[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 24, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1419-E1420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CIVIL RIGHTS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 23, 2017

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Veasey, 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 
and President Vistasp Karbhari, Dr. Jason Skelton and my longtime 
friend Dr. Marvin Delaney were perfect hosts.
  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

[[Page E1420]]

place in Florida. Sgt. 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 Sgt. 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 widowed 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 Sgt. Johnson throughout 
his childhood.
  Mr. Speaker, I have participated in several of Congresswoman Wilson's 
500 Role Models events and have spoken for one of their graduations. I 
often wear a red tie to this floor helping her highlight their efforts. 
And 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 each and every day, I feel compelled 
to respond to General Kelly and completely debunk his concocted 
misrepresentation.
  Mr. Speaker, we can have political differences here in Washington, 
D.C. 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 or silenced.

                          ____________________