[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 22, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3658-H3666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  REPLACING BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL

  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill (H.R. 7573) to direct the Architect of the Capitol to replace 
the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the 
United States Capitol with a bust of Thurgood Marshall to be obtained 
by the Joint Committee on the Library and to remove certain statues 
from areas of the United States Capitol which are accessible to the 
public, to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the 
Confederate States of America from display in the United States 
Capitol, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 7573

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. REPLACEMENT OF BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH 
                   BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) While sitting in the United States Capitol, the Supreme 
     Court issued the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on 
     March 6, 1857. Written by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, 
     whose bust sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court 
     Chamber in the United States Capitol, this opinion declared 
     that African Americans were not citizens of the United States 
     and could not sue in Federal courts. This decision further 
     declared that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit 
     slavery in the territories.
       (2) Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's authorship of Dred 
     Scott v. Sandford, the effects of which would only be 
     overturned years later by the ratification of the 13th, 14th, 
     and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, 
     renders a bust of his likeness unsuitable for the honor of 
     display to the many visitors to the United States Capitol.
       (3) As Frederick Douglass said of this decision in May 
     1857, ``This infamous decision of the Slaveholding wing of 
     the Supreme Court maintains that slaves are within the 
     contemplation of the Constitution of the United States, 
     property; that slaves are property in the same sense that 
     horses, sheep, and swine are property; that the old doctrine 
     that slavery is a creature of local law is false; that the 
     right of the slaveholder to his slave does not depend upon 
     the local law, but is secured wherever the Constitution of 
     the United States extends; that Congress has no right to 
     prohibit slavery anywhere; that slavery may go in safety 
     anywhere under the star-spangled banner; that colored persons 
     of African descent have no rights that white men are bound to 
     respect; that colored men of African descent are not and 
     cannot be citizens of the United States.''.
       (4) While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's 
     bust from the United States Capitol does not relieve the 
     Congress of the historical wrongs it committed to protect the 
     institution of slavery, it expresses Congress's recognition 
     of one of the most notorious wrongs to have ever taken place 
     in one of its rooms, that of Chief Justice Roger Brooke 
     Taney's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision.
       (b) Removal of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney.--Not later than 
     45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
     Joint Committee on the Library shall remove the bust of Roger 
     Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United 
     States Capitol.
       (c) Replacement With Bust of Thurgood Marshall.--
       (1) Obtaining bust.--Not later than 2 years after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee on the 
     Library shall enter into an agreement to obtain a bust of 
     Thurgood Marshall, under such terms and conditions as the 
     Joint Committee considers appropriate consistent with 
     applicable law.
       (2) Placement.--The Joint Committee on the Library shall 
     place the bust obtained under paragraph (1) in the location 
     in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol 
     where the bust of Roger Brooke Taney was located prior to 
     removal by the Architect of the Capitol under subsection (b).

     SEC. 2. REMOVAL OF CERTAIN STATUES AND BUST.

       (a) Removal.--Not later than 45 days after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee on the Library 
     shall remove the statue of Charles Brantley Aycock, the 
     statue of John Caldwell Calhoun, the statue of James Paul 
     Clarke, and the bust of John Cabell Breckinridge from any 
     area of the United States Capitol which is accessible to the 
     public.
       (b) Storage of Statues.--The Architect of the Capitol shall 
     keep any statue and bust removed under subsection (a) in 
     storage until the Architect and the State which provided the 
     statue or bust arrange for the return of the statue or bust 
     to the State.

     SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS AND REMOVAL PROCEDURES FOR STATUES IN 
                   NATIONAL STATUARY HALL.

       (a) Requirements.--Section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 
     U.S.C. 2131) is amended by inserting ``(other than persons 
     who served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate 
     States of America or of the military forces or government of 
     a State while the State was in rebellion against the United 
     States)'' after ``military services''.
       (b) Statue Removal Procedures.--
       (1) In general.--
       (A) Identification by architect of the capitol.--The 
     Architect of the Capitol shall identify all statues on 
     display in the United States Capitol that do not meet the 
     requirements of section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 
     U.S.C. 2131), as amended by subsection (a); and
       (B) Removal by joint committee on the library.--The Joint 
     Committee on the Library shall arrange for the removal of 
     each statue identified by the Architect of the Capitol under 
     subparagraph (B) from the Capitol by not later than 120 days 
     after the date of enactment of this Act.
       (2) Removal and return of statues.--
       (A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (C), the Architect 
     of the Capitol shall arrange to transfer and deliver any 
     statue that is removed under this subsection to the 
     Smithsonian Institution.
       (B) Storage or display of statues.--The Board of Regents of 
     the Smithsonian Institution shall follow the policies and 
     procedures of the Smithsonian Institution, as in effect on 
     the day before the date of enactment of this Act, regarding 
     the storage and display of any statue transferred under 
     subparagraph (A).
       (C) State requests.--A statue provided for display by a 
     State that is removed under this subsection shall be returned 
     to the State, and the ownership of the statue transferred to 
     the State, if the State so requests and agrees to pay any 
     costs related to the transportation of the statue to the 
     State.
       (3) Replacement of statues.--A State that has a statue 
     removed under this subsection shall be able to replace such 
     statue in accordance with the requirements and procedures of 
     section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131) and 
     section 311 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 
     2001 (2 U.S.C. 2132).
       (4) Authorization and appropriations.--
       (A) In general.--There are appropriated for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 2021, out of any money in the Treasury 
     not otherwise appropriated, $5,000,000 to carry out this 
     section, including the costs related to the removal, 
     transfer, security, storage, and display of the statues 
     described in paragraph (1)(A), of which--
       (i) $2,000,000 shall be made available to the Architect of 
     the Capitol; and
       (ii) $3,000,000 shall be made available to the Smithsonian 
     Institution.
       (B) Availability.--Amounts appropriated under subparagraph 
     (A) shall remain available until expended.

     SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       In addition to the amounts appropriated under section 
     3(b)(4), there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as 
     may be necessary to carry out this Act, and any amounts so 
     appropriated shall remain available until expended.

     SEC. 5. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.

       The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 
     complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall 
     be determined by reference to the latest statement titled 
     ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, 
     submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the 
     Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such 
     statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of today, 
the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) and the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring this legislation to the floor today on behalf of 
the Committee on House Administration. I thank our chair, Congresswoman 
Zoe Lofgren, for her leadership. I thank Ranking Member Rodney Davis 
for his friendship and leadership on our committee. I thank Mr. Davis, 
and as I said to him privately, I thank him for the spirit in which he 
has approached this important but delicate issue.

[[Page H3659]]

  Recognizing the issue of removing Confederate statues from the 
Capitol has been simmering for years. Since I recognize that, I will 
now approach the issue today with the utmost respect for those who are 
opposed to the goal of the legislation. But I ask the dissenters to 
consider that America has been a divided nation since its founding, and 
it is past time for us to close this chapter of American history by 
removing statues that depict an era that caused enormous pain to 
African-American citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, as you, I grew up in the rural, segregated South. 
Commonplace were Confederate flags and monuments on public property, 
honoring Confederate soldiers and the Confederacy. Many Southern 
jurisdictions are now voluntarily removing these statues.
  President Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 general election by winning 18 
of 29 States. The 11 States that Lincoln failed to carry were 
slaveholding States. These States were fearful that Lincoln would find 
a way to end slavery and deprive slave owners of their so-called 
property.
  Eleven Southern States, after Lincoln was elected, immediately 
seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The 
CSA elected its leadership. They printed a currency and stood up a 
military.
  At Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the Confederate States of America 
took military action against the United States of America. For the 
following 4 years, more than 600,000 Americans lost their lives on the 
battlefield, including, I might say, African-American soldiers who 
fought for the Union.
  This was not a war between the States; it was a war against the 
United States of America by 11 Southern States.
  When the Union finally won the war, and both sides buried their dead, 
4 million slaves were granted their freedom by the signing of the 
Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13th Amendment.

