[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H5017-H5018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS: CONFEDERATE FLAG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hardy). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson 
Coleman) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the distinguished 
gentlewoman from California introduced a privileged resolution, not too 
different from the one my friend and colleague Mr. Thompson brought to 
the floor just last week. Mr. Speaker, that resolution called for the 
immediate removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Capitol 
grounds. And my colleagues across the aisle moved quickly to banish 
that resolution to die in committee.
  Earlier today, the original home of the Confederacy argued, but 
agreed, that the Confederate flag and the history it represents belong 
in a museum. They decided that the flag should not serve as a bright, 
waving reminder of the discrimination and disparity of treatment for 
people of color that still lingers in communities across our country--
hateful sentiments that resulted in the loss of nine lives at Emanuel 
AME Church in Charleston.
  They decided that that flag should not hang high above the halls of 
State government, forcing all those who see it to wonder whether the 
emotions and ideology so closely tied to it are present in the hearts 
and minds of those who serve in that statehouse.
  They decided that the flag had flown long enough, and that taking it 
down would be one small but critical step in healing the deep divisions 
present in their State.
  They stood against the symbol of bigotry, they stood against years of 
complacency, and they stood for the principles of equality, justice, 
and unity for this Nation. They will take that flag down tomorrow.
  But Republican leadership in this body refuses to do that. They took 
the path of cowardice and turned a blind eye to the struggles of 
generations of Americans. They used backhanded tactics last night to 
muddle the language of the Interior and Environment Appropriations 
bill, including language intended to satisfy Members who would rather 
see that flag fly.
  The fallout from that language led to the disappearance of that bill 
from today's scheduled debate and resulted in the chairman of that 
subcommittee disowning the final product.
  Leader Pelosi's resolution offered another opportunity for my 
colleagues across the aisle to stand on the right side of history, but 
they turned that chance down resoundingly.
  Mr. Speaker, let's not mince words. While I stand with my brothers 
and sisters of the South, the Confederacy itself fell far below even 
common decency for fellow man, violating human rights and taking 
advantage of every part of the lives of the men and women they 
enslaved, sometimes for profit and sometimes purely for pleasure.
  The Confederacy used extreme violence and terrorism to subjugate 
millions purely on the basis of the color of their skin, and started 
the deadliest war ever to take place on U.S. soil to defend a 
disgraceful system. That flag is a symbol of the Confederacy's effort 
to keep that system intact. That is why, Mr. Speaker, before the 
holiday, I stood in this very spot on the floor to denounce the hate, 
bigotry, malice, discrimination, and division that the Confederate flag 
stands for.
  But I also reminded my colleagues that a symbol, while significant, 
is only a stand-in for something far stronger. A symbol will never have 
the strength of a bullet fired from the barrel of a policeman's gun at 
an unarmed Black man because of ingrained bias. A symbol will never 
have the impact of a prison sentence that permanently prevents a young 
person from becoming a full-fledged member of society, a fate far more 
likely to befall a person of color. A symbol will never eradicate Black 
and Latino wealth like the predatory loan structures that put their 
homes underwater in a recession at rates that dwarfed their White 
peers.
  But if we are not even willing to get rid of a symbol, as this body 
has so clearly expressed its disinterest in doing, how can we possibly 
move on to the real underlying problems, issues like education for 
young people, affordable housing, and access and training for jobs.
  Removing a symbol is an easy thing to do, an easy thing that would 
have signaled one country, indivisible, with liberty and justice for 
all.
  Today, Republican Members across the aisle did more than just stand 
up for that symbol of hate and that symbol of degradation. These 
Members treated me and those issues that are vitally important and 
extremely sensitive to me in a manner that was both disrespectful, 
insensitive, and very hurtful, Mr. Speaker.

                              {time}  1915

  Nonetheless, this will not go away. We will continue to raise this 
issue every day that it is needed, every week that it is needed, every 
month that it is needed, until my colleagues can recognize that a 
simple act of decency, the removal of this symbol of hate and 
disrespect and slavery, a mark on our history that needs to be removed.
  Once we do that, Mr. Speaker, once we do that simple, little thing, 
and that is to stand together in taking down that ugly symbol that that 
flag represents, then we will be able to get on with the serious and 
important work that needs to be done to lift up this economy on behalf 
of all people.
