[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 29, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H10003-H10004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  UNITED STATES CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL SPECIAL RESOURCE STUDY ACT OF 2009

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 685) to require a study of the feasibility of establishing 
the United States Civil Rights Trail System, and for other purposes, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 685

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``United States Civil Rights 
     Trail Special Resource Study Act of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. SPECIAL RESOURCE STUDY REGARDING PROPOSED UNITED 
                   STATES CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL.

       (a) Study Required.--The Secretary of the Interior shall 
     conduct a special resource study for the purpose of 
     evaluating a range of alternatives for protecting and 
     interpreting sites associated with the struggle for civil 
     rights in the United States, including alternatives for 
     potential addition of some or all of the sites to the 
     National Trails System.
       (b) Consultation.--The Secretary shall conduct the special 
     resource study in consultation with appropriate Federal, 
     State, county, and local governmental entities.
       (c) Study Requirements.--The Secretary shall conduct the 
     study required under subsection (a) in accordance with 
     section 8(c) of Public Law 91-383 (16 U.S.C. 1a-5(c)) and 
     section 5(b) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 
     1244(b)), as appropriate.
       (d) Study Objectives.--In conducting the special resource 
     study, the Secretary shall evaluate alternatives for 
     achieving the following objectives:
       (1) Identifying the resources and historic themes 
     associated with the movement to secure racial equality in the 
     United States for African Americans that, focusing on the 
     period from 1954 through 1968, challenged the practice of 
     racial segregation in the Nation and achieved equal rights 
     for all American citizens.
       (2) Making a review of existing studies and reports, such 
     as the Civil Rights Framework Study, to complement and not 
     duplicate other studies of the historical importance of the 
     civil rights movements that may be underway or undertaken.
       (3) Establishing connections with agencies, organizations, 
     and partnerships already engaged in the preservation and 
     interpretation of various trails and sites dealing with the 
     civil rights movement.
       (4) Protecting historically significant landscapes, 
     districts, sites, and structures.
       (5) Identifying alternatives for preservation and 
     interpretation of the sites by the National Park Service, 
     other Federal, State, or local governmental entities, or 
     private and nonprofit organizations, including the potential 
     inclusion of some or all of the sites in a National Civil 
     Rights Trail.
       (6) Identifying cost estimates for any necessary 
     acquisition, development, interpretation, operation, and 
     maintenance associated with the alternatives developed under 
     the special resource study.
       (e) Report.--Not later than 3 years after the date on which 
     funds are made available to carry out this section, the 
     Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Natural Resources 
     of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 
     and Natural Resources of the Senate a report containing the 
     results of the study conducted under subsection (c) and any 
     recommendations of the Secretary with respect to the route.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Guam (Ms. Bordallo) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Guam.


                             General Leave

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Guam?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  We must never forget the struggle for racial equality that spanned 
our Nation in the 1950s and the 1960s nor the people who waged that 
fight to obtain basic civil rights for all Americans.
  The many sites linked to the civil rights movement together tell the 
story of how it profoundly transformed our history.
  H.R. 685, as amended, authorizes the National Park Service to 
complete a Special Resource Study to analyze alternatives and make 
recommendations for the preservation and the interpretation of these 
multiple sites, including a possible national Civil Rights Trail 
linking the sites with common maps, signs, and educational material.
  Mr. Speaker, we commend our distinguished colleague, Representative 
William Lacy Clay, for his vision and dedication to this legislation. 
We support passage of H.R. 685 and urge its adoption by the House 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  H.R. 685 has been adequately explained by chairwoman Bordallo, and we 
thank her for that effort.
  We support the legislation with the understanding that the original 
intent of the bill is being preserved. The National Park Service 
proposed changes that would have prevented the program from focusing on 
the history of the movement to overcome slavery and racial 
discrimination and instead would have directed it to include other 
political causes, and we appreciate that change.
  We agree with the intent of the bill's sponsor, Mr. Clay, that the 
trail system tells the story of the struggle for civil rights based on 
racial equality. We thank Mr. Clay for his leadership and efforts on 
those lines and in bringing this bill forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
author of this legislation, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay).
  Mr. CLAY. First of all, I thank the chairwoman, Ms. Bordallo, as well 
as the ranking member, Mr. Wittman, for their assistance on this 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, as the sponsor of this legislation, along with 
Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee, I am pleased to present H.R. 685 
for consideration by

[[Page H10004]]

the House today. I also want to thank my good friend, chairman of the 
Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, Raul 
Grijalva, for guiding this legislation through the committee process.
  This legislation will fully recognize the remarkable American story 
of the struggle for civil rights. That ongoing journey stretches across 
three centuries through multiple generations and touches every 
American.
  The United States Civil Rights Trail Special Resource Study Act of 
2009 would recognize those brave souls who fought to make the promises 
enshrined in our Constitution ring true. In many places across this 
Nation and for far too long, that story is still incomplete and remains 
largely untold.
  H.R. 685 would authorize a study by the Secretary of the Interior to 
determine the feasibility of establishing a national trail system 
marking the geographic location of historically significant events 
related to the fight for racial equality in the United States.

