[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 40 (Monday, March 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1437-H1440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS MESSAGE HOUR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
Members would have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend 
their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, it's befitting that you are in the 
Speaker's chair today as we discuss this very important hour.
  I have the pleasure to manage this hour on behalf of the 
Congressional Black Caucus. And we're going to be talking about black 
history and women's history, a combination of last month and this 
month's themes.
  I want to begin by saying that we will have an opportunity to discuss 
the state of black women in America and pay tribute to African American 
women in our communities. We felt it befitting, as we recently 
celebrated Black History Month in February and currently are in the 
midst of Women's History Month.
  Tonight we will begin by highlighting some of the findings from the 
recent study of ``The State of Black America,'' released by the Urban 
League, and discussing some of the wonderful women from our own 
congressional districts.
  I would like to begin now by yielding time to my colleague and good 
friend from the great State of California, Diane Watson.
  Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker and my honorable colleague, Stephanie Tubbs 
Jones, thank you for this opportunity to salute our women over a period 
of time.
  I would like now to introduce you to a woman by the name of Mayme 
Clayton.
  Mayme Clayton, a renowned librarian, worked her entire life to 
assemble a priceless collection of historical artifacts. The collection 
was assembled over a 40-year period by Mayme A. Clayton, 1923 to 2006, 
a career librarian at the University of Southern California in my 
district, and University of California, Los Angeles, my alma mater. And 
Dr. Clayton's singular commitment to preserve African American culture 
and history was inspired by her desire to ensure that children would 
know the richness and diversity of African American contributions to 
the world.
  The Mayme A. Clayton Collection of African American History and 
Culture is comprised of seven main components. They are as follows: 
rare and out-of-print books, manuscripts, documents, films, music, 
photographs, and memorabilia. The collection is a remarkable cultural 
treasure, with a vast ability to educate and to delight. It is our hope 
that this particular collection will be explored on the Web site to 
learn more about the collection and why Dr. Mayme Clayton assembled it, 
and the goals of the Western States Black Research and Educational 
Center.
  It's a research center, and it's scheduled to receive a Federal grant 
to refurbish its facilities that are located in my district, Culver 
City, California. The center will be known as the Mayme Clayton 
Library, and it has housed the largest collection of rare books, films, 
recordings, and other documents on black Americans outside of the 
Schomburg Library.

[[Page H1438]]

  Ms. Clayton's historic efforts have not been in vain, but can 
rightfully serve as historical and intellectual nourishment for this 
generation as well as future generations of Americans.

