[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 113 (Thursday, June 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3085-S3086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3957
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the Confederate
monuments that are in our hallowed Halls of Congress. I would like to
make a live UC request, but preceding that request, I want to make just
a few very brief remarks.
The National Statuary Hall, where these Confederate statues are in
the Capitol, is intended to honor the highest ideals of our Nation. It
is intended to honor the spirit of our country and those who exhibited
this spirit with heroism, with courage, and with distinction.
It is a rare honor that every State gets to pick two people, out of
the entire history of the country, who so exemplify the values, the
spirit, and the honor of America. There are only 100 statues--just 100
statues--two from every State.
Between 1901 and 1931, 12--12--Confederate statues were placed in the
National Statuary Hall, that hallowed hall. During the vast majority of
that same period, from 1901 through 1929, after a vicious period of
voter suppression and violence against African-American voters and a
stripping de facto of their rights, and often de jure, not a single
African American served in either of the Congress. In fact, the exact
same year the first Confederate statue was placed in the Capitol, 1901,
was also the year that the last African-American person would serve in
Congress for almost 30 years--almost 70 from just the South.
This is a period that we don't teach enough about in our country. It
is a period of untold violence of domestic terrorism, of the rise of
the Klan and other White supremacist organizations in which, from the
late 1800s to about 1950, literally thousands of Americans--about 4,400
well-documented cases--were lynched in this country.
We cannot separate the Confederate statues from this history and
legacy of White supremacy in this country. Indeed, in the vast history
of our Nation, those Confederate statues represent 4 years--roughly 4
years--of the Confederacy. The entire history of our country hails as
heroes people who took up arms against their own Nation, people who
sought to keep and sustain that vile institution of slavery, who led us
into the bloodiest war of our country's history, who lost battle after
battle until they were defeated soundly. The relics of that 4-plus year
period, giving this sacred space to these traders upon our Nation, is
not just an assault to the ideals of America as a whole, but they are a
painful, insulting, difficult injury being compounded to so many
American citizens who understand the very desire to put people who
represented 4-plus years of treason, the very desire to put them there
in an era of vast terrorism, was yet another attempt at the suppression
of some of our citizens in this country.
The continued presence of these statues in the halls is an affront to
African Americans and the ideals of our Nation. When we proclaim this
not just to be a place of liberty and justice for all, but as we seek
to be a more beloved nation, a kinder nation, a nation of equal respect
and equal dignity, it is an assault on all of those ideals.
I would like to ask for unanimous consent, but before I do so, I
would like to yield to the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first I want to thank my dear friend,
the Senator from New Jersey.
Our caucus and the American people are lucky to have him as such a
champion, not only for this proposal but for all of his work in recent
years on legislation related to police reform, racial justice, and so
many other issues.
In a moment, my friend will ask to pass a bill that will do something
very simple and, indeed, long overdue: It will remove the statues here
in the Capitol of men who would rend this country apart by war in order
to strengthen, perpetuate, and extend the vile institution of slavery.
There is a movement in America right now that demands we confront the
poison of racism in our country. We must do this in many ways, both
substantive and symbolic. This bill is just one of many steps we must
take to acknowledge the painful history of America's original sin--
slavery--and to clarify for all generations that the men who defended
it shall hold no place of honor in our Nation's history books.
States and localities are removing Confederate statues in their
public parks and municipal buildings. NASCAR has banned the Confederate
flag at its events. We will soon debate renaming military installations
after Confederate generals. Why should the Capitol, of all places--a
symbol of the Union, a place where every American is supposed to have
representation--continue to venerate such ignoble figures?
Opponents of the bill will say that removing these statues is akin to
forgetting or trying to erase history. No, it is not. Remembering
history is a lot different than celebrating it.
We teach history in our schools and universities and museums. No
doubt, the Civil War will continue to merit study, but statues and
memorials are symbols of honor, and we need not reserve them for men
who represent such a dishonorable cause.
Leader McConnell has ducked this issue and has said that the States
should continue to decide who to send to the Capitol. Candidly, I don't
think it would be too imposing to ask our States not to send statues of
people who actively fought against this country. You know, there is a
reason that Connecticut doesn't send a statue of Benedict Arnold to the
Capitol.
We have a lot of work to do to unwind centuries of racial injustice
embedded in our laws and in our institutions. One of the simplest
things we could do is to haul out the statues of a few old racists who
represent the very antithesis of the building in which we now stand and
the ideals we struggle to live up to. This, my friends, is the easy
part.
Let us pass this bill today and send a message to the American people
that we are serious about dismantling institutional racism piece by
piece, brick by brick, statue by statue, starting with our own House--
the people's House--the Nation's Capitol Building.
I yield again to my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask
unanimous consent that the Rules Committee be discharged from further
consideration of S. 3957 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration. I further ask that the bill be read a third time and
passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Missouri
Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, reserving the right to object, let me say
that we just got this bill assigned to the Rules Committee. The bill
would have the effect of abandoning agreements we have entered into
with the States and the States have entered into with us.
I would certainly like to have some time to decide if we should have
a hearing on this. I would like to get the opinion of people who are
taking similar statues out of the building. I would also like to find
out what other States have in mind as their part of the agreement.
The Democratic leader just said that States and localities are
removing these statues. Each of these States would have the right to
remove this statue, and some are.
