[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 170 (Monday, October 23, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H8066-H8074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CIVIL RIGHTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mast). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. VEASEY. 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 subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to
coanchor this CBC Special Order hour. Also, I want to acknowledge the
chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Mr. Cedric Richmond, from the
State of Louisiana, and other Members who are here to participate. For
the next 60 minutes, we have a chance to speak directly to the American
people on issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus,
the constituents that we all represent in our various districts.
For this particular Special Order hour, I am going to open it up and
begin to talk about something that is very important and has been
widely discussed within the Congressional Black Caucus, and that is
civil rights and some of the things that we are worried about that are
going on within the Justice Department.
We have several important Members here to speak on these. Before I go
any further, I want to go ahead and recognize them. The first speaker
we have is from the State of South Carolina, representing that State's
Sixth Congressional District, and also our caucus' assistant leader.
That is Mr. Jim Clyburn.
I thank Representative Clyburn for joining and being a part of this
Special Order hour to talk about this subject matter that is very
important to so many members of the Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Clyburn).
(Mr. CLYBURN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding to me.
I also thank him and our colleague, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice
Johnson, for joining me at the Center for African American Studies at
the University of Texas at Arlington last Thursday evening. It was a
wonderful experience for me. President Vistasp Karbhari, Dr. Jason
Skelton, and my longtime friend, Dr. Marvin Delaney, were perfect
hosts.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, Sergeant La David T. Johnson died a
hero's death in a distant land on a mission few Americans know about or
understand. This weekend, his grieving family, including his pregnant
wife, took him to his final resting place in Florida. Sergeant
Johnson's tragic death leaves this young family fatherless.
Mr. Speaker, in his second inaugural address, President Abraham
Lincoln called on our Nation to endeavor to care for him who shall have
borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.
Unfortunately, rather than comfort Sergeant Johnson's grieving
family, the current occupant of the White House has chosen to use them
as his latest prop in his constant effort to sow discord and division
in this country.
The President and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who happens
to be a four-star general, have insulted and smeared an honorable
public servant who happens to be a five-star Congresswoman, and, in
effect, called her and her grieving widow constituent liars.
Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson has been a champion for the people
of south Florida for decades. It is no mystery--and it was not
political--that she was accompanying Mrs. Johnson and her family to
receive her husband's remains. She had mentored Sergeant Johnson
throughout his childhood.
I have participated in several of Congresswoman Wilson's 500 Role
Models events and have spoken for one of their graduations. I also wear
this red tie to this floor helping her highlight their efforts. Her
passionate work on behalf of those kidnapped girls of Boko Haram is
unmatched.
As the husband of a five-star African-American woman for more than 56
years and the father of three African-American daughters who are
working hard to earn their stars every day, I feel compelled to respond
to General Kelly and completely disregard his concocted
misrepresentations.
Mr. Speaker, we can have political differences here in Washington.
That comes with the territory. But people need to have the common
decency and basic humanity to refrain from exacerbating the pain of
those already suffering so much. I was taught from childhood that
silence gives consent. I want the White House to know this: I and the
members of the Congressional Black Caucus will not be silent, and we
will not be silenced.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina
(Mr. Clyburn) very much for his timely and very serious comments. I
hope that all of the Members who are here on both sides of the aisle
realize the seriousness of the comments. There is nothing humorous
about them all, nothing to be smiling or laughing about. It is very
timely in light of the unfortunate incident that happened with our
colleague. I thank the gentleman very much for bringing that to light.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to my fellow Texan from the 18th
Congressional District in Houston. I thank very much
[[Page H8067]]
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee for joining us this evening. We look
forward to the gentlewoman's words.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager, Mr. Veasey, for
his leadership, his sensitivities, his sensibilities, and his empathy,
knowing his distinguished wife and the leadership she gives to the
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. I am sure that there are many
women in the gentleman's family, and I know that he has a great honor
and respect for them.
It is appropriate to follow the leader, Mr. Clyburn, who is vested in
the storied history of African Americans from the East to the West,
North to the South. He often diminishes his status by saying that he
was raised in a parish house, but when he eloquently rises to the floor
to defend, all eyes and all ears are tuned to him.
Now, I want to adhere to our discussion today because it is extremely
important, and to also acknowledge my colleagues. So let me hurry
through my comments. I do want to acknowledge the chair of the
Congressional Black Caucus, Cedric Richmond. I thank the women of the
caucus for their eloquent and pointed statement regarding the series of
events that has occurred.
Let me, first of all, say that our topic today deals with a retracing
of the horrible history that was perpetrated under FBI Director Hoover
for the decades that he served in that capacity. So as I label what it
is, let me just for a moment deviate to what happened this weekend. I
believe that the FBI personnel, through much of its history, were
mostly men--fine men--who wanted to protect this Nation. But you see,
Mr. Speaker, I have firsthand knowledge of the devastation of FBI
surveillance way before the word ``terrorism'' became part of our
normal discussion or language.
So I want to put a pause there and say that in the history of African
Americans, we have been subjected to name-calling. That is what happens
to you when, in the Constitution, you are not a complete human being.
That is what happens to you even after the Emancipation Proclamation
and the short-lived Reconstruction, the Nation rushed toward the
hanging fruit, Jim Crowism, and the rampant murder of African Americans
in the Deep South, some of the very States in which the President stood
and called young African-American men sons of Bs.
There is another name-calling. So it seems that even as we have gone
through the transition of freedom and we came through the 20th century
with civil rights, and then affirmative action, that name-calling seems
to be the welcomed and accepted tactic to use with people of color and,
in this instance, African Americans.
What would be the explanation for the unseemly events that occurred
around a grieving mother, aunt, uncle, and a grieving widow with
beautiful children who no longer have their dad?
I offer my sympathy to Sergeants Wright, Black, La David Johnson, and
Jeremiah Johnson.
So how their loss, through no fault of their own, in the battle for
this Nation turned into an ugly name-calling, I am baffled, except for
the fact that it is easy to call African Americans names. It is easy
for some White Americans to call African Americans names.
When we are on the floor of the House and we say things that are
untoward in some segments of the population, our phones ring off the
hook with the N word, N word, N word. I don't know how many of my
friends who are not people of color--I am sure we all say things that
people disagree with, and I don't know whether they call up and call
them White, White, White.