                              {time}  2000

  When she learned that there was a location for her rare collection, 
which she kept in her garage, and I remember going over as a student at 
UCLA and going through her works for a paper that I had to do, I knew 
that she would outgrow that space and would have to find a place that 
could rightfully house such a precious collection. But we found a place 
for her. It was the old courthouse in Culver City. As you know, you 
cannot sell a courthouse; so we're on loan. They lent it to us for a 
period of time, and we're going to see that Federal grants go to that 
library to preserve this collection.
  And I am so pleased to put that name into your psyche because she has 
skillfully, artfully, and scholarly recorded our history, as written by 
slaves themselves and written by free men.
  Mayme Clayton, a true African American heroine.
  Thank you, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, for giving me this time to talk 
about Mayme Clayton.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I would like to thank my colleague for always 
being with me and supporting me and the Congressional Black Caucus on 
issues that we present.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to begin this evening by paying tribute 
to one of my she-roes and a pillar of the 11th Congressional District 
of Ohio and the Cleveland community, Judge Jean Murrell Capers.
  At 95 years of age, Judge Jean Murrell Capers is still ticking and 
kicking. Known for her feistiness and zest for life, Judge Capers has 
been a trailblazer for many black women including myself in the law and 
politics.
  A native of Kentucky, Judge Capers moved to Cleveland with her family 
88 years ago. She still resides in the family house located in the 
heart of Cleveland. Judge Capers credits her parents with her success 
and longevity to the teachings instilled in her by her parents: ``My 
parents provided my four siblings and me with what we needed, not what 
we wanted. The two things that impact on the individual are heredity 
and environment. The most important thing for you is to learn.''
  In 1932 Judge Capers began teaching in the Cleveland Public Schools. 
She went on to receive her law degree from Case Western Reserve 
University, which she calls the ``Harvard of the Midwest.''
  Raised as a devout Presbyterian, Judge Capers says that the Bible and 
the Constitution are the two books she lives by. Through the teachings 
of the Bible and her Christian upbringing, she learned the importance 
of serving the community. That belief led her into politics.
  Judge Capers began her profession in law and politics in 1945. She 
was the first black woman in the United States to be elected a city 
council member and the first to serve as an assistant county prosecutor 
in Cuyahoga County. Because of her commitment to her community, Judge 
Capers was appointed by then Governor James Rhodes to serve as a 
municipal court judge, a position she was elected to once her 
appointment expired.
  A member of my great sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., 
Judge Capers has accumulated numerous awards including the Frances 
Payne Bolton Award presented by the Western Reserve Republican Club and 
has been inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.
  The interesting thing about Judge Capers' life is the fact that she 
was born on the very day that Delta Sigma Theta was founded and in the 
very same year. So we always call her our representative of Delta Sigma 
Theta.
  Widely recognized for her gorgeous hats, Judge Capers continues to be 
an advocate for all people in the community. She still practices law at 
the age of 95. I can honestly say there would be no Stephanie Tubbs 
Jones were it not for Judge Jean Murrell Capers. So tonight I'm pleased 
to recognize her for her life of service and for all that she does on 
behalf of candidates throughout the State of Ohio and throughout the 
United States of America. Tonight she's still actively involved in the 
presidential elections. Though we're not on the same side, I still love 
her dearly.
  Let me go on to talk now about the Urban League's State of Black 
America Study. Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial states: ``By 
uplifting black women, especially those struggling hardest to keep 
their families together and their dreams on track, we lift up every 
American community.''
  I want to applaud the Urban League for having the vision to highlight 
the issues of black women in this country in this year's report. 
Oftentimes our issues are overlooked and/or marginalized. I would like 
to share with you a few excerpts from some of the essays featured in 
this year's report. This year's essayists do a fantastic job of 
highlighting the many struggles of black women in America.
  Black women and the workplace: In her essay ``African American Women 
and Work: Still a Tale of Two Cities,'' Alexis Herman has this to say 
regarding the inequality women face in the workplace:
  ``Over the last 60 years, the labor force participation of women has 
more than doubled, which means nearly one out of every two workers is a 
woman. However, this increase in labor force participation was driven 
largely by non-African American women deciding to work outside their 
homes. African American women have a long history of working outside of 
their homes and have the highest labor force participation rate among 
women, 63.4 percent. Not only are more women working, but more of these 
working women are mothers as well. Further, one in four married working 
women earn more than their husbands. However, many African American 
women are concentrated in low-paying service jobs or staff positions. 
African American women are 6 percent of the workforce but 14 percent of 
workers earning between $15,000 and $30,000 per year and are less than 
1 percent of workers earning over $100,000 per year. Not only do 
African American women earn less, the growth in their earnings has 
lagged behind that of white women, 19 percent and 29 percent 
respectively. At the upper end of the earnings distribution, 
disparities in the labor market impact approximately 1 percent of 
African American women in corporate officer positions whose earnings 
are on average $229,000 compared to $250,000 for white women.''
  Taking the conversation even deeper is Dr. Julianne Malveaux, who in 
her essay, ``Shouldering the Third Burden: The status of African 
American Women,'' she states:
  ``The labor market presents the most striking example of the third 
burden. Black men and women both experience higher unemployment rates 
than the general population. However, the unemployment and 
underemployment of black men shifts a disproportionate economic 
responsibility onto the shoulders of African American women, who then 
must support households and children without sufficient contribution 
from their spouses, partners, or fathers. The failure of public policy 
to create jobs and access to employment in the wake of urban 
deindustrialization puts African American men at a particular 
disadvantage and thereby places the burden of family survival on 
African American women.''
  Another article about black women and the foreclosure crisis is 
written by Andrea Harris, the president of the North Carolina Institute 
for Minority Economic Development, and she had this to say about the 
impact of the foreclosure crisis and its effect on African American 
women:
  ``Nearly two-thirds of the wealth possessed by African American 
families is in the form of home equity. Without homeownership most of 
these households own very little and have few opportunities to build 
economic security. Half of all African American households with 
children are headed by women; therefore, homeownership is an important 
economic advantage for these families.
  ``The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act was enacted to abolish 
redlining, but it created a market for predatory lending. A recent 
report by the Consumer Federation of America notes that subprime loans 
have gone disproportionately to women and that African American and 
Latina women have the highest rates of subprime lending when compared 
to all other Americans, especially white men who receive the lowest 
share of subprime

