[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 20 (Monday, February 28, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1789-S1791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, it is especially appropriate that this 
year the theme of African-American History Month should be the Niagara 
Movement, for 100 years ago, in July 1905, the Niagara Movement 
convened for the first time. It brought together a distinguished group 
of twenty-nine thinkers, writers, educators, attorneys, ministers and 
businessmen in the African-American community; among them was the 
Reverend George Freeman Bragg, for many years the pastor of St. James' 
Episcopal Church in Baltimore and the author of Men of Maryland, a 
history of African Americans in Maryland from the earliest days of the 
colony. Although the participants were scheduled to meet in Buffalo 
they were unable to find hotel accommodations in that city, and as a 
consequence they moved to Fort Erie, on the Canadian side of the Falls.
  The Niagara Movement symbolized a ``mighty current'' of protest 
against all the disabilities and indignities of second-class 
citizenship to which African-Americans were subjected. It rejected the 
pernicious ``separate but equal'' doctrine set out 9 years earlier by 
the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, and all the political, social 
and economic consequences of that decision. The prospect that African-
American citizens of this Nation would at last be guaranteed all the 
rights and protections of the Constitution had already begun to fade 
with the end of Reconstruction, in 1876, and Plessy seemed to affirm 
that although African-Americans might no longer be enslaved, they 
should never aspire to be full citizens of the Republic. Within the 
African-American community voices arose urging accommodation and 
acquiescence; the most prominent, Booker T. Washington's, counseled 
against seeking political and social rights.
  John Hope, an academic who subsequently became one of the founders of 
the Niagara Movement, offered a ringing rebuttal to this advice:

       In this republic, we shall be less than freemen if we have 
     a whit less than that which thrift, education and honor 
     afford other freemen. If equality, political, economic and 
     social is the boon of other men in this great country of 
     ours, then equality, political, economic and social is what 
     we demand.

  When the Niagara Movement met for the first time, it adopted a 
manifesto that formally rejected accommodation and courageously 
asserted:

       We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a 
     freeborn 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.

  The movement faced truly daunting challenges. It was met by the 
public at large with alarm, skepticism and outright hostility--and on 
the part of the press, by a wall of silence. The annual meeting shifted 
from one place to another--from Buffalo to Harper's Ferry, to Boston 
and then to Oberlin, and in its last year to Sea Girt, NJ. Membership 
never numbered more than a few hundred; and plans to establish chapters 
in all thirty States were never fully realized. The movement's 
financial resources were painfully inadequate to the challenge it 
faced, and its efforts to organize were met by hostility and, worst of 
all, silence on the part of the press.
  Although the movement sank into obscurity, a small number of scholars 
and commentators have recognized its importance. Among them is John 
Bambacus, whose 1972 master's thesis, ``W.E.B. DuBois and the Niagara 
Movement,'' remains a valuable introduction to the subject. Today John 
Bambacus serves both as the mayor of Frostburg, in Maryland's Allegany 
County, and also as a member of the faculty of Frostburg State 
University, where he is an Associate Professor and Director of 
Frostburg's Public Affairs Institute and Internship Program.
  It is clear today that the Niagara Movement was indeed the beginning 
one hundred years ago of the ``mighty current'' that became the great 
civil rights movement of the 20th century and transformed this Nation. 
And when after a few years the movement faltered, the NAACP emerged in 
its place.
  For Marylanders, the NAACP has very special significance. It is not 
only that the NAACP, with a membership of some 500,000, nearly 2,000 
branch chapters and hundreds of college and youth chapters, has its 
headquarters in Baltimore. It is not only that the NAACP has worked 
ceaselessly since its founding 95 years ago to ensure that African-
Americans will have access to all the rights and opportunities our 
country offers, and that by doing so it has made our country a better 
place for all our people. It is not just the brilliant programs the 
NAACP has designed and implemented over the years--among them, the 
historic voter registration projects and the Voter Empowerment Program 
that grew out of them, the critically important economic empowerment 
program, and the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific 
Olympics program that sets a high standard of achievement for young 
people and challenges them to meet it.
  It is also the legacy of Thurgood Marshall, who was born and raised 
in Baltimore, who received his high-school diploma from Frederick 
Douglass High School in Baltimore, and who returned to Baltimore after 
law school at Howard University. It was at Howard, where he was class 
valedictorian, that Thurgood Marshall became a member of the brilliant 
team that Dean Charles Hamilton Houston assembled for the express 
purpose of sweeping away ``separate but equal'' and establishing the 
right of African-Americans to full participation in every aspect of 
American life. Within a year of returning to Baltimore Thurgood 
Marshall joined the staff of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. He went 
on to become the NAACP's chief legal officer and also director of the 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
  In that capacity he led the team that successfully argued the 
landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education in the Supreme Court, 
thereby laying the indestructible foundation for transforming the 
principles set out by the Niagara Movement into the reality of American 
life.
  Marshall did not rest with his triumph in the Brown case. President 
Kennedy appointed him to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, where of 
Judge Marshall's 112 rulings that were appealed, every one was later 
upheld by the Supreme Court. Subsequently President Johnson appointed 
him to be Solicitor General, and then to sit on the Supreme Court as 
the Nation's first African-American Justice. Justice Marshall's 
colleague on the Supreme Court, Justice Brennan, called him--

     the voice of authority . . . the voice of reason . . . [a]nd 
     a voice with an unwavering message: that the Constitution's 
     protections must not be denied to anyone . . .