                              {time}  1415

  In 1864, each State was granted the privilege to donate two statues 
of deceased persons to be displayed in the Capitol that depict the 
history of their State. These statues are now known as the National 
Statuary Hall Collection. Approximately 10 of these statues depict men 
who volunteered to fight against the United States in the Civil War.
  All of these statues were donated many decades after the Civil War. 
Like many other statues around the country honoring members of the CSA, 
and particularly those erected in the South, these 10 statues were not 
donated and installed in the Capitol until the 1900s, during the height 
of Jim Crow.
  Many Americans see these statues and the timing of their placement as 
a means to intimidate African Americans and to perpetuate the notion of 
white supremacy. We must not continue to honor these combatants by 
allowing their images to be on display in the Capitol.
  The bill before us today also identifies several other statues for 
removal or replacement that are not part of the National Statuary Hall 
Collection, including the bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who 
authored the 1857 Supreme Court decision of Dred Scott v. Sandford, 
which ruled that slaves could not be considered citizens and that 
Congress did not have the ability to ban slavery. This opinion, Mr. 
Speaker, is regarded as possibly the Supreme Court's worst decision of 
all time, and the 7-2 decision was a major factor contributing to the 
war.
  Another bust not part of the collection is of Vice President John 
Breckinridge, 1857 to 1861. In 1860, Mr. Speaker, Breckinridge ran for 
President on the Southern Democratic ticket and he lost.
  During the Civil War, Breckinridge served in the United States Senate 
from Kentucky but became a traitor and enlisted in the Confederate 
military, and he was assigned to the army of Mississippi stationed in 
Jackson, Mississippi, achieving the rank of major general. He was 
expelled from the Senate. Jefferson Davis then appointed him as 
Secretary of War. After the war, he fled the country for several years.
  So I ask my colleagues, I ask America: Does this bust deserve to 
stand outside of the Senate Chamber? I would hope that your answer to 
that question will be no.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to answer the summons of our time by 
voting to remove all of these offensive statues from the Capitol of the 
United States of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Pelosi), the Speaker of the House.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for 
his leadership in bringing us together today, along with our 
distinguished leader, Mr. Hoyer; our distinguished whip, Mr.  Jim 
Clyburn; Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass; Chairman Bennie 
Thompson; Congresswoman Barbara Lee; and Mr. Butterfield. I thank Mr. 
Butterfield for leading this critical effort, so important.
  Mr. Speaker, as our country knows, nearly 2 months after the murder 
of George Floyd, America remains gripped by anguish as racial injustice 
continues to kill hundreds of Black Americans and tear apart the soul 
of our country.
  Last month, inspired by the activism of the American people and led 
by the Congressional Black Caucus, the House passed the George Floyd 
Justice in Policing Act to fundamentally transform the culture of 
policing, to address systemic racism, curb police brutality, deliver 
accountability, and save lives.
  On Juneteenth, I had the privilege as Speaker of the House, by my 
authority as Speaker of the House, to remove four paintings of Speakers 
of the House who were in the Speaker's lobby, to remove them because 
they were part of the Confederacy, three of them before they came to 
the Congress and one who came after his participation in the 
Confederacy.
  It was long overdue. When we were checking out the statues, we found 
out about the paintings, and on Juneteenth we said good-bye to those 
four.
  Now in Congress and in the country, we must maintain a drumbeat to 
ensure that this moment of anguish continues to be transformed into 
action. That is why, today, the House is proud to pass legislation to 
remove from the U.S. Capitol the 12 statues of Confederate officials 
and four other statues honoring persons who similarly exemplify bigotry 
and hate.
  Mr. Speaker, again I thank Leader Hoyer, Whip Clyburn, CBC Chair 
Karen Bass, Chairman Bennie Thompson, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and 
Chairman G.K. Butterfield for leading this effort.
  As I have said before, the Halls of Congress are the very heart of 
our democracy. The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest 
ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and what we aspire to as a 
nation. Monuments to men who advocated barbarism and racism are a 
grotesque affront to those ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, 
not heritage.
  Among the Confederate statues in the Capitol--can you believe this?--
are Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, president and vice 
president, respectively, of the Confederacy, both of whom were charged 
with treason against America. Both were charged with treason against 
America, and they have statues in the Capitol.
  Now, think of this about Stephens--I hate to even use his words, but 
it may be important for people to know why the statues have to go in 
clearer terms. The infamous words of Stephens make as clear today as 
they did in 1861 the aims of the Confederacy.
  In his so-called Cornerstone Speech, Stephens asserted that the 
``prevailing ideas'' relied upon by the Framers included ``the 
assumption of the equality of races. This was in error,'' says Mr. 
Stephens.
  Instead, he laid out in blunt and simple terms the awful truth of the 
Confederacy. He said: ``Our new government is founded upon exactly the 
opposite idea.''
  Imagine, exactly the opposite idea of equality of races.
  ``Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great 
truth''--and these are his words; I hate to even use them, but we have 
to face this reality--``the Negro is not equal to the White man; that 
slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal 
condition.''

  He has got a statue in the Capitol of the United States.
  How can we seek to end the scourge of racism in America when we allow

[[Page H3660]]

