[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 21, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H4382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CARIBBEAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my 
time out of order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from the 
Virgin Islands is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 
contributions of my fellow Caribbean-Americans as we celebrate the 
first Caribbean Heritage Month. I want to begin by commending the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) who I was privileged to join in 
introducing H. Res. 71, which expressed the sense of Congress that 
there should be established a Caribbean-American Heritage Month, and 
also to commend and applaud Dr. Claire Nelson and the staff and members 
of the Institute for Caribbean Studies, and to thank President Bush for 
making it official by signing the proclamation proclaiming June 2006 as 
Caribbean-American Heritage Month.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a Caribbean-American, with family ties to Cuba, 
Antigua, the Virgin Islands and the U.S., and consider this achievement 
an important one. The contributions of the people of the Caribbean, 
which go back even before the birth of this Nation, span every field 
from sports to entertainment, politics, art and culture to labor 
organizing, and all are significant and need to be made known to all 
Americans.
  One of the most important persons of Caribbean descent in the 
founding of this country was Alexander Hamilton, a general in the 
American Revolution and our first Secretary of State. He was born on 
the island of Nevis and raised in St. Croix.
  In the struggle to end our enslavement, which I am sure was greatly 
inspired by the successful Haitian revolution, it is noteworthy that 
Denmark Vessey also came here from St. Thomas in the now U.S. Virgin 
Islands by way of the Guadeloupe to lead an unsuccessful, but the 
largest slave rebellion that was ever planned in this country.
  The ongoing fight for emancipation and liberation, my fellow Virgin 
Islander Edward Blyden, along with George Padmore, Marcus Garvey and 
Claude McKay, were among the first West Indian Americans to become well 
known and well respected leaders in the African American struggle for 
racial equality.
  Others from the Virgin Islands who also had their roots in other 
Caribbean islands, like Ashley Totten and Frank Crosswaith, who were 
born on St. Croix, helped to found some of the major labor unions still 
operating today. J. Raymond Jones from St. Thomas, also known as the 
Silver Fox, ran New York City politics in the 1900s, and those are only 
a few.
  Other famous West Indian Americans include former U.S. representative 
and first female presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm; Franklin 
Thomas, former head of the Ford Foundation; Federal Judge Constance 
Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the Federal judiciary; 
activists such as Stokely Carmichael, Kwame Toure, Roy Innis, Malcolm X 
and Louis Farrakhan; as well as world renowned actor Sidney Poitier; 
civil rights activist and singer Harry Belafonte; Earl Greaves, 
philanthropist, businessman and publisher of Black Enterprise; and now 
Colin Powell, the first black U.S. Secretary of State, all have made 
impressive contributions to this country.
  Mr. Speaker, the small islands of the Caribbean also wield a cultural 
influence that have spread to the remote corners of the world. Our 
culture, notably the music, calypso, reggae, Afro-Cuban and their 
derivatives, which were created by and large by a people who were long 
considered marginalized, has spread far and wide and enjoys extensive 
popularity today.
  But more than just our musical influence, Nobel prizes for literature 
have gone to poets St. Jean Perse of Guadeloupe and Derek Walcott of 
St. Lucia from among a number of highly regarded Caribbean writers.
  Moreover, internationally admired painters Winfred Lam of Cuba and 
Leroy Clarke of Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti's ``naive'' artists took 
inspiration from a complex cosmology born from West African religions 
and Christianity. And Trinidad and Tobago's carnival was the basis for 
the breathtaking costumed parades designed by Peter Minshall of Guyana 
and Trinidad for the Barcelona, the Atlanta and the St. Lake City 
Olympics.
  The most important contribution of all, however, remains the close 
ties between this country and the nations of the Caribbean. Those ties 
are not only ties of geography, but of history, and most important of 
the common ideals of freedom, justice and democracy which guides our 
nations.
  Mr. Speaker, it is indeed fitting and proper that we honor the 
contributions of the people of the Caribbean to our history and 
culture.
  Indeed, if providence had not made it possible for our Founding 
Father, Alexander Hamilton, to New York from my home island of St. 
Croix to further his education and work in New York City, we might not 
be celebrating the founding of this Nation next week, and instead, have 
remained a colony of the United Kingdom even today.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague who was here earlier, 
Ms. Lee, to pay tribute to the Caribbean-Americans who have given so 
much to this country, and to once again thank her and thank the members 
and the leaders of Institute for Caribbean Studies and to thank the 
President for the proclamation which named this month, June 2006, 
Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

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