[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 33 (Thursday, February 26, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1134-S1135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I rise today in partnership with Senator 
Thad Cochran from Mississippi having just submitted a resolution 
recognizing and celebrating Black History Month here in the United 
States of America.
  I wish to take a few moments before that to address an issue that 
very poignantly has been anguishing my heart for my entire life. From 
the time I was growing up in the small town of Harrington Park, NJ, 
through my career in school and college, this has been grieving my 
heart. It has been grieving my heart since I started working in a 
predominantly minority city--a city I love--Newark, NJ.
  I bring this up in the context of a previous speech I gave about our 
broken criminal justice system that makes us singular, among all of 
humanity on planet Earth, for the amount of our population that we 
incarcerate. We have 5 percent of the globe's population but about 25 
percent of all of the globe's imprisoned people. This explosion is not 
consistent with our history. In fact, it is inconsistent with our 
history. It is incongruent with our values. To be very specific, the 
explosion of our prison population is because of the war on drugs.
  The bottom line is that there were fewer people incarcerated in 1980 
for any reason than there are today in prison and jails for drug 
offenses alone. Let me say that again, we have more people incarcerated 
today, either in prisons or in jails, just for drug crimes than all of 
the people incarcerated in the year 1980. In fact, due to this drug war 
our Federal prison population has exploded about 800 percent.
  In the context of what I am about to talk about in this resolution 
recognizing African-American history, I wish to particularly point to 
today this grievous reality that our war on drugs has 
disproportionately affected African Americans, Latinos, minorities, and 
the poor in general.
  It is painful for me to have seen in my lifetime, in the town I grew 
up in or at Stanford or Yale, many of my friends using drugs such as 
marijuana, many of them buying drugs such as marijuana, and many of 
them selling drugs such as marijuana. But the reality is the justice 
system they experienced for breaking the law was very different than 
the justice system I saw in Newark, NJ. The reality is we don't have a 
system of equal justice under law, but a system that disproportionately 
affects minorities in a way that is stunning and an affront to our 
nation's values. Arrest rates for drug use have a disparate impact on 
people of color. There is no questioning that. This is unacceptable. 
When it comes to people who break the law in America, there is actually 
no difference between blacks and whites who have committed drug 
crimes--none whatsoever, but African Americans, for example, when it 
comes to marijuana, are arrested at 3.7 times the rate that whites are 
in this country. While their usages were similar in Newark or Stanford, 
law enforcement has arrested and incarcerated far more minorities 
living in urban communities than whites living in suburban communities.
  Between 2007 and 2009, drug sentences for African American men were 
longer than those for white men. Drug sentences for black men were 13.1 
percent longer for the same crime than those for white men. So not only 
are more African Americans and Latinos and people of color being 
targeted and arrested at higher rates than whites for the same crimes, 
but they are also getting and serving longer sentences.
  Human Rights Watch put it simply. They found that even though the 
majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, three-
quarters of all people imprisoned for drug offenses are minorities. 
This should call out to the conscience of everyone in our country.
  We believe fundamentally, at the core of our American values, in this 
ideal of equal justice under the law. The punishing thing about this is 
that not only are arrest rates higher, not only are they receiving 
longer sentences, but when we get such a disproportionate amount of 
people being arrested and incarcerated, the collateral consequences 
which they see at the end of the system become even more punishing on 
those communities. We now have cities in America that for certain age 
demographics, almost 50 percent of African American men have been 
arrested, and over 40 percent of Latino men have been arrested. And 
what that means is that once someone has a felony conviction for the 
nonviolent use of drugs, one's ability to go to college, to get a Pell 
grant, to get a job, and even to get many business licenses, is 
undermined.
  Right now we see this punishing impact destroying many communities. 
Instead of empowering people to succeed, we are getting people trapped 
in our criminal justice system. Instead of the solid rock of success, 
people are being sucked into the quicksand of a broken criminal justice 
system. For example, the blacks and Latinos in the United States are 29 
percent of the population but make up almost 60 percent of the prison 
population. In New Jersey, blacks and Latinos are 32 percent of

