[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H4969-H4970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, if there is any doubt in the mind of any 
person as to what this Confederate battle flag stands for, I urge 
people not to listen to me. I urge you to listen to the secessionists 
themselves.
  Here is a quote from the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which 
Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal 
Union.
  It reads:

       This sectional combination for the submersion of the 
     Constitution has been aided in some of the States by 
     elevating to citizenship persons who, by the supreme law of 
     the land, are incapable of becoming citizens, and their votes 
     have been used to inaugurate a new policy hostile to the 
     South and the destruction of its beliefs and safety.

  Those persons were Black people. That new policy that was hostile to 
the South was ending the enslavement of the millions of people based on 
their race.
  Here is a quote from the Vice President of the Confederacy. I think 
he can speak authoritatively as to what other Confederate flags mean. 
Vice President Alexander Stephens said:

       Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite of 
     the American idea. Its foundations are laid--its cornerstone 
     rests--upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to 
     the White man, that slavery, subordination to the superior 
     race, is his natural and normal condition.

  That is what the Vice President of the Confederate States said under 
banners like this one as they were fighting and offering the lives of 
their own children to maintain slavery.

                              {time}  1145

  This is what the flag represents.
  I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).
  Mr. CICILLINE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, last night the South Carolina House of Representatives 
finally approved legislation to take down this symbol of hatred and 
bigotry and the darkest time in our Nation's history.
  It is shameful that less than 24 hours after the State of South 
Carolina took this important step for progress and equality that the 
United States House of Representatives would consider an amendment that 
would allow the Confederate flag to be placed in National Park Service 
cemeteries.
  Let's be clear. This amendment is a symbol of hate, and anyone who 
supports its being in a place of honor is imposing an insult on anyone 
who has experienced racism in their lives or believes in America's 
founding principles of equality, justice, and freedom.
  150 years ago hundreds of thousands of brave soldiers died to save 
our Union and to defeat all the ugly beliefs that the Confederate 
battle flag represents.
  Dr. Martin Luther King was fond of saying that the arc of the moral 
universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Our country has come far 
since

[[Page H4970]]

the end of the Civil War, but returning this flag to a place of honor 
would undermine that progress. It is time to relegate this symbol of 
hate to the dustbin of history.
  Take it down.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Swalwell).
  Mr. SWALWELL of California. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for 
leading on this issue.
  It must be throwback Thursday, because just yesterday the South 
Carolina State House voted to take down the Confederate flag. However, 
today our House Republican colleagues want a bill, they want an 
amendment that will put that flag back up and allow people to salute 
that same flag across our country in our national parks.
  It is time to finally, once and for all, take down an ugly flag that 
is nothing more than a tribute to an ugly past. Mr. Speaker, let's 
throw down this flag. Let's not throw back to an ugly part of our 
history.

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