[[Page H1439]]

loans. Moreover, the disparity increases as income increases. In fact, 
upper-income African American women are more than five times more 
likely to receive a subprime mortgage than white men. Since subprime 
borrowers typically refinance from one subprime loan to another, this 
translates into projected foreclosures for more than one-third of 
subprime borrowers.
  ``Considering that over half of all loans made to black borrowers in 
2005 and 2006 were subprime and that African American women accounted 
for 48.8 percent of all African American subprime borrowers in 2006, it 
is easy to imagine the devastation that is headed toward black women 
and their communities. A January, 2008, report issued by United for a 
Fair Economy says that the subprime mortgage crisis will drain $213 
billion in wealth from black Americans, producing for African Americans 
the greatest wealth loss in modern U.S. history.''
  Let's talk about black women's health for a moment. Dr. Doris Browne, 
president and CEO of Brown & Associates, Inc., had these observations 
about the impact of health disparities on African American women:
  ``Particularly striking are disparities in the occurrence of illness 
and death experienced by African Americans caused by higher rates of 
cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, AIDS, and a shorter 
life expectancy. For instance, heart disease is the leading cause of 
death for women in the United States. However, the death rate for heart 
disease is 20 percent higher for African American women than white 
women. In addition, cancer is the second leading cause of death among 
women; yet the 5-year survival rate is 10 percent lower for African 
American women compared to their white female counterparts. Also, 15 
million black women in the United States are afflicted with diabetes, 
roughly double the number of U.S. white women who are diagnosed with 
the disease.
  ``With regard to HIV and AIDS, 61 percent of those under age 25 with 
a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS are African American, and African American 
women are diagnosed with AIDS at a rate nearly 24 times higher than 
white women. Black women are more likely to be infected by heterosexual 
means, sexual contact with men who are HIV positive, compared to other 
racial and ethnic groups. Possible explanations for these disparities 
are the complex interaction of biological factors, environment, 
ethnicity, insurance, and certain health behaviors or life-style 
choices. Equally important are the effects of socioeconomic factors 
such as education and income in creating health disparities. For 
African American women, poverty, race, and ethnicity play a significant 
role in lower health quality and health outcomes.
  ``Overcoming persistent health disparities and promoting healthy 
behaviors for African Americans is a formidable health challenge. 
African American women must devote more time to care for their own 
health needs because health education, awareness, and screening are 
essential in preventing and controlling chronic diseases in women.''
  All of these points that have been made in this wonderful publication 
by the Urban League point to issues that predominate in the African 
American community, which particularly fall upon African American women 
in our country. The Urban League should be applauded for focusing in on 
the state of black women in America. And we focus in again around 
education, around health care, around job opportunities, around income 
within the workplace.
  When we have been looking at issues around women and the workplace, 
one of the things that we have noticed persistently is that women still 
only make about 70 cents of every dollar that men make in the 
workplace, and we have to continue to fight for our opportunity to be 
paid equally in the workplace. It becomes even a greater dilemma as we 
focus in on the foreclosure crisis, which has caused so many families 
to go under.
  In the State of Ohio, 90,000 houses or homes in Ohio are in the 
predatory lending process. I am told that the number across the country 
is somewhere around 900,000 families or houses in this country are in 
debt or in trouble as a result of the foreclosure crisis. It becomes 
even more important that Members of Congress and my colleagues begin to 
focus in on these issues and try to do what we can to assist those 
families in the process.
  One of the dilemmas that we really face as well is, though, that the 
proposals that have been placed upon the table to try to fix the 
foreclosure process have not really focused on the people who are stuck 
in the foreclosure. They are more focused on the banking and financial 
institutions than on the people and the process.