[[Page S1135]]

the total State population, but blacks and Latinos make up 81 percent 
of our prison population.
  An often overlooked group in this discussion on the disproportionate 
impact on minorities is Native Americans. For instance, in North 
Dakota, Native Americans make up 5 percent of the total State 
population but 29 percent of the prison population. These numbers, 
again, go against the truth of who we are as a country.
  So at this moment, when we are celebrating our history, when blacks 
and whites and Christians, Jews, and Muslims come together to advance 
our Nation--indeed, I stand here today because of the collective 
conviction of this country to live up to its values and ideals that all 
of us are created equal under God and that all of us should have an 
equal opportunity to succeed and be seen equally by our government.
  It is at this moment that I say we can and must do better. In fact, 
many States, including red States, led by Republicans, are showing that 
there is a different way. For example, States such as Texas, Georgia, 
and North Carolina are leading on this issue. Texas is known for its 
law and order, but it has made tremendous strides in adopting policies 
that have decreased its prison population and positively affected 
minorities in the State. In fact, the Governor of Georgia continually 
talks about the fact that he has been able to lower his black male 
incarceration rate by about 20 percent over the past 5 years.
  So as I prepare to join with the great Senator from Mississippi, I 
just want to say from the bottom of my heart that it is time to reform 
our legal system to make it truly a justice system. We want it so that 
everyone under the law faces equal treatment and so that we empower our 
entire community in America to be successful, not tie them up 
unnecessarily when even though they have paid the price for their 
crime. Punishment should not haunt someone for the rest of their 
existence.
  I remember these words spoken by the great Langston Hughes, one of 
our great American poets, an African-American man who once said: There 
is a dream in this land with its back against the wall; to save this 
dream for one, we must save it for all.
  This is the dream of America. We can do better. Indeed, many 
communities are committing themselves to creating a justice system 
which we can be proud of. We know in the Senate--Members on both sides 
of the political aisle; whether it is Senator Lee or Senator Durbin or 
whether it is Senator Cornyn or Senator Whitehouse--that together we 
can evidence these values.
  With that, I recognize and yield for a moment to a friend and an 
ally, the Senator from Mississippi, Thad Cochran.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join my friend in 
introducing legislation celebrating Black History Month. This 
opportunity provides us with an excuse, if we need one, to remember the 
challenges and the failures of the past, and the embarrassments and the 
criminalities, and so many challenging and horrible things that have 
characterized the treatment of citizens in the United States with 
injustice, with discrimination, with segregation, and all of the 
horribles we can remember as we contemplate this subject.
  Today, the Senator from Mississippi is joining the Senator from New 
Jersey and others in giving us another opportunity to not only remember 
past injustice and celebrate victories over it but also to commemorate 
contributions being made today throughout our country to ensure 
equality and justice and opportunity for all Americans.
  The rich history we have as a nation should include a promise for the 
future carved by African Americans as central contributors. They were 
here during the darkest times. They are still here, and they are 
continuing to make huge and important contributions to our Nation.
  So I am pleased to join my friend, the distinguished Senator from New 
Jersey, to support the adoption of our resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for 
those good words from my colleague. Truly, they resonate with my heart 
and my spirit. The gravity of this historic moment is not lost on me. 
It is a tribute to his character that he cosponsored this with me, as 
he understands, as he said so clearly, that American history is a 
beautiful mosaic, with contributions from every corner of the globe 
being made in this great country that we call the United States of 
America.
  It is with that spirit and that recollection of our past, with a 
commitment to forge an even brighter future, that I ask unanimous 
consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 
Res. 88, submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 88) Celebrating Black History Month.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. BOOKER. I further ask unanimous consent that the resolution be 
agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 88) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am grateful for that. Again, I thank my 
colleague for his partnership.

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