  Thurgood Marshall was a leader among the brilliant and courageous 
members of the African-American community who dedicated their efforts--
and in many cases their lives--to the fundamental principles of 
equality and respect that were set out in Buffalo 100 years ago by the 
Niagara Movement. We have come far, but yet we have far to go.
  No one has put this more eloquently than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
As we approach the end of African-American History Month 2005 we should 
remember what he told us nearly 50 years ago, in ``Facing the Challenge 
of a New Age'':

     . . . our world is geographically one. Now we are faced with 
     the challenge of making it spiritually one. Through our 
     scientific genius we have made of the world a neighborhood; 
     now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make of it 
     a brotherhood. We are all involved in the single process. 
     Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. We are 
     all links in the great chain of humanity.

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, today marks the end of Black History Month. 
Each year, we take this opportunity to

[[Page S1790]]

honor the heritage and extraordinary contributions that African 
Americans have made in building our Nation.
  We have many fallen martyrs in the civil rights movement to honor: 
Harriet Tubman, the pioneer of the Underground Railroad; Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., a drum major for justice; Rosa Parks, mother of the 
civil rights movement; and recently deceased Shirley Chisholm, champion 
of political firsts; to name only a few.
  Arkansas has its own heroes who turned their determination into 
opportunity for others and helped shape history as a result.
  It is perhaps the Little Rock Nine who taught America that 
``separate'' was not ``equal.'' Nine black students--Ernest Green, 
Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, 
Minnijean Borwn Trickey, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Thelma 
Mothershed Wair and Melba Pattillo Beals--defied hatred and prejudice 
to attend the all-white Central High School and exercise their right to 
a better education.
  Last year, I worked closely with members of the Little Rock Nine, as 
well as the former Congressional Black Caucus Chairman, Elijah 
Cummings, to secure funding to build a Visitor's Center at the Little 
Rock Central High School in time to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of 
the school's desegregation crisis. I am thrilled Congress authorized 
the design funding for this project. We celebrate Black History Month 
every February, but the Visitor's Center is open to teach stories of 
the civil rights movement all-year long.
  Part of this Visitor's Center will tell the story of civil rights 
leader Daisy Gatson Bates, who paid a personal and financial price to 
help the Little Rock Nine succeed. Bates also made significant strides 
in the courtroom and increasing public awareness through her newspaper, 
the Arkansas State Press, about the inequality that existed in 
Arkansas.
  Just as Arkansans broke barriers in our schools, they also played a 
large role in integrating our Nation's military operations, making it 
the most skilled military in the world. The actions of the Tuskegee 
Airmen are legendary. Arkansas' own Tuskegee Airmen include: Herbert 
Clark of Pine Bluff, Richard Caesar of Lake Village, William Mattison 
of Conway, Woodrow Crockett of Little Rock, James Ewing of Helena, 
Marsille Reed of Tillar, Jerry Hodges of Heth, and Grandville Coggs of 
Little Rock.
  Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. 
military. Civil rights organizations and the black press exerted 
pressure that resulted in the formation of an African-American flying 
squadron based in Tuskegee, AL., in 1941. The Tuskegee Airmen 
established an incredible and unprecedented flying record, most notably 
completing 200 bomber escort missions over most of central and southern 
Europe without the loss of a single bomber to enemy aircraft. By the 
end of World War II, almost 1,000 African Americans had won their wings 
at Tuskegee Army Air Field. Each airman had his own victories and 
valor, but in the end, the Tuskegee Airmen knew that never again would 
anybody deny a man or woman the opportunity to serve our country in any 
capacity because of the color of his or her skin.
  In 1948, President Harry Truman enacted an Executive order which 
directed equality of treatment and opportunity in all of the U.S. Armed 
Forces. This order, in time, led to the end of racial segregation in 
the military forces.
  African Americans continue to make remarkable contributions in the 
fields of mathematics, science, arts, politics and the Armed Forces. 
Arkansas is blessed to be the home to many of these trailblazers, 
including Pulitzer Prize winner Maya Angelou, former U.S. Secretary of 
