[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 59 (Thursday, April 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3205-H3207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marshall). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am always honored to have this 
great privilege of speaking in the House of Representatives. We have a 
total of 441 Members of the House, including those delegates, those who 
cannot vote, 435 who can, and it is an honor to be one of the 441.
  I never want to take for granted this privilege that has been 
accorded me by the people of the Ninth Congressional District of Texas, 
so I thank them for allowing me to serve, and I am grateful to the 
leadership in the House for allowing me the opportunity to speak 
tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight, I rise, if you will, because I would 
like to reference H. Res. 817. This was introduced on April 11, 2018. 
This resolution celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act 
of 1968. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 contained the Fair Housing Act, 
and it is the Fair Housing Act that this resolution actually addresses.
  I am proud to say that the Honorable Emanuel Cleaver is the person 
that worked with me. In fact, we worked with each other to produce this 
resolution. I am proud also to say that this resolution has a total of 
54 cosponsors that are officially acknowledged, and then we have two 
additional cosponsors that have not been officially placed on the 
Record, but they are still cosponsors of this resolution.
  This resolution does something that is important. It celebrates and 
commemorates, if you will, the passing of the Fair Housing Act. The 
Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination. It prohibits it 
based upon race, color, national origin, sex, familial status, 
disability, religion, and should have other categories added. It should 
have sexual orientation. It should have gender identity. So there is 
still work to do.
  And for those who may not believe that persons are discriminated 
based upon gender identity and sexual orientation, those persons who 
are fired from their jobs because of their gender identity, fired from 
their jobs because of sexual orientation, they have stories to tell, 
because they not only know that it happens, they have experienced it. 
They have had a firsthand encounter with this type of discrimination.
  It also exists in housing. People are discriminated against because 
of who they are, because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, 
and for the other reasons that we have already codified into law.
  So it is my hope that one day I will stand here with a resolution 
that will celebrate not only what the law is currently, but also what 
the law will be at that time, and, hopefully, it will include other 
classes of individuals.
  I am also proud to tell you, Mr. Speaker, that this resolution is one 
that is subject to have additional cosponsors. I have talked about 
original cosponsors, but there are others who will become cosponsors. 
The Congressional Black Caucus has a good many members who are 
cosponsors of this resolution. I am proud to tell you that we plan to 
continue to acquire cosponsors such that, by the end of this month, we 
will have many additional cosponsors.
  Mr. Speaker, housing is important, because where you live can impact 
your health. If you live near landfills and rock crushing companies, 
that can have an impact on your health. This is why a good many people 
find themselves combating, fighting, in a very political way, the 
placement of these types of facilities in their neighborhoods.

  There is empirical evidence to show that where you live can impact 
your health, where you live can impact your education. If you live in 
an area with poor schools, it is likely that you will have a poor 
education. There are exceptions, but exceptions don't make the rule. 
Exceptions prove the rule.
  Where you live can impact your employment. If you live in an area 
with high unemployment, you are likely not to have a job. If 
unemployment is exceedingly high, as is the case in some places around 
the world and in this country too, there are persons who are not likely 
to have jobs.
  If you live in an area where you are likely to be in poverty, you are 
likely not to become wealthy. Your wealth can be related to the area 
that you are born in, where you live. There are exceptions, but there 
are also persons who don't acquire the opportunity to become an 
exception.
  Your life expectancy can be impacted by where you live. If you live 
in a war

[[Page H3206]]

zone, your life expectancy will be impacted and your personality can be 
impacted. If you live in a hostile environment, hostility all around 
you, it is likely to impact your personality.
  So where you live is important, which is why invidious discrimination 
in housing is something that should not be tolerated, and I am proud to 
say that there was a struggle that was overcome so that we could have 
this Fair Housing Act.