You see, race is something that we are fearful of discussing, and
that is because the thought would be: Here she goes again.
But there is a great love--my interaction, my life's history is with
the diversity of this world, from White Caucasians, Anglos in Texas, to
Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and beyond in various religious.
I feel comfortable in my soul.
But this weekend was the most difficult time for African-American
women who are--in the category of casting, the caste system--at the
bottom of the totem pole. Even today, the likes of Harriet Tubman,
Sojourner Truth, Mae Jemison, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan,
doctors, lawyers, and others, we are at the bottom.
So there was much latitude--uncontrolled latitude--in name-calling.
Forty-five mentioning untoward words about our colleague, Congresswoman
Wilson: name-calling. Nobody--there is no retribution or reprimand.
None of his constituents would give a hoot. But it was name-calling.
Mr. Speaker, you don't know how many people stop me in airports,
along the road, hurt and appalled. Let me just come to a close on that.
First of all, Congressman Clyburn has already given the attributes of
Congresswoman Wilson. I do want to add that she is a principal. She is
an old-fashioned principal, though she is a young woman.
{time} 1945
She loved her students. She implemented the 5000 Role Models. She
took the children as family, and Sergeant David Johnson was one of
those. So if people don't understand the cultural distinctions in the
African-American community, we are aunts and uncles without bloodline.
We are Godparents. We are family.
Her presence in that car was not as an interloper. She didn't break
the door down. She was in there as family. She was not eavesdropping.
The phone was on. As indicated by Mrs. Johnson's interview, she asked
the phone to be put on speaker.
It seems that her offense in breaking down moved the Representative
to articulate, probably seeking some humanity, to say: Can you just, if
you hear my words, apologize?
That never happened. The untruth spread all over. You see, as an
African-American woman, you don't have to worry about saying the truth
about us. We are various names--sons of Bs--and we have got all kinds
of disturbing situations going on with names that we can be called. And
that is what this White House did.
My dear friend, who I knew in the Southern Command, that is what
happens when you are here for just a few years. He had great leadership
and loss. I was here when that happened. And I don't want to spend a
moment to diminish his status as a Gold Star parent. He has a right to
mourn and to speak of his loss.
But then, when you are forced to step from that humble position over
to an untruth, you can do it to a Black woman. They have no power. I
can talk something that doesn't have any truth, because I have to
defend--and this is said lovingly--a White man who happens to be in the
Oval Office.
We don't count. We are the largest group of active, civic women in
all kinds of organizations. If there is something being done--first of
all, it is women overall, I love them all, but you will see the
African-American woman--she is in there scrubbing, she is in there
teaching, she is in there handling the religious institutions, she is
standing by babies, and she is standing by young people.
She is a civil rights activist, she is a scientist, she is a doctor.
She is president of various organizations. She is just in there.
That is what happened that has brought me to this point that what we
have now is so dangerous. I hope before the end of the week--maybe
before the end of tomorrow--my good friend, General Kelly, seeks to
apologize for the distortion. He didn't have to defend a person who
does it in his own way and besmirch all of the Gold Star families and
this young mother who has not been able to see her son.
Mr. Speaker, I know there are many of us who served in this Congress
who have seen their brethren fall. They have been injured. What is it
like for their family not to be able to see the body? What is it like
to know that the person's body was not found for 48 hours?
I am going to get to an end for my colleagues. I just want to say
this. There are those of us who know about the African Command. There
are those of us who know the soldiers there. The Congressional Black
Caucus was instrumental when George Bush said that an African Command
needs to stand up when Charles Taylor was killing his citizens in
Liberia.
I know it firsthand. I have been to all those countries. I know ISIL
was connected with Boko Haram. We have been trying to say it, but
people have deaf ears, maybe because it is Africa.
[[Page H8068]]
Now, all of a sudden we are awake. Congresswoman Wilson knew that.
She has been there. We have been there. Why don't people listen to
Black women who know what they are talking about, along with our
distinguished colleagues?
This document that I hold in my hand, ``Black Identity Extremists
Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers,'' I have a lot to
say on, but I am going to summarize.
As a member of the Judiciary Committee, this is name-calling. We just
got through a reckless weekend of name-calling of a distinguished
Member of Congress.
This is name-calling. This is the FBI defining BIEs as individuals
who seek, through unlawful acts of force or violence, a response to
perceived racism and injustice.
But do you know what will happen, Mr. Speaker? This will be a big
fishnet: the high school student who is getting his fists up; the
college student who is rallying around in opposition to racism; the
students down in Charlottesville who may believe they should stand up
and be counted.
I know this, Mr. Speaker, because, with a little bit of humor, I am
young, going backwards, but I served on the Select Committee on
Assassinations that investigated the assassination of Martin Luther
King--the reopening of the investigation--along with John F. Kennedy.
I was immersed in the files of COINTELPRO. I saw how the FBI dogged a
modern-day prophet, a man who only wanted peace and believed in the
beloved community. Yes, he was human. When you dog someone, you can
find them throwing gum on a sidewalk.
Dr. Martin Luther King was subjected to the COINTEL program. It was
dastardly and devastating, and may have been the basis of the loss of
his life. If he was subjected to the COINTEL program, we always
wondered why he couldn't have been in another hotel.
So the danger of this document that has come under Donald Trump and
not under any other President--not Bill Clinton, not George Bush, not
President Obama--as I understand it, but it came in August of this
year, under President Trump, the same President who could find nothing
distinctive between the alt-right and racist vileness talking about
Jews and Blacks and everybody else in Charlottesville. There were good
people on both sides.
Now we have this document. Lo and behold, what other names of Black
activists and African Americans still fighting the war of civil rights
peacefully may be caught up in this large net?
Again, I want to be able to say my respect for the service of FBI
agents. They are friends of mine. I am on the Judiciary Committee. They
are friends to all of us. We continue to salute their service. But this
document is a riotous document.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I include in the Record: ``The History of
Surveillance and the Black Community.'' It goes into the discussion.
