ferry in 1906, he said: ``We will
not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood
rights. We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a
free-born American, political, civil, and social; and until we get
these rights, we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of
America. The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone, but for all
true Americans.''

It is in this spirit that I say, let us use this Black History Month
as a springboard to call for equality for all Americans all year-round.
Let us look to the leadership of Woodson and DuBois as we fight for all
who toil and suffer among us.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to close with the words of a great man to
whom we reluctantly bid farewell this Black History Month. In an
interview last year, Ossie Davis said, ``We can't float through life.
We can't be incidental or accidental. We must fix our gaze on a guiding
star as soon as one comes up on the horizon. And once we have attached
ourselves to that star, we must keep our eyes on it and our hands on
the plow.''
Mr. Speaker, let us not be incidental or accidental. Let Ossie Davis
be our guiding star as we pledge to keep our hands on the plow and
fight for equality every day of the year.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Owens) for yielding, and I would like to associate
myself with some of the comments that both he and the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Cummings) have made relative to the import and the
importance of African American History Month.
I would certainly agree that all of those who have lived and who have
come to this country have become a part of making America the great
Nation that it indeed is. Oftentimes, when

[[Page H777]]

we think of black history, I grew up in an era where I was taught to
read by unlocking words and, to an extent, we were taught that history
meant his story, and lots of people think of history as meaning his or
her story. I have been challenging young people throughout my district
and every place that I have gone to view black history not so much in
the context of history, but in terms of ``mystery,'' meaning that it
becomes my story. And each one of us has a story that we can write or a
story that we can tell.
I spent part of Monday, I say to the gentleman from New York, with 10
kindergartners in a school, and they were watching ``Roots'' as I came
into the classroom. And before we ended the day, each one of them had
decided that they were going to be an integral part of making black
history and that they were going to look back to understand where they
came from so that they would have a better understanding of how they
got to where they are, and they would have a greater awareness and
appreciation of where they ought to be going.
So I want to commend the gentleman from New York and the gentleman
from Maryland for helping to bring alive the historical development of
African Americans in this country so that all of us know that we
continue to move forward even as we look back. I thank the gentleman
for this opportunity.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by saying that this
year, the year 2005, is a landmark year for the observance of African
American history in that there will be an African American museum
launched here on the Mall during this year. The money has been
appropriated for the planning. There is a distinguished board of
Americans who are going to go forward with this, including Oprah
Winfrey, Ken Chenault of American Express, Tony Welters of AmeriChoice,
and a whole group of business people and academics who will oversee the
beginning of this process. I would like to call upon all celebrities
out there who have money, because part of the arrangement is that the
government will pay for one-half of it, and the other half has to be
raised in private contributions. So I call on all of the celebrities
and the stars and the athletes to come forward and let us make certain
that this great project does not falter at all as a result of not
having the private funds to match the government funds.
It is a great day in the observance of African American history, a
long haul from the day when Carter G. Woodson asked for a 1-day
observance and could not get it, and then it finally became a week and
a month. We want a museum that brings it all together right here in
Washington to make sure that our children and the children of all
Americans, not just African American descendants but all Americans,
understand the role and the contribution of African Americans to the
history of this great Nation.

____________________