[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 19, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H6725-H6726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        COMMEMORATING JUNETEENTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am very humbled to be able 
to join my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus to celebrate 
and commemorate Juneteenth and to celebrate it on the very day that we 
have commemorated it over the years.
  June 19 is a special time for Texans. And I would like to, in this 
very brief time that I have, weave in and out of the history of the 
meaning of Juneteenth as we reflect upon where we are in 2007 in the 
education of our young people.
  The failures of this administration are stark, shocking, and 
extensive. And it is hopefully on this day that maybe a morsel of what 
many of us have been saying will be caught by someone in the 
administration to be able to reassess and to be able to think about the 
remaining time of their tenure in the White House and create a new and 
different legacy of the educational process of minorities in the United 
States of America.
  With that, let me thank Danny Davis for the celebration that we were 
able to participate in and his leadership on the issue of Juneteenth. I 
would also like to thank Curtis Faulkner of Fort Worth, who is involved 
in Juneteenth Heritage and Jazz Festival. I would also like to be able 
to thank Dr. Ronald Myers, who has been working for years with the 
National Juneteenth Observance. I would also like to be able to remind 
my fellow Texans and Houstonians of Reverend C. Anderson Davis, who 
brought to us the Emancipation Day celebration in Texas. We lost 
Reverend Davis just a few weeks

[[Page H6726]]

ago, and it is my special privilege to acknowledge him for he came as 
the regional leader of the NAACP more than four decades ago to Houston, 
Texas, and he never forgot the routing and the importance of educating 
our young people about the emancipation.
  So I stand today to be able to chronicle the history and to thank 
those who are now fighting the battle to preserve Freedman's Town in 
Houston, Texas, a town that was formulated by freed slaves right after 
the Emancipation Proclamation that is now under siege by those who 
would desire to disrupt the few remaining historic buildings and blocks 
and, if you will, bricks that make up the street, cobblestone bricks. I 
pray that the energy of those remaining, Reverend Samuel Smith, Captain 
Roberts, Reverend Robertson, will hold on, and the number of churches 
that are in that area, that we will fight for the establishment of a 
Freedman's Town corridor in the name and in tribute of Juneteenth and 
the emancipation of our people.
  Let me cite for those a depictive picture that shows both celebration 
and shock as Major Gordon Granger came into Galveston to be able to 
announce that these yet humble servants, these slaves, were yet free.
  Let me quickly go to the language that was offered to me in remarks 
made by Curtis Faulkner. I want to read, first of all, just a few brief 
words from the message of Abraham Lincoln during the emancipation: 
``Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and 
this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No 
personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of 
us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor 
or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the union. The 
world will not forget that we say this.''
  So he spoke of saving the union, but he also laid the ground work for 
the Emancipation Proclamation.
  He continued: ``Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way 
is plain, peaceful, generous, just--a way which, if followed, the world 
will forever applaud and God must forever bless.''
  This was the genesis of the emancipation of slaves, but yet we are 
still wracked by discrimination and disparity. So when I speak of 
education and No Child Left Behind, I use Houston as an additional 
laboratory, testing the fear of children and not the learning of 
children. We want to reform so that all of our children can learn. Poor 
funding for underperforming schools, a failure of this administration 
that never decided to fund. Closing schools, lack of pay for teachers, 
all of that is meaningful.
  I close, Mr. Speaker, by saying this. Freedom is not enough and you 
do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying now you are free. We 
want the emancipation to be known in our hearts. We want a national 
holiday for the Juneteenth. And I look forward to working with my 
colleagues to commemorate, celebrate, and be reminded of the sweat and 
blood and tears of those who stand here today.

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