                              {time}  2015

  We need to push as Members of Congress to make sure that we pursue 
other opportunities to assist people who are really in need of our 
support.
  It is exciting as we go on and celebrate Black History Month and 
Women's History Month together that we think about all the great 
leaders and great women who have come before us in this country.
  I had an opportunity about 2 weeks ago to be in Akron, Ohio, with a 
group of women. We were focusing on Women's History Month and that 
great woman, Sojourner Truth, an African American woman who was a 
leader in the suffragette movement, even though she recognized back 
then, even though she fought on behalf of the suffragette movement, 
that she as an African American woman would not have the opportunity to 
have the right to vote, even if she won the suffragette movement.
  We recalled in our discussion this great speech that she gave that 
was called ``Ain't I a Woman?'' and she talked about that she had 
worked and slaved in cotton fields, that she was able to till the land 
just like a man, that she was able to cut down trees like a man and she 
said, But ain't I a woman? And she went on to talk about the fact that 
women across this country have worked very hard and very diligently 
but, in fact, they have not been given the rights or recognition that 
they should. And she ends this great speech by saying, if one woman can 
be determined to have turned this world upside down, surely all the 
women in this room ought to be able to turn it right side up again. And 
then she said, And the men ought to let them do it.
  So it is an exciting time as we focus in on Women's History Month 
that we have a time to reflect on great women like Sojourner Truth and 
others who were leading the charge to make sure that women had the 
right to vote and participate in the process.
  I am excited to discuss in that same vein 22 women, and these 22 
women were the founders of my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, 
Incorporated. These 22 women had been part of another sorority and 
decided that they wanted to be more focused on political and social 
issues and created Delta Sigma Theta Sorority at Howard University back 
in 1913, the same year that Judge Jean Murrell Capers was born. Part of 
their first act was to participate in the suffragette march.
  I gave a speech the other day that was interesting in the 
conversation that the people who put the march together, they wanted to 
push all the African American women to the back of the march because 
they knew that they would not be able to vote, but the African American 
women started participating in the march and they said, to heck with 
this, we're going to be at the front. And so they moved around the 
march and moved to the front of the march on behalf of the people that 
are represented. So it was really women who were participating in the 
forefront that clearly had the chance to give us or set the example for 
what we should be able to do.
  I am just so pleased to have had this opportunity on behalf of the 
Congressional Black Caucus to talk about Women's History Month, to talk 
about African American women who have done such a great job in the 
process. I am confident that my colleagues would have been here this 
evening but for other commitments and that is why I have sought to have 
the privilege to have them be able to revise and extend their remarks 
so that they can add information to this particular time.
  It is always great to have a chance to participate in these Special 
Orders on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus; our Chair, Carolyn 
Cheeks Kilpatrick; our Vice Chair, Barbara Lee, who happens to be the 
Speaker in the chair right now.

[[Page H1440]]

  Madam Speaker, with that I am willing to yield back the balance of my 
time such that the next person who has a Special Order can come 
forward. I thank you for the time.

                          ____________________