Transportation Rodney Slater, and many individuals who may not be 
household names but who make an extraordinary difference in our 
communities nonetheless.
  As we look back at the African Americans who brought us here today, 
we must also consider those who are history in the making.
  The Little Rock Nine and Daisy Gatson Bates knew that education is 
the great equalizer. Keeping students in school and preparing them for 
college will pay off in dividends for communities. For students who 
pursue higher education, the pay margin is significant. In 2002, the 
average earnings for nongraduates were $18,826; for high school 
graduates, $27,280; for bachelor's degree holders, $51,194; and for 
those with advanced degrees, $72,824.
  Last week, I traveled towns in the Delta, where some rural areas 
suffer from unemployment rates two to three times higher than the 
national average, the poverty rate is more than double the national 
average, and access to health care is abysmal. I spoke with middle 
school and high school students, sharing with them a message of 
commitment and responsibility.
  Every child should know that if they take the initiative to work hard 
and make good grades, this body will stand by them and match that 
commitment. Standing by our youth means fulfilling the promises we made 
to them to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act.
  Most students know that the No Child Left Behind Act requires them to 
take more tests, but they don't understand the overall goal is to 
improve our schools--in poor neighborhoods and in wealthy school 
districts--so that they will all be able to compete in the global and 
technically advanced workplace.
  In fulfilling Congress' commitment to our youth, it is imperative 
that we support programs like the Federal TRIO programs, which help 
low-income, first-generation college students progress through the 
academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.
  I recently learned about Jessica, a high school senior who 
participates in the Upward Bound Program. Through the Federal TRIO 
program, she received tutoring and technical assistance that she needed 
to attend college. Jessica took the initiative to make good grades in 
school, score well on her ACTs, and balance a part-time job at 
McDonalds. She was accepted at the University of Central Arkansas, her 
first choice college, and she now awaits scholarship information so she 
knows for sure whether UCA is in her future.
  Oprah Winfrey once said ``luck is a matter of preparation meeting 
opportunity.'' Preparation is the most important part of the equation. 
For students to be prepared and compete in the workforce, Congress must 
support programs like title I, IDEA, TRIO, as well as programs that 
provide vocational preparation and technology in rural schools. When we 
underfund or slash funding for them, as the President proposes in his 
budget proposal, we take opportunity away from them.
  African-American students are reaping the benefits of equal 
opportunity laws passed on to them through the sacrifice of their 
ancestors. However, too many African-American seniors struggle 
financially today because they simply did not have the same opportunity 
in their schools or in the workplace. As a result, 40 percent of 
African-American seniors rely on Social Security as their only source 
of income, and the program provides about three-quarters of all 
retirement income for African-American seniors. Statistics show, in 
fact, without Social Security, poverty rates for African-American 
seniors would more than double to 58 percent.
  The Social Security safety net is at risk with the President's 
privatization plan. I hope African-American families in Arkansas and 
throughout the country will listen closely to the debate on Social 
Security's future. The President recently stated private accounts are 
in the best interest of African-Americans because the accounts benefit 
individuals with a shorter life expectancy. To me that statement means 
we need to reduce the health care disparity in this country, which is 
something I hope the Senate will take action on this year. Weakening 
Social Security is not the answer.
  Black History Month presents an occasion to reflect on the great 
contributions African-Americans have made to our country, and to 
celebrate the steps we have taken toward equality. But too much is left 
to be done to simply leave it at that. We must also remind ourselves of 
the work ahead and meet the commitment of those who seek opportunity.
  Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, this month we mark the 79th celebration of 
African American Black History Month. What was launched by civil rights 
pioneer Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926 as Black History Week and 
observed in Black schools and churches

[[Page S1791]]