  That will be education for all people, and higher education that is 
affordable for all people, Mr. Speaker. It will be affordable housing. 
It will be jobs and job training. It will be adequate preschool 
programs and afterschool programs. It will be recreation programs and 
character-building programs.
  It will be safe communities. It will be equal opportunity for all 
because that is the country that we live in, and that is the reason 
that we have this Congress, and that is the reason that I am here.
  I, for one, will not be silent on this issue until we see this change 
that the 21st century demands.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra).
  Mr. BECERRA. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for yielding, 
and I stand with her and what she has just said.
  Mr. Speaker, sometimes, we forget how privileged we are, the Members 
of Congress, who have a chance to stand in this hallowed Chamber. We 
are the representatives of the people. We get elected to speak for the 
American people. We get elected to act on behalf of the American 
people.
  Very few Americans, throughout the history of our country, have had 
an opportunity to stand right here where we are today and say that we 
actually can get things done, not just for the American people, for the 
people of the world, because there has never been a democracy like the 
United States of America.
  There has never been a country that has had an opportunity to do so 
much for so many, and there has never been a democracy that has a 
chance to prove to the world that we know how to get this done and do 
it right.
  Mr. Speaker, as we stand here in this Chamber, we have to admit, we 
have to be prepared on behalf of the American people to stand up, to 
step up, to do what is right, and to do what the American people expect 
us to do.
  Now, they know we have to speak for them, but they don't want us just 
to talk. The time to just talk on so many issues has come and gone.
  Mr. Speaker, I think the American public would agree that the time to 
just talk about what to do about the Confederate battle flag has come 
and gone. The time to just talk about what to do about the Confederate 
battle flag came 150 years ago when the chance to heal was upon us.
  As President Lincoln said in his second inaugural address: ``With 
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we 
are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.''
  If we needed to talk, Abraham Lincoln said it all. Lincoln wanted us 
to act, to move, to get things done for the American people.
  The time to talk came after one after another Black church was 
suspiciously burned down throughout this country, and we knew something 
was going on.

[[Page H5018]]

That was the time to talk about what we needed to do.
  The time to talk was before a man, driven by hate and animosity, on 
June 17, entered Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South 
Carolina, to carry out a vicious plan to start a race war--because we 
have seen these signs of danger growing for the disregard for life.
  That would have been a time to talk and heal, before that man, crazed 
with hate, walked into Mother Emanuel Church; but, Mr. Speaker, after 
nine innocent, God-loving, God-fearing Americans were taken from their 
families, from their church where they were praying, from their 
country, the time to just talk is over.
  It is time for us to step up. It is time for us to stand up because 
that is why we get elected, to do what the people expect us, on their 
behalf, to do.
  320 million Americans cannot get up and say, It is time to remove the 
Confederate battle flag from any grounds where we reflect the 
governance of a democracy. They encharge us to do that, and the time to 
talk has ended.
  When we see on the floor of the House, last night, an opportunity for 
the Congress to register itself and say, We hear you, America, you want 
us to act, and you want us to take down that Confederate battle flag in 
whatever symbolic way we can, including selling that symbol here in the 
Capitol, we had an opportunity.
  In fact, we had an opportunity that was golden because it seemed like 
we had a bipartisan vote to do exactly that; but, in the dead of night, 
something happened. Some people decided to hide behind the dark cloud 
and change what we had just done.
  When we take to the floor here, we may only be talking, but as my 
colleague from New Jersey said, we are going to do much more because 
the time to talk has just ended. It is time to act. It is time to step 
up.
  We all have an opportunity. We all have an obligation to stand up.
  Tomorrow morning, at 10, the Confederate battle flag will finally 
come down from above the South Carolina Capitol once and for all. Mr. 
Speaker, the Confederate battle flag has no place but a museum in the 
21st century.
  Let us all together, those of us privileged to be in this Chamber, 
along with our fellow Americans, forge a path forward as a Nation that 
celebrates our bright future, not our dark past. It is time to take the 
Confederate battle flag down. It is time for us to step up.