[From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, February 13, 2014]
The History of Surveillance and the Black Community
(By Dia Kayyali)
February is Black History Month and that history is
intimately linked with surveillance by the federal government
in the name of ``national security.'' Indeed, the history of
surveillance in the African-American community plays an
important role in the debate around spying today and in the
calls for a congressional investigation into that
surveillance. Days after the first NSA leaks emerged last
June, EFF called for a new Church Committee. We mentioned
that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the targets of
the very surveillance that eventually led to the formation of
the first Church Committee. This Black History Month, we
should remember the many African-American activists who were
targeted by intelligence agencies. Their stories serve as
cautionary tales for the expanding surveillance state.
The latest revelations about surveillance are only the most
recent in a string of periodic public debates around domestic
spying perpetrated by the NSA, FBI, and CIA. This spying has
often targeted politically unpopular groups or vulnerable
communities, including anarchists, anti-war activists,
communists, and civil rights leaders.
60s. COINTELPRO, short for Counter Intelligence Program,
was started in 1956 by the FBI and continued until 1971. The
program was a systemic attempt to infiltrate, spy on, and
disrupt activists in the name of ``national security.'' While
it initially focused on the Communist Party, in the 1960s its
focus expanded to include a wide swathe of activists, with a
strong focus on the Black Panther Party and civil rights
leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
FBI papers show that in 1962 ``the FBI started and rapidly
continued to gravitate toward Dr. King.'' This was ostensibly
because the FBI believed black organizing was being
influenced by communism. In 1963 FBI Assistant Director
William Sullivan recommended ``increased coverage of
communist influence on the Negro.'' However, the FBI's goal
in targeting Dr. King was clear: to find ``avenues of
approach aimed at neutralizing King as an effective Negro
leader,'' because the FBI was concerned that he might become
a ``messiah.''
The FBI subjected Dr. King to a variety of tactics,
including bugging his hotel rooms, photographic surveillance,
and physical observation of King's movements by FBI agents.
The FBI's actions went beyond spying on Dr. King, however.
Using information gained from that surveillance, the FBI sent
him anonymous letters attempting to ``blackmail him into
suicide.'' The agency also attempted to break up his marriage
by sending selectively edited ``personal moments he shared
with friends and women'' to his wife.
The FBI also specifically targeted the Black Panther Party
with the intention of destroying it. They infiltrated the
Party with informants and subjected members to repeated
interviews. Agents sent anonymous letters encouraging
violence between street gangs and the Panthers in various
cities, which resulted in ``the killings of four BPP members
and numerous beatings and shootings,'' as well as letters
sowing internal dissension in the Panther Party. The agency
also worked with police departments to Department that aided
in a raid on BPP leader Fred Hampton's apartment. The raid
ended with the Chicago Police shooting Hampton dead.
The FBI was not alone in targeting civil rights leaders.
The NSA also engaged in domestic spying that included Dr.
King. In an eerily prescient statement, Senator Walter
Mondale said he was concerned that the NSA ``could be used by
President `A' in the future to spy upon the American people,
to chill and interrupt political dissent.''
The Church Committee was created in response to these and
other public scandals, and was charged with getting to the
bottom of the government's surveillance overreach. In
response to its findings, Congress passed new laws to provide
privacy safeguards, including the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. But ever since these safeguards were put in
place, the intelligence community has tried to weaken or
operate around them. The NSA revelations show the urgent need
to reform the laws governing surveillance and to rein in the
intelligence community.
Today we're responding to those domestic surveillance
abuses by an unrestrained intelligence branch. The overreach
we've seen in the past underscores the need for reform.
Especially during Black History Month, let's not forget the
speech-stifling history of US government spying that has
targeted communities of color.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. It says: ``We mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., was one of the targets of the very surveillance that eventually
led to the formation of the first Church Committee. This Black History
Month, we should remember the many African-American activists who were
targeted by intelligence agencies. Their stories serve as cautionary
tales for the expanding surveillance state.''
Where are the conservatives to stand up against this document? We can
be safe, we can have the First Amendment, and we speak our different
issues, but now we are going to entrap African Americans--young men who
are kneeling because of their concern for police reform and violence
that has taken the lives of African-American young men.
There are so many law enforcement officers who agree with me on the
idea of police reform to help all of us work together. We are not
divided, but we will stay divided with a document that is going to
label us.
Where is the document for the alt-right, the religious right, the
White supremacists? Where is that?
When are we going to understand that the calling of names--in our
community, we call it calling me out of my name--by the majority
community is a carryover from slavery and Jim Crow.
I am saddened by the last couple of days of steering away from the
mourning of those wonderful heroes who reflected the greatness of
America. They reflected what young men and women do who are willing to
sacrifice their lives. They go without a recognition of what color
their fellow soldier is. We honor them with no distinction.
That is what the last couple of days should have been about, as well
as the loving care of that widow and the families of the other young
men. Yet, in the
[[Page H8069]]
spirit of the FBI COINTEL program, that may be the downfall, again, of
those of us trying to heal and not reflecting on how the best way to
deal with those who would do us harm violently, of which I stand
against, we are now in the midst of name-calling.
I go to my seat mourning. When is America going to change?
On August 3, 2017, the FBI released their new ``Intelligence
Assessment'' report entitled: Black Identity Extremists (BIE) Likely
Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers''.
The FBI defines BIE as individuals who seek, through unlawful acts of
force or violence, a response to ``perceived'' racism and injustice in
American society.
The FBI also indicates, there is a desire for black physical or
psychological separation based on religious or political beliefs
grounded in racial superiority or supremacy.
Blacks fought for America long before it was a country,
prerevolutionary period, where during the first 100 years of conflict
we stepped up; and will continue, for equality and justice.
Blacks led civil rights movement winning double victories in both
World War II and the Jim Crow era, forcing our then President Truman,
to announced that ``there are no justifiable reasons for discrimination
because of one's ancestry, or religion, or race, or color of his
skin.''
Today, Trump's FBI believes that the African American community's
reality is a mere perception as it relates to the racism and injustice
that plague our communities. Why?
The FBI has consistently relied upon a flawed system to determine the
number of people killed by officers. This flawed system is shaped by
``voluntary law enforcement compliance''--in other words, police
departments need not report this stat.
``The Counted'' launched by the Guardian, is a public-service project
tallying deaths of unarmed persons by law enforcement. They reached a
tally of 1,068 at the start of 2015.
Former FBI Director Comey said, this was embarrassing and
unacceptable that a Guardian U.S. investigative unit had a better tally
than his agency's near 35,000 employees.