today is a month-long national tribute to the tremendous historical 
contributions of African Americans from all walks of life and 
professions.
  I am so very proud of the rich and vibrant African-American heritage 
in my home State of North Carolina. Our history is full of 
trailblazers, including Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, 
Jr., and David Richmond, known as the Greensboro Four because of their 
February 1960 sit-ins at a Woolworth Store counter in Greensboro, NC. 
Their sit-ins were the first significant event of this type, quickly 
gaining momentum and attention. In less than a week, the four North 
Carolina A&T freshmen had been joined by 1,000 other students from 
local high schools and universities. As the Greensboro News & Record 
stated earlier this month, the Greensboro sit-in ``gave new life to the 
nation's civil rights movement and helped pave the way for its triumphs 
later in the decade.'' These individuals truly laid the foundation for 
the America we strive to be, where all people are given opportunity and 
treated fairly, regardless of their skin color.
  North Carolina, with its long and proud military history, also 
produced 21 of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Trained in Tuskegee, AL, 
these brave men made up the first African-American military flying unit 
in World War II. I am proud to cosponsor recently introduced 
legislation that authorizes the President to award a gold medal on 
behalf of Congress to the Tuskegee Airmen. These brave soldiers truly 
left their mark on history not just in battle--their great success 
helped pave the way for the integration of our Armed Forces in 1948.
  North Carolina also has made great strides in higher education. We 
have 11 historically Black colleges and universities, including Shaw 
University in Raleigh, founded in 1865 and the oldest HBCU in the 
South. I was honored to give the commencement address and receive an 
honorary degree several years ago from Livingstone College, another 
outstanding historically Black college in my hometown of Salisbury. I 
also am so very proud that my husband Bob is serving as chairman of a 
$50 million fundraising campaign at Bennett College in Greensboro, one 
of only two historically Black women's colleges in America. Bennett 
College President Dr. Johnnetta Cole is a pioneer in her own right, 
having received 50 honorary degrees during an impressive career in 
academia that includes being the first African-American woman to serve 
as president of Spelman College. And in May 2004, Dr. Cole became the 
first African-American to serve as chair of the Board of United Way of 
America.
  A short time ago Congress debated legislation to make the birthday of 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a national holiday. The floor leader for 
that legislation was a fellow named Bob Dole. During the final debate, 
I had the privilege of sitting in the gallery with Coretta Scott King, 
as we heard Bob deliver these words: ``A nation defines itself in many 
ways; in the promises it makes and the programs it enacts, the dreams 
it enshrines, or the doors it slams shut. Thanks to Dr. King, America 
wrote new laws to strike down old barriers. She built bridges instead 
of walls . . . there is nothing partisan about justice. It is 
conservative as the Constitution, as liberal as Lincoln, as radical as 
Jefferson's sweeping assertion that all of God's creation is equal in 
His eyes.'' I could not agree more.
  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise again, as I have earlier this month, 
to honor February as Black History Month. Each February since 1926, we 
have recognized the contributions of Black Americans to the Nation.
  This is no accident; February is a significant month in Black 
American history. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, President Abraham 
Lincoln, and scholar and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois were born in 
the month of February. The 15th amendment to the Constitution was 
ratified 132 years ago this month, preventing race discrimination in 
the right to vote. The National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People was founded in February in New York City. February 1 was 
the 45th anniversary of the Greensboro Four's historic sit-in. And on 
February 25, 1870, this body welcomed its first Black senator, Hiram R. 
Revels of Mississippi.
  In this important month, I have wanted to celebrate some of the 
contributions made by Black Americans in my home State of Oregon. Since 
Marcus Lopez, who sailed with Captain Robert Gray in 1788, became the 
first person of African descent known to set foot in Oregon, a great 
many Black Americans have helped shape the history of my State. 
Throughout this month, I have come to the floor to highlight some of 
their stories. Today, on the last day of Black History Month, I have 
come to honor one more.
  Louis A. Southworth was a blacksmith, fiddler, and farmer. Though a 
combination of his contagious personality, appealing fiddle playing, 
and an unwavering devotion to civic duty, he became one of Oregon's 
most respected and well-liked citizens of his time.
  Born into slavery in Tennessee in 1830, he later moved with his 
family to Oregon in 1851. Although slavery was officially banned in 
Oregon, it was still practiced with some frequency. While working in 
the gold mines, Southworth soon found that people greatly enjoyed his 
musical talents. He was able to parlay his talents on a fiddle into an 
extra source of income, and at age 28, bought his freedom for $1,000. 
The phrase ``fiddling for freedom'' soon caught on, and Louis 
Southworth become some what of a local hero.
  In 1879, he moved with his wife and adopted son to the south bank of 
the Alsea River. Southworth, with his family and his fiddle, soon won 
over this small community. He worked as a farmer, and ferried cargo and 
passengers across the bay to town.
  As more people began to move into the community, he donated some of 
his land to build a local school house and later served as chair of the 
school board. Along with his new life came a renewed sense of civic 
duty. Southworth became a dedicated political activist. During the 
elections of 1890, a strong storm ravaged his small town. Unafraid of 
the weather, Louis Southworth rigged two oil drums to his boat for 
buoyancy and rowed across the bay to the polling place. As it turns 
out, he was the only person to cast a vote in Waldport that day.
  Despite the chaotic times in which he lived, Louis Southworth was 
embraced by his community. Before he died in 1917, his neighbors raised 
the $300 needed to pay off his mortgage in Corvallis, OR.
  Louis Southworth provides one example of a man triumphing over 
seemingly insurmountable odds. As a Black man living in troubled times, 
his personality, compassion, work ethic, talents, generosity, and 
devotion to the community service allowed him to become a respected 
leader. He was accepted by many of his peers, of all races, religions, 
and ethnic backgrounds, long before this was common or expected. His 
legacy of service and kindness is one that lives on today, and one that 
should be remembered for years to come. On this last day of Black 
History Month, I believe it is only right to celebrate an Oregonian 
like Louis Southworth, whose contributions to race relations in Oregon, 
while great, have not yet received the attention they deserve.

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