[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 108 (Thursday, July 25, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H5078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          ANNIVERSARY OF APOLOGY FOR SLAVERY AND JIM CROW LAWS

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Monday, July 29, will be the fifth anniversary of the 
passage in this House of the first and only apology for slavery and Jim 
Crow laws in this Nation's history. This Nation had 246 years of 
slavery and over 100 years of Jim Crow.
  The resolution, which passed with only two Republican sponsors, Wayne 
Gilchrist and Phil English, said that we needed to rectify the 
lingering consequences of slavery and Jim Crow. Indeed, we still need 
to. There are many areas in the criminal justice system that show this, 
such as racial profiling, that the likelihood of being arrested for 
marijuana is four times as much if you're African American than white, 
and stiffer sentencing if you are African American. The need for public 
health and public education, and for jobs, more significant, and a much 
lower net worth among African Americans, are all vestiges of Jim Crow 
and slavery.
  As we look toward the fifth anniversary of that resolution and the 
50th anniversary of the march on Washington, both sides of this aisle 
need to look toward the least of these--people who have been 
discriminated against and enslaved by our Nation's laws--and rectify 
those lingering consequences.

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