There is no reliable mechanism to accurately depict the true
dimensions of an epidemic of lethal violence, force, and shootings
committed by police across this country on unarmed civilians.
The reality is Sandra Bland died while in the custody of law
enforcement; Michael Brown was gunned down in the street by law
enforcement; Eric Garner died from a chokehold at the hands of law
enforcement; Freddie Gray died while being transported in the custody
of law enforcement; Tamir Rice was shot dead by a law enforcement
officer previously deemed an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for
duty; and Laquan McDonald shot in the back and killed by law
enforcement officers.
These are just a few of the innocent lives robbed and thus, gone too
soon. These are the realities not perceptions that young activists in
their own modern ways represent, whether it's marching, protesting with
passion, or even taking a knee.
They are protesting unapologetically with great passion and hunger
for justice, but nonetheless, peacefully.
They are not killing others who do not agree with them; nor are they
inflicting violence due to religion, nationality and race.
Therefore, it is highly insensitive, offensive and blatantly
discriminative and unconstitutional to mount a counter intelligence
program, now COINTELPRO 2.0, to once again, aggressively target a race
that merely seeks justice and equality it is entitled under our
Constitution.
According to sources close to the FBI, the term ``Black Identity
Extremists'' did not exist before the Trump administration. The FBI
named BIE, a major threat to national security and public safety,
thereby, criminalizing black activism.
The newly coined term, black identity extremists (BIE) is such a
vague terminology that it invites alarming abuse of a specific race's
constitutional rights based solely on an Administration's disturbed and
visceral approach to race relations.
Under FBI Director Edgar Hoover's leadership, the Counter
Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), a covert, often illegal, campaign
was mounted to break up the civil rights movement and ``neutralize''
activists they perceived as threatening.
COINTELPRO was used to surveil and discredit civil rights activists,
members of the Black Panther Party and any major advocates for the
rights of black people in our nation's history.
COINTELPRO allowed the FBI to falsify letters in an effort to
blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into silence.
This was such a disgraceful period in our nation's history that our
recent FBI Director, James Comey, kept a copy of a 1963 order
authorizing Hoover to conduct round-the-clock surveillance of Martin
Luther King Jr. on his desk as a reminder of Hoover's abuses.
The FBI's dedicated surveillance of black activists follows a long
history of the U.S. government aggressively monitoring protest
movements and working to disrupt civil rights groups, but the scrutiny
of African Americans by a domestic terrorism unit was particularly
alarming to some free speech campaigners.
This administration continues the same vile tactics used in well-
documented stories of civil rights leaders who were profiled, targeted
and killed for insisting that black people receive equitable treatment
under the law in a country whose Constitution guarantees it.
Today the FBI continues its once intrusive, abhorrent and illegal
targeting of black activists by labeling the Black Lives Matter
movement as BIE.
We know that the Department of Homeland Security has been surveilling
Black Lives Matter activists since 2014, but there's no way to know
what's next.
With this recent report, the FBI has legitimized the idea that black
activism is a threat and should be treated accordingly, with violent
force.
Despite Charlottesville and all the other harms inflicted by
emboldened white nationalists, the FBI has instead, chosen to target a
group of American citizens whom merely decry the injustice seen and
felt throughout their communities.
Despite numerous unarmed black individuals, particularly, young black
men that are disproportionately the victims of police shootings, the
FBI would like us to believe this is not a reality.
Instead, the FBI's report claims there is a danger in black activism
by asserting that violence inflicted on black people at the hands of
police is ``perceived'' or ``alleged,'' not real.
This month the Congressional Black Caucus has written to the FBI
Director, Christopher Wray, to express our concern over the recent
``Intelligence Assessment'' report.
We have requested a briefing on both the origins of its research and
the FBI's next intended step based on its findings. No response as of
date.
We should be allowed to exercise our constitutional and fundamental
rights of free speech.
We should not be restricted and criminalized when we demand that
those we elect to office exercise justice and fairness.
This FBI report will further inflame an already damaged police/
community relation under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff
Sessions.
Sessions has dismantled all the safeguards installed under Attorney
General Holder's leadership, thus, returning our justice system to the
broken system under Ashcroft.
Session has unleashed a merciless approach to ``all'' crimes
including low level drug-related cases, and demands that his attorneys
prosecute every case to the fullest extent of the law.
In doing so, Session has taken away any prosecutorial discretion once
available to prosecutors throughout our justice system under U.S. law.
The FBI in this Trump Administration has returned to the era of
Director Edgar Hoover, in their unleashing of this damaging,
discriminative, and unconstitutional COINTELPRO 2.0.
With these lethal forms of attacks on the African American community
from both the DOJ and the FBI, where is justice?
Mr. VEASEY. I thank my colleague from the 18th Congressional District
for her comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), my
friend and classmate who represents the 10th Congressional District.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the Lone Star
State, my classmate, Congressman Veasey, for hosting tonight's Special
Order hour.
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this
position where the lines are being so blurred that Gold Star families
have come into this political discussion and are being dragged into
this, unwillingly, over the past several days.
I have great respect for General Kelly and was very delighted to see
him get the job as Chief of Staff so that he could maybe bring some
semblance of calm and normalcy to the White House, but it seems like he
has been infected by the disease that is the scourge in the White
House.
There is no reason for him to fabricate what one of our colleagues
said. The videotape is there. She never did one thing that General
Kelly said she did on that fateful day in the dedication to that FBI
building.
I don't understand what is going on with people these days, but these
are the times we find ourselves in.
Mr. Speaker, as much as we would like to live in a colorblind
society, in an America where people should be judged by the content of
their character and not the color of their skin,
[[Page H8070]]
we aren't there yet. Race, unfortunately, still matters.
Juries devalue Black lives by punishing offenders more harshly when
their victims are White than when their victims are Black. Police are
more likely to use force when interacting with Black people than when
interacting with White people. Emergency room doctors are less likely
to prescribe pain medication to Black patients than to Whites.
Results from psychological studies of racial bias have shown that
nearly 90 percent of the White people in the United States who have
taken the implicit-association test have an inherent racial preference
for White people over Black people. Oh, yes, race matters in America,
and we have got to talk about it.
It should not take a crisis for the United States to discuss race and
the effects of stereotypes that are baked into our national cultural.