  It is not a time to hide behind procedural motions, behind votes in 
the dead of night, and it certainly is not time for us to assemble a 
bipartisan group of Members to talk about what we need to do about the 
Confederate battle flag.
  It is time to do the work of the people, and they want us to act. 
There should be no doubt about it. The American people are speaking 
very forcefully. Don't just talk; act.
  Mr. Speaker, I say with great pride, having served in this Chamber 
for many years, I believe the people's Representatives in the people's 
House are getting ready to act; and no act during the dead of night, no 
effort to derail this effort will succeed because the people have 
spoken and spoken in the words of the nine people who are no longer 
with us.
  We do it with grace, but we will do it with power because we 
understand this is not a time to just talk; it is a time to act--and we 
will act.
  I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Representative Becerra, thank you so much for 
taking your time and being here with us today, and thank you so much 
for your eloquent words.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Hahn).
  Ms. HAHN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also thank the gentlewoman 
from New Jersey for allowing me to add my voice to this discussion.
  Certainly, all Americans were devastated by the brutal murder of nine 
people, including Senator Pinckney, while they were attending Wednesday 
night Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Their 
killer was motivated by racism, bigotry, and even had pictures of 
himself displaying Confederate memorabilia.
  The people of South Carolina and their political representatives have 
engaged in serious conversations about race, about healing, and how to 
deal with their State's history.
  South Carolina's Governor signed a bill a few hours ago to take down 
that Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the State capitol 
where it has flown for 50 years, and as South Carolina was moving to 
take down that flag, some right here were moving in the opposite 
direction.
  Earlier today, I took to this House floor to express my outrage that 
my friends on the other side of the aisle had offered a surprise 
amendment last night to allow the Confederate battle flag to be 
displayed in our national parks and at Federal cemeteries, just a 
couple of days after this body voted to remove that Confederate battle 
flag from our national parks.
  Many of my colleagues, including those participating in this Special 
Order tonight, joined in speaking out; and as a result, I think we 
succeeded in stopping them from bringing that amendment to a vote.
  We are here now because we recognize that it is not enough to keep 
the Confederate flag from being displayed or sold at national parks. 
Right now, here on the grounds of the United States Capitol, where we 
and our staffs work and visitors from all over come to visit, the 
Confederate battle flag and other images of the Confederacy are still 
visible; and that, we believe now, is unacceptable.
  I am proud to serve in the United States House of Representatives, 
which is known as the people's House; yet here in the hallways of our 
office buildings and elsewhere in the House of Representatives, 
including this side of the Capitol Building, there are State flags on 
display which include imagery of the Confederacy.
  Many of the residents of the wonderfully diverse district which I 
represent in California and many other Americans from all across our 
country find these images offensive, insulting, painful, even 
threatening.
  If we are to truly be representative of the people and if we want the 
people, all of the people of this great Nation, to feel welcome and 
comfortable here in the people's House, then we cannot continue to have 
divisive symbols associated with hatred, with bigotry and oppression on 
public display.
  Therefore, let me add my voice to those of my colleagues in calling 
for the removal from the House of Representatives of any flag 
containing any portion of that Confederate battle flag.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. I thank the gentlewoman from California for 
sharing her wisdom with us and her encouragement.
  Mr. Speaker, I really am touched by what we experienced in 
Charleston, South Carolina, the kind of grace and mercy that the 
families of those who were felled by this domestic terrorist on the 
church in Charleston, South Carolina.
  I know that, even in this Chamber, there are friends that I have 
across the aisle who would gladly vote with me and vote with my 
colleagues to remove that flag and that imagery and that symbolism from 
any of our government properties if they would simply be given the 
chance.
  In honor and respect of the loss of life and the grace and mercy and 
the healing and forgiveness that was demonstrated by the families of 
those who lost their lives in Charleston, South Carolina, and in 
recognition of the courageous steps that the South Carolinians did in 
voting to take down that flag and for the Governor to sign that and to 
watch, tomorrow, when history is being made, to take down that flag, I 
pray that our House is given the opportunity to vote our conscience 
because I know that I have colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
that feel the same way that I do, that believe in the greatness of this 
country and that believe in justice and liberty for all and believe 
that those symbols that remind us of the mistakes that we have made 
belong in the annals of history, to be remembered, but never to be 
repeated.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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