[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 104 (Thursday, June 21, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H5366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ISSUES OF SEGREGATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise because I love my 
country, and I have great concern for where it is headed.
  I am very much concerned, Madam Speaker, because I have seen, and the 
multitudes have seen, photographs of children who have been separated 
from their parents.
  I have here one such display; a child who is separated from a parent, 
a child that is distraught. And my concern emanates from the notion 
that if you can tolerate this, if you can look at this, and if you have 
the power to do something about it and you won't, if your heart is so 
hardened that you can look at this picture of this baby and conclude 
that this is just a part of a process, then that says to me I should be 
concerned about the direction of my country.
  We have come a long way in my lifetime. I had to drink from colored 
water fountains. I had to sit in the back of the bus. I had to go to 
segregated schools. I know what segregation looks like. I know what it 
smells like. I have had to go to these filthy colored restrooms. I know 
what it sounds like. I was called the ugly names. I know what it hurts 
like when you have people who would chase you just because of who you 
are.
  So we have come a long way, and that concerns me because I am not 
sure where this says we are going.
  But I do know this: I don't want to see us go back to that dark past 
because, Madam Speaker, for those who don't know, here is what it looks 
like.

                              {time}  0915

  This is a picture from Little Rock, Arkansas. This is a picture of a 
child merely attempting to go to school, committing no crime. This is a 
picture of what hate looks like.
  Children ought not be subjected to this level of hate and vitriol. 
This is a past that I don't want to revisit.
  For this young lady and others to get into this high school--that was 
being paid for with their tax dollars, I might add--President 
Eisenhower had to send in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army. It 
took the Army to integrate Central High.
  It is an unpleasant thing to have to endure and to have to visit, but 
for some of us, it is about more than just a process. For some of us, 
it is about a way of life that we endured and that we suffered. For 
some of us who have felt the sting of discrimination, this is a painful 
thing to see.
  For those who would say: ``Well, we will never go back there. You 
will never see that again,'' well, I never thought I would see a day 
when a President of the United States would ban people from the country 
who happen to be of a certain religion. I never thought I would see a 
day when a President of the United States would say: ``There were some 
nice people'' among the bigots, the xenophobes, the White nationalists, 
and the Klansmen in Charlottesville. I never thought I would see that 
come from the Presidency, from the President of the United States, not 
in my lifetime.
  So to those who say: ``Worry not. We won't go back,'' I say: We 
should be warned, and we should not allow ourselves to be deceived.

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