[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 18, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H6474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              MANDELA DAY

  (Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the late, great 
President Nelson Mandela, whose 100th birthday we celebrate today.
  Like many of my colleagues, I was first inspired by Mr. Mandela in 
the early 1970s. I was arrested in Berkeley, California, protesting 
apartheid, when our brave brothers and sisters in the labor movement 
refused to unload ships from South Africa that arrived at Oakland's 
port.
  I remember very vividly when the African National Congress was 
designated a terrorist organization by the United States Government. It 
was illegal to meet with the freedom fighters in the United States, but 
many of us did anyway in safe places around the world.
  I was so happy when we finally passed legislation, which I led, to 
lift President Mandela and the ANC off the terrorist watch list on his 
90 birthday 10 years ago.
  As an election observer, I will never forget the lines of people 
waiting to vote for Nelson Mandela as the first Black President of 
South Africa.
  Madiba's impact was not limited to South Africa. He sparked social 
justice movements that reached around the world and reminded us of the 
power of the vote. As President Obama noted yesterday, he said Madiba 
``came to embody the universal aspirations of dispossessed people all 
around the world, their hopes for a better life.''
  President Mandela taught us many lessons, lessons in reconciliation, 
perseverance, and public service. Above all, he taught us that the 
fight for justice was never finished. His legacy will live forever.

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