                              {time}  1915

  I would like to do this now. I would like to give a bit of history of 
the Fair Housing Act that was signed into law in 1968, April 11, 1968. 
A little bit of history is important.
  If you understand the history, you can understand why I make the 
comment that the law, itself, was written in ink, but it was signed, in 
a sense, with the blood of the many who died and made sacrifices so 
that the bill could become the law. I believe that the history of the 
times is important.
  It was signed April 11, 1968, as I have indicated, during the 
sixties. The sixties were not the best of times for this country. In 
the 1960s, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy proposed a Civil 
Rights Act. However, he was not to see it become the law because on, 
November 22, 1963, he was assassinated. Upon being assassinated, 
President Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One that very 
same day, November 22, 1963. Then, in July, July 2, 1964, after the 
death of President Kennedy, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race.
  Now, it is important to note that President Kennedy, who was a great 
President, highly respected and admired, proposed the Civil Rights Act, 
or a civil rights act. He lost his life before he had the opportunity 
to see it come to fruition.
  But it is also important to note that President Johnson worked 
tirelessly to make real the noble American ideal that was called to the 
attention of our Nation by President John F. Kennedy. President Johnson 
was, if you will, the person in the Senate who knew how to speak 
Southern.
  He knew how to communicate well with the Southern Senators and the 
Members of the House. He knew the rules of the Senate. He knew how 
persons had voted in the Senate, and he knew how to leverage the votes 
and the rules to get Senators to do things that they might not 
ordinarily do.
  So when you couple his knowledge of the Senate with the fact that we 
had lost a great President, and this great President had proposed this 
Civil Rights Act, you can understand how President Johnson, a great 
President, was able to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed that 
outlawed discrimination based upon race.
  In 1967, we had what was called the long, hot summer. There were what 
were called riots. I prefer another term. I see what happened as 
rebellions. There were people who were suffering. I don't justify what 
happened, but I can explain that there were people who were rebelling.
  Now, whether you agree with the rebellions or not, they took place. 
That was what precipitated what was called the long, hot summer. In 
fact, it was such a rebellious time that, on July 28, 1967, the Kerner 
Commission was appointed to investigate the causes of these rebellions.
  President Johnson appointed this Commission. He wanted to get to the 
bottom of what was going on in this country. And on February 29, 1968, 
the Commission released its report, which said, in essence, that the 
rebellions--they didn't use the term ``rebellions,'' that is my term--
the rebellions were caused by discrimination, that this Nation was 
becoming two separate people, if you will, people who were segregated 
from each other. This is in a very general sense. That we were becoming 
two nations, in a sense, separate and unequal.
  This was something that I think President Johnson was impacted by. 
But there were many others who were impacted by this.
  Dr. Martin Luther King, he was trying to bring this country together. 
He was an integrationist. And in trying to bring this country together, 
Dr. Martin Luther King went to Memphis. He was trying as best as he 
could to achieve some degree of fairness for those who were working as 
sanitation workers.
  President Johnson announced, on March 31, 1968, that he would not 
seek reelection; and then some days later, on April 4, Dr. King, while 
in Memphis, was assassinated.
  So now we had the death of a great President; we have the death, now, 
of the great human rights, civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, 
taking place; and then President Johnson, the same President Johnson 
who pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the same President 
Johnson sought to push through the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which 
contained the Fair Housing Act. It was within about 1 week of the 
demise, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King that he was able to 
sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
  The important aspect of this history is this: that these acts, though 
written in blood and signed in ink, were able to be signed because of 
the death of great persons, and also many persons who were not so 
great. They weren't great in the eyes of history because they were not 
documented as having done the things that President Johnson or 
President Kennedy or Dr. King accomplished.
  But there were other great people, as well, who shed blood and gave 
their lives. There were people who were found to have marched, and some 
of them were protesting and lost their lives. There were people who 
suffered the indignation and humiliation associated with segregation 
and the fact that there were those who wanted to maintain the 
institution to the extent that Medgar Evers lost his life. They wanted 
to maintain the institution to the extent that Schwerner, Goodman, and 
Chaney lost their lives.
  They wanted to maintain segregation. They wanted the South. They 
wanted the country to remain two separate nations, if you will, within 
this Nation: one, unfortunately, discriminated against, and another 
having all the benefits that this great Nation could offer.
  The loss of lives allowed us to achieve an integrated housing system 
within this country. The integrated system was just not enough, and 
still is not enough, because housing discrimination exists to this very 
day. The empirical evidence is there. The truth of the matter is that 
we can do more to eliminate the discrimination.
  One of the best tools to eliminate discrimination in housing is 
testing, where you send out persons of different races, different 
ethnicities, and you ask them to acquire housing at a certain location. 
Those who are of one race may find that housing is available to them, 
but those of another race may find that it is not--at the very same 
location, on the very same day.
  We have found that testing is one of the best tools to eliminate 
discrimination, especially in housing. But I want to announce today 
that testing is also a great tool to eliminate discrimination in 
lending.
  This Civil Rights Act, this Housing Fairness Act, and all of the 
tools that we have used to achieve the degree of integration in housing 
and fairness in housing that we have achieved, this has been done, in 
great part, because of testing. That same tool of testing that helped 
us to integrate housing in this country is a tool that we can use to 
allow persons to receive fair treatment in lending, fair access to 
capital.
  The truth is that access to capital in this country makes all the 
difference in your life. If you can go into a bank and you are 
qualified and you can get a loan to buy a home, that home that you will 
buy will impact your life in ways that I have talked about, impact your 
life expectancy, impact your education. It can have a positive impact 
on your life. It can be the means by which you will move from one 
status in life to another. Just living in that neighborhood and buying 
that home can be meaningful to you.
  We believe that that loan should not be denied a person because of 
that person's race, color, creed, national origin, sexual identity, 
sexual orientation, familial status, religious status. That person's 
loan should not be denied. It should be granted because of your 
qualifications.
  This is why I am a proponent of testing. This is why I want to see 
more testing in banking. This is why I believe that we need additional 
laws to protect those who apply for loans, because access to capital 
makes a difference in your life. This is why I will

[[Page H3207]]

be introducing, in this Congress, legislation to make it a crime to 
discriminate in lending.
  People who deny people access to capital are committing an offense. 
People who deny people access to capital are impacting their lives. I 
want to make sure that people who do this are properly punished for 
what they do. If we can pass such a law, I believe it will deter those 
who would discriminate against persons because of who they are, and it 
would cause them to better understand that every person who is 
qualified for a loan ought to acquire that loan.
  So I am leaving you with the notion that we are building on what 
happened with the Civil Rights Act. We are building on the sacrifices 
that have been made by persons such as Dr. Martin Luther King and a 
good many others. We are going to build on it.
  We are going to introduce legislation that can help all persons 
receive not only the house that they merit by virtue of having the 
money, but also acquire the capital in lending such that they can 
afford the house that they qualify for by way of the loan they will 
receive.
  I am honored to thank you for the time that I have been accorded, Mr. 
Speaker. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to stand here in the 
House and make this presentation, and I am grateful to this country for 
allowing a person who, at birth, would never have been thought to stand 
in this position in the House of Representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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