We should not have to wait for a police officer to shoot an unarmed
Black man before we discuss how negative stereotypes about Black people
affect snap judgments.
{time} 2000
It should not take mass murder in a Bible study to get us talking
about how negative stereotypes of Black people in social media help
White supremacists rationalize their racism.
Back in 1997, Professor Jody David Armour warned us that bad actors
would try to make racism seem reasonable. Professor Armour wrote a book
called ``Negrophobia.'' In it, he predicted that ``perhaps the gravest
threat today to progress toward racial justice comes from the right-
wing ideologues bent on convincing White people of good faith that
negative stereotypes about Blacks are justified.''
Professor Armour told us to look out for people trying ``to prove
that Blacks are inherently less intelligent and more violent than
Whites.'' And he explained that these people would try to make racism
seem rational by using discredited studies, unscientific experiments,
and cooked statistics.
What have we seen on our social media over the past few years? We
have seen that negrophobia is alive and well in the United States, and
social media is its enabler.
People like the President have used social media to spread cooked
statistics and outright lies to rationalize the racist stereotypes that
Black people are inherently violent.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend.
Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward
the President.
The gentleman may proceed.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, countries like Russia have used social media
to fuel racial tensions in America's communities, and White
supremacists have used social media to organize their hate.
We must not be afraid to ask: What role has Facebook played in
fueling negrophobia in America?
Facebook was born in an age of diversity, but it was not born with a
commitment to diversity. Only 3 in every 100 Facebook employees are
African American.
The company has no Black executives, and it has no Black board
members. The company's global director of diversity has said that
hiring women and people of color is complicated. Its chief executive
officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has promised that Facebook would hire a Black
board member sometime soon.
Why has it taken so long? Why have minority voices been left out of
the essential media development? Has Facebook's failure to value
minority voices inside the company made Facebook an online megaphone
for racist voices outside the company?
Facebook's algorithms have the power to affect the way Americans
think about Black people, for better or worse. When Facebook accepts
money from foreign actors who want to exploit racial tensions in the
United States, Facebook perpetuates negrophobia.
By the same token, Facebook's algorithms could weaken negrophobia by
enhancing positive messages that challenge people to reexamine and
resist discriminatory responses, but that will require Facebook to
fully commit to diversity right now, not sometime in the future.
Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus met with Facebook a week
ago in terms of these negative ads that were found out to be bought by
Russian actors and spending $100,000 in doing so, and buying fake
``Black Lives Matter'' responses and ads and ``anti-Black Lives
Matter'' ads to continue to fuel this division in our country.
If countries are able to see a weakness in our fabric in this Nation,
then they will exploit it. We have to come together as Americans and
understand that our issues are something that we have to deal with and
look each other in the face and have an honest discussion about.
No one is perfect. No one is saying that one side is worse than the
other, but we need to come together as a unit, as this great experiment
called the United States was meant to be, that all men are created
equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights--all Americans, not
just some--and we continue to strive towards that goal, towards that
utopia in this country.
This is the greatest country in the world, and we all know it here
because we benefit from it, but we have a long way to go in terms of
reaching the ultimate goal.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from
Newark, New Jersey, for his comments, and also to talk about the fact
that I am glad that he mentioned Facebook, because one of the things
that really surprised me was the fact that some of those ads were
purchased in rubles, and no one seemed to notice that, seems absolutely
amazing to me. And we need to, again, just continue to have this
discussion and talk about these things, so I thank the gentleman very
much for his comments tonight.
I yield to my friend and colleague from the great State of Michigan,
representing the State's 14th Congressional District, Brenda Lawrence.
Again, I want to thank Brenda for participating. She participates often
in this hour, and I just really appreciate her comments. Her district
appreciates the comments, her State, and our country, and I appreciate
her joining us this evening.
Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Veasey for
his leadership and for his dedication.
Today, I am at this mike for a number of reasons. One is that we have
witnessed, over the weekend, another time in history that will be
written for many to read, for generations to try to understand what
exactly happened.
Most of us are raised that, in a time of grieving and mourning, you
are sympathetic, you are patient, and, most of all, you try to be
understanding.
I am at a loss in trying to understand how the dialogue was reduced
to name-calling and then just unfactual information. But what I had
hoped and what I feel that, as an American, as a Member of Congress, as
a citizen, if someone gets it wrong, that at least I deserve, ``I'm
sorry, I didn't get the information right,'' or maybe ``I spoke out of
turn.'' And when you are grieving the loss of someone you love dearly,
someone who was serving this country, someone who, as the family of a
military service person, gave the sacrifice as well for them to
represent our country.
I would hope--I was hopeful that that would happen, but it did not.
There comes a point in time, Mr. Speaker, as American citizens, that we
begin to stand up and say, as our country, there is an expectation.
There is an expectation for those we elect, there is an expectation for
those in leadership, and truly, there is an expectation of civility
and, at minimum, truth.
As we know, the FBI has had a long, troubling history of using its
broad investigatory powers to target Black citizens. It is not a myth.
It is a fact. It has been written. During the 1960s, Director Hoover
used the counterintelligence program to surveil and discredit civil
rights activists, members of the Black Panther Party.
For an example, the FBI falsified a letter in an attempt to blackmail
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King into silence.
So the Congressional Black Caucus is concerned by the assertion that
coins a new term, ``Black identity extremists,'' and claims, with high
confidence, that they are likely to target law enforcement based on
perceptions of police brutality against African Americans.
[[Page H8071]]
In August, the FBI Counterterrorism Division issued a chilling and
outlandish warning to its agents, all hidden behind the veil of an
internal report never meant to be seen by the American people. It
worries me because, in 2017, such a misguided and hateful and dangerous
report exists at all.
Released just 9 days before the hateful violence in Charlottesville,
this report targets so-called Black identity extremists by falsely
linking peaceful and necessary calls for justice from Americans, from
the African-American community, to entirely unrelated acts of violence
against law enforcement.
Mr. Speaker, I served as a mayor of a diverse city for 14 years and
had the responsibility of an entire police force for a city. I have
such respect and honor for those who serve us.
I understand how, when there is trouble, the police run to that
trouble to protect us, but I also know that the power that is held on
the shield of a police force can be used for other than protection of
their people. And that in this great country that we live in, time and
time again in history, some people will use the comment: Don't be so
sensitive about everything that happened. But history has shown us,
every change that we have made in this country of freedoms and rights
have come from people who had the courage, the political courage, to
stand up and fight for that. Is that extremism?
