[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 22, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3617-H3618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE CONVERSATION ON STATUE REMOVAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, it is time, yet again, to 
correct the record.
  For years, my colleagues across the aisle and the mainstream media 
have been spouting off unfounded claims that Republicans are complicit 
with the presence of statues in the Capitol that memorialize figures 
who had ties to the Confederacy.
  Democrats seem to have forgotten that members of their own party on 
the State and Federal levels are the ones responsible for these statues 
in the first place.
  Since 1870 statues have been present in the Capitol, and since then, 
Democrats retained a majority in the House 39 times. They had ample 
opportunities to remove controversial statues from the Capitol, yet, 
they did nothing. Why has it taken this long for them to even broach 
the issue?
  We can all agree that racism, in any shape or form, must be denounced 
and rejected. But it is odd that my colleagues across the aisle want to 
skew the narrative, do everything they possibly can to rewrite history, 
and insert themselves into a conversation where they lean on conjecture 
more than they do on facts.
  For years, I have advocated that both of North Carolina's statues of 
Charles Aycock and Zebulon Vance be removed based on their ties to the 
Confederacy.
  I have suggested that two statues of people that all North 
Carolinians and Americans can be proud of be put in their place. I am 
proud that the first Republican majority in North Carolina's 
legislature in 140 years voted in 2015 to replace the Aycock statue 
with a statue of Reverend Billy Graham.
  For years, the North Carolina Democrat Party has used former Governor 
Aycock's name, along with Governor Vance, for major fundraisers, and 
have held meetings in buildings named after him. Where was the 
initiative then?
  North Carolina's former Democrat Governor, Bev Perdue, sidestepped 
questions about buildings named after former Governor Aycock in press 
conferences. Instead, she pivoted to his impact on public education in 
North Carolina. Again, I say, where was the initiative to remove the 
statutes then?
  Even in 2007, in a Democrat primary for Governor in North Carolina, 
it was said that addressing controversial statues was not the answer 
and that ``the issue of equality is one that North Carolina must deal 
with on a more broader level.''

  If our colleagues across the aisle want to have a meaningful 
discussion on this issue with us, we welcome it.
  The decision to replace these statues goes beyond bipartisan 
collaboration. It is about doing what is right, in an expeditious 
manner, as opposed to exploiting a situation to score cheap political 
points.
  Mr. Speaker, describing the vote we will hold today as ``political 
showmanship'' would be an understatement.

[[Page H3618]]

Maybe it is to compensate for the fact that Democrats are responsible 
for the statutes having been placed in the Capitol and the times 
Democrats failed to act in the past. You be the judge.

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