[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU (for herself, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Levin, Mr. 
        Voinovich, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Schumer):
  S. 295. A bill to establish a servitude and emancipation archival 
research clearinghouse in the National Archives; to the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce the 
Servitude and Emancipation Archival Research Clearing House, SEARCH, 
Act of 2007, a bill that will establish a national database consisting 
of historic records of servitude and emancipation in the United States 
to assist African Americans in researching their genealogy. 
Additionally, Congressman Elijah Cummings is reintroducing a companion 
to this bill on the House side because we both believe in its 
importance.
  It is a very human instinct for people to want to understand who they 
are from the lenses of who are their ancestors and where are they from. 
This is the very reason I stand before you today to reintroduce this 
piece of very important legislation. Unfortunately, African Americans 
who attempt to trace their genealogy encounter huge hurdles in 
reclaiming the usual documentary history that allows most Americans to 
piece together their heritage. W.E.B. Dubois once said that, ``There is 
in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to 
rise, for the human soul cannot be permanently chained.'' The Servitude 
and Emancipation Archival Research ClearingHouse, SEARCH, Act of 2007 
gives African Americans the tools they need to rise above the unique 
challenges and hardships they face in order to trace their genealogy. 
The SEARCH Act establishes a national database within the National 
Archives and Records Administration, NARA, housing various documents 
that would assist those in search of a history that, because of 
slavery, is almost impossible to find in the most ordinary registers 
and census records.
  Traditionally, someone researching their genealogy would try looking 
up wills and land deeds; however, enslaved African Americans were 
prohibited from owning property. In fact, African Americans, must 
frequently rely on the records of slave owners--most of which are in 
private hands--in hope that they had kept records containing birth and 
death information. Even if records do exist, many African Americans in 
the past did not have formal last names, thus compounding the 
difficulty of tracing their lives. The omission of surnames also 
precludes use of the most popular and major source of genealogical 
research, the United States Census. Furthermore, letters, diaries, and 
other first-person records used by most genealogical researchers are 
scarcely available for slaves, owing to the fact that they could not 
legally learn to read or write.
  Even after the Emancipation Proclamation was given in 1865, we would 
think that African Americans could begin using traditional genealogical 
records like voter registrations and school records. However, African 
Americans did not immediately begin to participate in many of the 
privileges of citizenship, including voting and attending school. 
Discrimination meant that African Americans were barred from sitting on 
juries or owning businesses. Segregation meant segregated 
neighborhoods, schools, churches, clubs, and fraternal organizations, 
and thus segregated societies maintained segregated records. For 
example, some telephone directories in South Carolina did not include 
African Americans in the regular alphabetical listing, but rather at 
the end of the book. An African American must maneuver these 
distinctive nuances in order to conduct proper genealogical research. 
In my own State of Louisiana, descendants of the 9th Cavalry Regiment 
and 25th Infantry Regiment, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, would have 
to know to look in the index of United States Colored Troops since 
there is no mention of them in the index of State Military Regiments.
  Abraham Lincoln said, ``a man who cares nothing about his past can 
care little about his future.'' By providing $5 million for the 
National Historical Publications and Records Commission to establish 
and maintain a national database, the SEARCH Act has the potential to 
significantly reduce the time and painstaking efforts of those African 
Americans who truly care about their American past to contribute to the 
American future. This bill also seeks to authorize $5 million for 
States, colleges, and universities to preserve, catalogue, and index 
records locally.
  In a democracy, records matter. The mission of NARA is to ensure that 
anyone can have access to the records that matter to them. The SEARCH 
Act of 2007 seeks to fulfill that mission by helping African Americans 
navigate genealogical research sources and negotiate the unique 
challenges that confront them in this process. No longer should any 
American have to wait to learn information, which in itself can offer 
such freedom.
  I don't believe there is a more appropriate time than now to pass 
this piece of legislation, on the day before we honor the legacy of a 
man who spent his life as an advocate of freedom, Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. Dr. King once said, ``Our lives begin to end the day we 
become silent about things that matter.'' Mr. President, this piece of 
legislation does matter and I ask my colleagues to join me in passing 
the SEARCH Act of 2007.
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