Will you say the right to vote were Black extremists? Would you say
that the women who protest and march so that women could have the right
to vote, were they extremists? Or were they Americans who believed in
this country and had the courage to stand up not just for them but for
generations to come?
Our Social Security, when we looked at--and we looked at hunger in
this country, and people repeatedly have shown, of all ethnic groups,
that nothing in America happens without protests and the courage to
stand up. Are they extremists, or they part of this amazing democracy
that we have?
And the threat of being labeled by our FBI so you have permission to
now treat these individuals, who have the courage to stand up, as
unlawful villains and terrorists, and you have the permission now by
the FBI to attack and to imprison them.
We must, as a Congress and a country, learn to understand the power
of our words, and I am going to close with this.
Your words mean something. If this administration has taught us
anything, the words of those who are elected to leadership do matter,
whether it is the truth or whether it is a lie. It matters.
It fuels anger and hatred in people. It tells people that it is okay
to disrespect others. Words mean something. And for me to be a Black
woman in America and be labeled, if I stand up and fight for my rights,
if I stand with others, if Black Lives Matter has not just been Black
people standing up--it has been all members of the United States,
citizens saying that all lives matter and that we will not tolerate
criminal injustice against Black people and the murder rate that we see
of those who are of color.
{time} 2015
This has been a movement in our country, and now we see this internal
labeling by our law enforcement in our country. Does that cause me to
feel afraid in my own country? Does that give me the fear that history
is going to repeat itself because words have given permission for this
to happen when you legitimize people whose only purpose to stand and be
in a position in your community is to say that you have no value less
than me and we hate you?
But do you know what? There are some very fine people there. Being a
Black person in America, I can tell you, we have had some fine days. I
would not be standing here, this little Black girl from Detroit, if
this country did not give me the opportunities. But it came from the
protests; it came in the death and the riots of the people in my
generation before me who would not sit down and be quiet.
So now are we being told that we are not to use our constitutional
rights of free speech and protests and to gather to say that now you
are being an extremist? I am not going to allow that to happen in this
country, and if you want to label me, label me. But I would not be here
today if it were not for those who had the political courage to stand
up for what is right, not just for Black people, but for Americans in
this country. And that is something that this report strikes a chord
with me.
I stand in opposition. I understand when someone takes their freedom
to stand up and oppose something that is happening in America, and I
want to protect that First Amendment right. But if we can avoid the
consequences of halfway speech fueled by fear and false perceptions, we
will be stronger as a country.
Mr. Speaker, I call on Congress to join me and my colleagues in
condemning this report and standing with us for a more peaceful, a more
accepting, and a more equal country where we can really mean, when we
stand up and we say the Pledge of Allegiance and we say, ``one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,'' and for all
of us we have a name.
We have a name that we were given at birth, and we expect our
leadership, our President, our Congress, our Chief of Staff, our
military to address us by our names. It is not acceptable, it is
embarrassing for us as a country, to reduce ourselves to that level.
And I stand here tonight, on the Record, that I am an American. I am a
Member of Congress. I am a woman. I am an African American. I deserve
respect, and I expect all of our colleagues to conduct themselves the
same way, including the President of the United States.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Lawrence for her comments,
which are very timely in light of everything that is happening right
now.
Mr. Speaker, before I close out, the one thing that I would like to
make note of is that I think, with this COINTELPRO 2.0 that is going on
right now, we should take this very seriously. And I just want to
remind everybody that may be out here listening right now, we talk a
lot about extremist groups. We talk a lot about alt-right and KKK and
White supremacist groups, but one thing that we have to keep in mind is
that, in the 1960s, when Dr. Martin Luther King came to town, he was
not treated like he is now.
I hear so many people--conservatives, liberals, Democrats, and
Republicans--talk about how much they admire and respect Dr. King, and
rightfully so, because he earned the respect and the admiration that he
has now, posthumously, in this country. I don't think that anyone would
argue that. But if we could travel back in time to the 1960s, we will
find that he was not that welcomed.
And let's just put aside the White supremacists. Let's put aside the
alt-right. Let's put aside these hateful forces that, again, all of us
agree on are bad people. But remember, when Dr. King came to some of
these Southern towns in the 1960s, he was not welcomed. He was not
welcomed by people at the Lions Club, people at the Elks Club, people
at the First Baptist Church, people at the Methodist Church. People
thought that Dr. King was bad, that he was stirring up trouble, that he
was not ``keeping his place,'' and that he had come into these
communities to stir up a lot of trouble.
And because regular, everyday people--again, not the Klan, not the
White supremacists, just regular, everyday, tax-paying shopkeepers in
these little Southern towns--these conservative individuals who
represented all segments of our society thought that Dr. King was out
of place for doing what he was doing, because of that, the Nation
reacted. And one of those people who reacted against Dr. King, against
Malcolm X, and against other organizations like the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, SNCC, which was the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, and many, many others, they ran the domestic
counterintelligence program that you have heard about tonight, this
COINTELPRO, and it became a weapon that was used to spy on individuals.
We heard mentioned earlier that our colleague, Barbara Lee, was one
of these people who was monitored. But this was happening to everyday
African Americans who were just out there trying to make sure that we
can vote and that our water fountains and our schools weren't
segregated. And these regular town folk--again, the ones that weren't
in the Klan, that were just good old folks that went to Sunday
[[Page H8072]]
school and went to church every Sunday--were trying to prevent this
from happening, and J. Edgar Hoover stepped in and decided that he was
going to discredit, disrupt, and neutralize these organizations, again,
that were just trying to make sure that African Americans were no
longer second-class citizens.
I think these groups and these organizations and these individuals
that I mentioned earlier within the Black community that were willing
to be part of that circle, I know that I would not be here serving had
it not been for that surveillance that they endured, and I know that I
would not be here today were it not for them putting their lives on the
line, quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, because of that.