                              {time}  1415

  The American civil rights movement challenged the practice of racial 
segregation in the Nation and achieved equal rights for all American 
citizens. It is my hope that this bill and the resulting historic civil 
rights trails will tell the full and sometimes painful story of the 
struggle for civil rights. The knowledge and understanding gained from 
the trails will provide this generation and those who follow us with 
tremendous educational opportunities.
  Let me close by urging all of my colleagues to support the bill.
  Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I again urge Members to support this very 
important piece of legislation.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of 
the United States Civil Rights Trail System Act of 2009. I would like 
to commend my colleagues and friends, Congressman William Lacy Clay and 
Congressman Zach Wamp for championing this important legislation.
  The fight for civil rights was one of the most significant social and 
cultural movements in our nation's history. Because of the hundreds and 
thousands of ordinary people with extraordinary vision who participated 
in the Civil Rights Movement, we witnessed a nonviolent revolution 
under the rule of law, a revolution of values and ideas that changed 
this nation forever. We must ensure that the next generation, and the 
current generation, learn and do not forget the story of the Civil 
Rights Movement and the ideals that it strove to achieve. This proposed 
system of trails, would mark the geographic locations in the United 
States of historically significant events tied to the struggles for 
racial equality. I saw firsthand the struggle and the pains that 
ordinary citizens endured at many of these sites to help break down the 
walls of segregation and their efforts must be memorialized and never 
forgotten. It is my hope, and belief, that this trail system will help 
to educate and inspire the next generation of Civil Rights leaders who 
still have many fights ahead of them. This act will help to preserve 
and protect the legacy and the story of the Movement for future 
generations and I urge all of my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 685, the 
United States Civil Rights Trail Act. I joined with my colleague, Mr. 
Clay, to introduce this legislation.
  From 1954 through 1968, many significant events of the Civil Rights 
Movement took place in the United States. On February 1, 1960, in 
Greensboro, North Carolina, four courageous African-American students 
from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College took their 
seats at the lunch counter of the F. W. Woolworth Company, but the 
store refused to serve them at the counter. One of the students stated 
that, ``We believe, since we buy books and papers in other parts of the 
store, we should get served in this part.'' Over the next several days, 
they sat peacefully at the lunch counter in quiet protest, and close to 
a hundred others joined them. Soon, thousands across the South joined 
the students' protest and conducted lunch counter sit-ins of their own.
  While many may only think of events that occurred in southern and 
eastern States, there were important events in other parts of the 
country where individuals overcame injustice. In Washington, D.C., in 
1961, 13 individuals of different races, known as the Freedom Riders, 
boarded a bus bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, in an attempt to 
desegregate places of public accommodations. Their courage and 
sacrifice led to the desegregation of all public places under Title II 
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To learn more about other events, the 
Civil Rights Trail System Act would authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior to study the feasibility of establishing a national trail 
system to mark locations in the United States (including its 
territories) of historically significant events related to the struggle 
for racial equality.
  With this study and the help of an advisory committee of experts in 
historic preservation and African-American history, the Secretary of 
the Interior would provide information about the many people and places 
that played such an important role in the Civil Rights Movement for all 
Americans, and everyone would have the opportunity to stand and breathe 
the air where history was made. The Secretary would first establish at 
least six national trails in States where significant civil rights 
events occurred, with other trails sure to follow as documentation is 
available.
  This legislation provides the U.S. Congress an opportunity to honor 
those who were a part of a movement that ensured that everyone was 
created equal and that everyone had the freedom to achieve the American 
dream. The trail system would serve as a marker for how far our country 
has come and would remain for future generations so that our history is 
accurate and instructive on all that is necessary for justice and 
equality to reign down on our land.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this important 
legislation.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 
685, the United States Civil Rights Trail System Act of 2009. This 
legislation would direct the Archivist of the United States to conduct 
a study of the feasibility of establishing the United States Civil 
Rights Trail System. The State of Georgia is home to numerous historic 
civil rights landmarks including Albany, Georgia, home to the Albany 
Movement, which was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Savannah, 
Georgia, which desegregated public and private facilities eight months 
ahead of federal civil rights legislation. Savannah was once described 
as the most desegregated city south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I strongly 
support H.R. 685 and I urge my colleagues to support this important 
resolution.
  H.R. 685 simply seeks to unify our nation's civil rights landmarks 
through maps and other resources. This will facilitate remembrance of 
the struggles for civil rights based on racial equality as well as 
provide information about the ordinary individuals, some of whom gave 
up their lives, for the right to equal rights. The civil rights 
landmarks highlighted in this trail signify to a period that many here 
today are too young to remember, and would be held as a tribute to a 
historic era. By chronicling such historic civil rights landmarks 
including the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, the Greensboro sit-in, and the 
historic marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, we can bring true 
recognition to the numerous historical sites that led to the passage of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is 
my hope that in the future, we can truly create equality for all. This 
is an important issue and I applaud the efforts of this Congress to 
emphasize the importance of civil rights landmarks around the country.
  Ms. BORDALLO. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 685, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title was amended so as to read: ``A bill to require the 
Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study regarding 
the proposed United States Civil Rights Trail, and for other 
purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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