This is an agreement with the States. It goes back to 1864. By 1933,
Statuary Hall was full, and Congress, again, authorized this program by
saying that
[[Page S3086]]
these statues could be placed in the Capitol. It took until about 2000
until there were 100 statues from the States. States are limited to two
from each State. With 50 States, there were 100 statues by 2000.
At that point, the Congress passed another law providing a way that
the States, for the first time, could take a statue out. Even in 2000,
there was no suggestion then or before then that Congress would decide
whether the statue that the State wanted to put in could be put into
the building.
As a matter of fact, the Presiding Officer's State, Nebraska, just
recently replaced Williams Jennings Bryan with Chief Standing Bear
under the provisions made to do that.
Congress has been very prescriptive on how this happens. The State
would have to pass legislation; the Governor would have to sign it to
put a statue in the building; and Congress would determine only if the
statue met the requirements that the other statues had been held to.
Until now, that has been the congressional part of this agreement with
the States to take a statue out of the collection and replace it with
another one. My State, Missouri, is replacing Thomas Hart Benton with
Harry Truman. The legislature had to agree what statue would go out,
what statue would come in, and Congress would then accept that statue
if it met the standards.
Again, we can do away with that program. We could do a lot of things.
But we have entered into that agreement.
The forts, as an example--and, again, the minority leader mentioned
the forts. The forts are named totally by the Congress. I expressed my
belief this week and last week that it would be absolutely appropriate,
in my view, to review the names that the forts have been named after,
including the forts that are named after Confederate military leaders,
and change those names. We can do that all on our own. We haven't told
North Carolina that a fort has to be named after General Bragg. We
haven't told Texas that a fort has to be named after Confederate
General Hood. We can change those.
I am very open to looking at that and likely doing that. I just
think, for my friend from New Jersey, that this is a more complicated
arrangement than activity on the floor today would suggest.
I would also point out that in 2000, since Congress said that you can
replace statues with another statue--you have to take a statue out to
put a statue in, but you can replace statues, eight of those statues
have already been replaced, and eight more are in the process of being
replaced. I think four or five of the statues that have been replaced
or would be replaced were in the standard of the Confederate statues.
I am encouraged that States are looking at their history, and they
are looking at who has come since they put those statues in. Arkansas
replaced Uriah Milton Rose, a Confederate statue, with Daisy Gatson
Bates, a civil rights leader. Florida replaced Edmund Kirby-Smith with
Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator, a Presidential adviser, and civil
rights leader. Arkansas is in the process of replacing one of these
statues.
I think that today's action would violate our agreement with the
States. I frankly thank my friend from New Jersey for encouraging the
Governors, encouraging the speakers of the house to do what they have
every right--and the Congress, in fact, in 2000, gave them the right--
to do.
The minority leader was the chairman of the committee that determines
all of this just a handful of years ago and took no actions to do what
the Senate is talking about doing today.
So with that in mind, I object
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, if I could just respond--I know how busy
my colleague is. He has a well-earned reputation on both sides of this
body for his sincerity, for his decency, and for his honor. I take to
heart his words that this is often not a good forum in which to try to
push a piece of legislation that might have controversy on both sides.
I understand his sincere concerns with that.
I guess he also understands the sincerity with which I bring this up:
the hurt and the pain that these statues represent in a place where
millions of Americans come to the Capitol and see this as their body.
I say to the Senator, because there are complications in this and
there are issues we would have to work through as a Senate, I guess the
one last appeal to your more senior status and maybe your friendship is
this: Will you join me, at least, on a letter to the appropriate
committee, asking them to at least have a hearing on this issue so that
we could have a full vetting of all of the complexities and have a real
discussion on something that is a pressing concern? I note that you
know it is a pressing concern because some States are already taking
action.
You see this action being taken across various parts of our country.
You see this issue being pushed into the national consciousness. You
see Republicans and Democrats, from Nikki Haley to my dear friend, the
former mayor of New Orleans, Mayor Landrieu--I think it would be just
and right that, perhaps, you and I, in a show of bipartisan concern and
sincere awareness of the complexity of this issue, could just join--the
two of us--in a letter asking the committee to take up this issue in
due time so that we can have an appropriate discussion from all
perspectives on this issue.
Mr. BLUNT. If I could have the chance to respond here----
Mr. BOOKER. Of course.
Mr. BLUNT. This bill was just assigned to our committee. This is a
discussion that, I guess appropriately, we might have had before I was
asked to come to the floor to assert the rights of the committee, to
have the opportunity to think about that. I don't know that I want to
negotiate that right here. But as I said, and my friend heard just a
moment ago, I would like to hear from the States that are replacing
statues and I would like to hear from the States that are thinking
about replacing statues if this is a problem in the process of, under
the current structure, solving itself.
I am glad to have continued discussions about this. I certainly don't
impugn my friend's motives. You know, you can question somebody's
decision to maybe bring a bill this quickly to the floor without giving
us a chance to talk about it, but I have no interest, then, in
impugning my friend's motives and understand some of the concerns my
friend would have on this topic.
Mr. BOOKER. Thank you, sir.
If I may, I will make a personal appeal for a hearing on these
matters. I hope that we can do that in due time. I know the pace at
which the Senate often works, but I am grateful for this open dialogue
and I know you had to adjust your schedule so I am grateful for your
time and generosity.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.