So what I would just like to say is it is important that we monitor
everything that is coming out of the Justice Department in relation to
any announcements that they are going to make about investigating these
organizations that they disagree with politically because it is
dangerous, and we don't want to go back to those times. We don't want
to end up in a situation where the organization is doing any sort of
domestic spying on people who are practicing their First Amendment
rights of free speech.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire how much time is remaining on
the clock.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 7 minutes
remaining.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, let me also, again, talk about, very
briefly, some of the things that people are concerned about in regards
to civil liberties during the Cold War. That is when the FBI started
running a lot of these counterintelligence programs, and Dr. King was
always very high on the list. That is what people are concerned about.
Their concerns are concerns that are very warranted because of what
happened.
I know that people always say: Well, those things happened a long,
long time ago. But, in reality, there are people who serve with us in
this body who, sadly, remember those days. So it didn't happen that
long ago because they are still here, and they are still active, very
healthy members of society. They weren't Members of Congress back then,
but they are now, and they saw this up front. They saw this in a very
personal way, and that is important.
Also, one of the things that was mentioned earlier by Representative
Payne from Newark, New Jersey, was the fact about social media. Social
media has been very convenient. It has helped spawn new wealth in this
country. It has brought us together like never before, but it can also
tear us apart if we let it.
We have to be very serious when we have a foreign entity, a foreign
country that doesn't like America, that doesn't like our values, and
they have been very open and blatant in saying that you can't have a
multicultural society that exists. We need to take that threat very
seriously.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) so
she can tell her story, and I thank her for joining us this evening.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Veasey for yielding, but
also for his remarkable leadership here in Congress and for hosting
this very important Special Order this evening.
Mr. Speaker, I rise, along with my colleagues in the Congressional
Black Caucus, with a message for the American people: Wake up.
COINTELPRO 2.0 is on the rise.
Mr. Speaker, now, in a report that was never supposed to see the
light of day, the FBI's Counterterrorism Division branded African
Americans in the fight for equality and justice as Black identity
extremists that pose a domestic threat to police officers.
Now, I have witnessed many covert tactics designed to suppress
African-American activism in my life, but the revelation of this report
is one of the most troubling details I have ever learned about our
government.
I remember very clearly the days of COINTELPRO under J. Edgar Hoover.
As a community worker who worked closely with the Black Panther Party
in their Ten-Point Platform, which made programs like Free Breakfast
for Children possible and paved the way for our government's free
breakfast program for low-income children, I witnessed firsthand how
the lives of good people doing good work were destroyed by COINTELPRO.
Seeing the emergence of what is effectively COINTELPRO 2.0 is not
only alarming, it is frightening. Just listen to how the FBI describes
young women who take a stand for justice.
According to the FBI: ``Black identity extremist, BIE, perceptions of
police brutality against African Americans'' has been responsible for
``an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law
enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such
violence in the future.''
My God.
{time} 2030
Mr. Speaker, we know that all police officers aren't bad actors.
Actually, thousands of officers, the majority of officers, go to work
every morning to protect our communities and to provide public safety
for everyone, but I want to be very clear about two things, Mr.
Speaker.
Police brutality is not, as they said in this FBI report, a
perception. Police brutality is a reality African Americans grapple
with every day.
African Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police
than White people. That is a reality. That is not a perception. The
facts speak for themselves.
Despite being only 13 percent of our population, nearly 25 percent of
those killed by police in the United States each year are African
Americans. That is a reality. That is not a perception.
Nearly 99 percent of police-involved shootings have not resulted in
any officers involved being convicted of a crime. Now, that is a
reality, not a perception.
I also want to be very clear that Black identity extremism does not
exist. It is simply not real. No academics or journalists have
uncovered such a movement. No one has identified as a leader of such a
movement. No act of hate or violence has been committed in the name of
Black identity extremism.
So what is it, then? It is a twisted attempt by arbiters of the alt-
right, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and this
administration, to deflect attention from the realities of police
misconduct and the alt-right and White supremacy.
First let me thank Congressman Veasey for his remarkable leadership
in Congress and for hosting this vitally important Special Order hour.
Mr. Speaker I rise today along with my colleagues in the
Congressional Black Caucus with a message for the American people.
Wake up! COINTELPRO 2.0 is on the rise.
Mr. Speaker, in a report that was never supposed to see the light of
day, the FBI's Counterterrorism Division branded African Americans that
fight for equality and justice as ``Black Identity Extremists'' that
pose a domestic threat to police officers.
I have witnessed many covert tactics designed to suppress African
American activism in my life, but the revelation of this report is one
of the most troubling details I have ever learned about our government.
I remember clearly the days of COINTELPRO under J. Edgar Hoover.
As a community worker who worked closely with the Black Panther Party
on their 10 point platform, which made programs like free breakfast for
children possible, I witnessed firsthand how the lives of good people
doing good work were destroyed by COINTELPRO.
So seeing the emergence of what is effectively COINTELPRO 2.0 is not
only alarming it is frightening.
Just listen to how the FBI describes young men and women who take a
stand for justice.
According to the FBI:
``Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perceptions of police brutality
against African Americans'' has been responsible for ``an increase in
premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and
will very likely serve as justification for such violence'' in the
future.
Mr. Speaker, we know that all police officers aren't bad actors.
Thousands of officers go to work every morning to protect our
communities.
But I want to be very clear about two things Mr. Speaker: Police
brutality is not a perception. Police brutality is a reality African
Americans grapple with every day.
African Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police
than white people.
That is a reality, not a perception.
Despite being only 13% of our population, nearly 25% of those killed
by police in the U.S. each year are African Americans
That is a reality, not a perception.
[[Page H8073]]
And nearly 99% of case of police involved shootings have not resulted
in any officers involved being convicted of a crime.
That is a reality, not a perception.
I also want to be very clear that Black Identity Extremism does not
exist.
It is simply is not real.
No academics or journalists have uncovered such a movement.
No one has identified as a leader of such a movement
And no act of hate or violence has been committed in the name of
Black Identity Extremism.
So what is it then?
Black Identity Extremism is a twisted attempt by arbiters of the alt-
right, including President Trump and Jeff Sessions to deflect attention
from the realities of Police brutality and white supremacy.
That is why members of the Congressional Black Caucus are here this
evening. To sound the alarm.
This is not just another revelation or press report that should be
dismissed.
This kind of hateful stigmatization presents a serious threat to the
African American community. This is not mere speculation, Mr. Speaker.
If we're honest about the history of our nation, we must admit that
the FBI has a disturbing history of surveillance and intimidation of
African Americans for political expediency.
I remember all too clearly the lives that were cut short during the
civil rights movement through the highly coordinated
counterintelligence program known as COINTELPRO.
For 15 years under the direction of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the
federal government spied on civil rights leaders and sowed division
among African Americans with one express goal.
To ``expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize''
any individual or group deemed to be subversive or a threat to the
established power structure.
Members of the Black Panther Party were the greatest victims of this
vitriolic pursuit.
Under the guise of COINTELPRO FBI agents harassed, intimidated and
committed acts of violence against Black Panthers and their supporters.
Men and women were killed as a result of this program. We simply
cannot allow government sanctioned violence to develop against innocent
African Americans fighting for the perfection of our union.
As the conscience of Congress, members of the Congressional Black
Caucus are determined to stop COINTELPRO 2.0 dead in its tracks.
That is why we are demanding that the FBI give a full account to
Congress on the development of this report and the sources used to
inform it.
It has been said that those who do not know their history are doomed
to repeat.
Well Mr. Speaker, we are here to give the American people and the
Trump Administration a history lesson.
Clearly the FBI has not learned from its mistakes. But I want to be
clear about one thing, under no circumstances will we allow another
generation of African Americans to be subjected to unwarranted
surveillance and harassment.
It will not happen, not on our watch.
Istand with our Chairman Congressman Richmond, Congressman Conyers,
Congressman Thompson and Congressman Cummings in demanding that the FBI
come clean about this report.
Enough is enough.
Mr. VEASEY. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, in my role as a member of the House
Committee on the Judiciary, I have always taken a serious view of my
oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. It is vitally
important that we keep a close watch on the activities of law
enforcement, especially regarding their operations in domestic
intelligence gathering. In the wake of September 11th attacks, a time
of crisis when civil liberties can be viewed as a luxury, it was
important to ensure that all Americans could rely on the Constitution
to both protect our rights and protect public safety.
As we all know, the FBI has a long, troubling history of using its
broad investigatory powers to vulnerable or dissenting groups in our
society. As a long-serving member, I was here in Congress when the
reports of the FBI's surveillance activities against African-American
groups involved in the struggle for civil rights first surfaced in the
press.
Centralized operations under COINTELPRO officially began in August
1956 with a program designed to ``increase factionalism, cause
disruption and win defections'' inside American Communist Party.
Tactics included anonymous phone calls, IRS audits, and the creation of
documents that would divide the American communist organization
internally. An October 1956 memo from Hoover reclassified the FBI's
ongoing surveillance of black leaders, including it within COINTELPRO,
with the justification that the movement was infiltrated by communists.
In 1956, Hoover sent an open letter denouncing Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a
civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi
who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of George W.
Lee, Emmett Till, and other black people in the South. When the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was founded in 1957,
the FBI began to monitor and target the group almost immediately,
focusing particularly on Bayard Rustin, Stanley Levison, and,
eventually, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the 1960's Director J.
Edgar Hoover also used COINTELPRO to spy on and attempt to discredit
civil rights activists and members of the Black Panther Party.
After the 1963 March on Washington, Hoover singled out King as a
major target for COINTELPRO. Soon after, the FBI was systematically
bugging King's home and his hotel rooms, as they were now aware that
King was growing in stature daily as the leader among leaders of the
Civil Rights Movement. Amidst the urban unrest of July-August 1967, the
FBI began ``COINTELPRO--BLACK HATE'', which focused on King and the
SCLC as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Deacons for Defense and
Justice, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Nation of Islam.
BLACK HATE established the so-called Ghetto Informant Program and
instructed 23 FBI offices to ``disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or
otherwise neutralize the activities of black-nationalist hate type
organizations.''
The program was successfully kept secret until 1971, when the
Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burgled an FBI field office
in Media, Pennsylvania, took several dossiers, and exposed the program
by passing this material to news agencies. In 1976, the ``Church
Committee'' (Sen. Frank Church-Idaho) launched a major investigation of
the FBI and COINTELPRO. Journalists and historians speculate that the
government has not fully released the many dossiers and documents
related to the program.
Against this backdrop, the Congressional Black Caucus is justified in
its concern about the FBI's investigation of African-American political
organizations. The coining of the phrase ``Black Identity Extremists''
and claims with ``high confidence'' that these groups are likely to
target law enforcement based on ``perceptions of police brutality
against African Americans'' takes us back to claims about groups like
the Black Panthers in the 1960's.
While it is important that the FBI monitor all threats domestic, its
activities around the American Muslim community and efforts to ``combat
violent extremism'' have raised questions about tactics and
constitutional norms. The CBC has called for an FBI briefing on the
origins on this research and the Bureau's intended next steps. I have
supported this request in my role as Ranking Member on the Judiciary
Committee and intend to keep a close eye on the Bureau's activities.
This is not the time for a COINTELPRO 2.0 in America.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) published a report on August 3rd with findings
that ``black identity extremists'' and their views on police brutality
have very likely contributed to an uptick in premeditated violence
against police officers. While many questions about the origins and
intentions behind this report still remain unanswered, I cannot help
but feel that this troubling assessment is reminiscent of the 1960's
era Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) that targeted black
activists during the Civil Rights Movement.
There are no doubts that the 2012 shooting of Treyvon Martin or the
2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri have paved the way
for increased tension within our communities. The subsequent protests
and rise of the Black Lives Matter movement born out of the 2013
acquittal of Treyvon Martin's murderer fueled further tension between
law enforcement and racial minorities. However, these protests--while
interspersed with bouts
[[Page H8074]]
of violence--have been largely peaceful at their core.
Interestingly, we have yet to also see a comparable FBI report
investigating the white supremacists that have emerged during rallies
in Charlottesville, VA and other parts of the country. This apparent
double standard sets a dangerous precedent for race relations in the
United States. The FBI's recent report is also extremely troubling
given the rise and prominence of far-right movements throughout the
country during this tense moment in our history.
Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus has called for an FBI
briefing on the origins of this report and the Bureau's intentions on
next steps. I will join my colleagues in eagerly awaiting a response
from the FBI, so that we can make sure that there is no impropriety or
racial bias fueling this investigation. I am disappointed in the FBI's
report and urge my colleagues to tread carefully as we look to avoid a
repeat of history by using government institutions and resources to
unfairly target racial minorities.
____________________