the worst perpetrators of that racism to be lauded in the Halls of 
Congress?
  This bill also removes the statue of John Calhoun, the unapologetic 
leader of the Senate's pro-slavery faction, who, on the Senate floor, 
celebrated slavery as a ``positive good.''
  Mr. Speaker, I know Mr. Clyburn supports removing this South 
Carolinian.
  On the floor, John C. Calhoun made this vile assertion that ``in few 
countries is so much left to the share of the laborer, and so little 
exacted from him, or more kind attention paid to him in sickness or 
infirmities of age.''
  What could he have been talking about?
  It removes from the old Supreme Court Chamber the bust of Justice 
Roger Taney. And this is because of the persistent leadership of Mr. 
Hoyer, who has been on this case for a long time.
  Justice Taney was the author of the Dred Scott ruling, which Mr. 
Butterfield very clearly laid out as probably one of the worst 
decisions of the Supreme Court ever, certainly a horrific stain on the 
history of our country, and certainly on the Court.
  How fitting it is that the Taney bust will be replaced with a bust of 
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a towering champion of 
equality and justice in America.
  Mr. Clyburn, as well as Mr. Hoyer, has been working on this. Mr. 
Hoyer is a Marylander. I am a Baltimorean. As we all know, the airport 
in Baltimore is named for Thurgood Marshall. So as one who was born and 
raised there, I take pride in his leadership and service to the 
country.
  Let us recall Justice Marshall's words spoken nearly 30 years ago but 
as true today. Justice Marshall said: ``Democracy cannot flourish amid 
fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid 
rage. America must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, 
we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the 
indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the 
fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent, because America 
can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.''
  How much our great Elijah Cummings reflected the words of Thurgood 
Marshall, two Baltimoreans.
  The Congress now has a sacred opportunity and obligation to do 
better, to make meaningful change to ensure that the halls of the U.S. 
Capitol reflect the highest ideals as Americans.
  Mr. Hoyer, as our distinguished floor leader, had this planned for 
awhile that everybody would work together and bring this composite bill 
to the floor at this time. Little did we know when those plans were 
being made that, at the same time, we would be mourning the loss of our 
darling John Lewis. It is a death in the family for us in the Congress. 
But he knew that this was in the works, and he is up there looking down 
on us to make sure it happens in the most bipartisan way.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for this important step 
for justice, reconciliation, and progress in America.
  As far as our John Lewis is concerned: Thank you. Thank you for 
bringing us to this place. May you rest in peace.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, at this time, it looks 
like I am going to be here on the floor with many of our colleagues who 
are going to offer remarks on this legislation, so I will give my 
opening remarks after I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock).
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, the Confederacy was 
a fundamental attack on our Constitution and the founding principles of 
our Nation, and it should never be romanticized or lauded.
  I have got no problems with removing, lawfully, any monument that 
specifically honors this rebellion, but that is not what this bill 
does. Rather, it begins by removing the bust of Roger Taney from the 
Old Supreme Court Chamber.
  Now, it is true he wrote the absolutely worst decision ever rendered 
by the Supreme Court, the Dred Scott decision, but let's not forget he 
also presided over and joined in one of its better decisions, the 
Amistad slave case.
  If we remove memorials to every person in this building who ever made 
a bad decision--and his was the worst--well, this will be a very barren 
place, indeed. It is only by the bad things in our history that we can 
truly measure all of the good things in our history.
  Now, this bill also removes the statues of Confederate sympathizers 
sent to the Capitol by the States. Well, that is not our decision. That 
is a decision that has always belonged to the individual States, and 
several of them are already making these decisions. We should let them.
  The only other one is John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, who is 
honored not for his service to the Confederacy but, rather, for his 
service as Vice President of the United States. And, granted, we have 
had some absolutely terrible Vice Presidents through our history, and I 
am sure we will in the future, but if we are going to start down that 
road, we are going to be swapping out statues like trading cards at the 
whim of the moment. Our Nation's history should be made of sterner 
stuff.
  Perhaps we would all be better advised to practice a little temporal 
humility and heed the wisdom of Omar Khayyam: ``The moving finger 
writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall 
lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word 
of it.''
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the Democratic whip, 
the gentleman representing the Sixth Congressional District of South 
Carolina, the State where the Civil War began, who is a national expert 
on American history, having been a former history teacher, as I recall.

                              {time}  1430

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
for yielding me the time, and for his leadership and his management of 
this significant piece of legislation.
  I want to thank Mr. Davis and the other Members on the other side for 
their tremendous cooperation in trying to help us move to a more 
perfect Union.
  Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, I stood on this floor and I referred to 
this Chamber, this great Hall, as America's classroom. And it is in 
that spirit that I think of this building as America's schoolhouse. And 
what is taught in this building, what is experienced by the people who 
visit this building ought to be about the uplifting of this great 
Nation.
  What people see when they come here, who people see lauded, 
glorified, and honored when they visit this building ought to be people 
who are uplifting to history and the human spirit.
  It is in that light that I recall the writings of one great writer 
who wrote that if we fail to learn the lessons of history--I think it 
was George Santiano--we are bound to repeat them.
  There are a lot of lessons to be learned from history. I study it 
every day. Hardly a day goes by when I don't spend some time looking at 
some facet of American history.
  We did not come to this floor with this legislation to get rid of 
that history. A lot of it we don't like; a lot of it we do like. And I 
think that what we need to do is discern between what should be honored 
and what should be relegated to the museums and to other places to 
commemorate that history. That is not eradicating history. That is 
putting history in its proper place.
  And for those who did not do what I think they should have done, they 
have got a place in the history books, but it is not to be honored, and 
it is not to be glorified. It ought to be put in its proper 
perspective.
  So I don't have a problem with the fact that one of the statues in 
here, John C. Calhoun--he was a historical figure. He died in 1850, if 
my memory serves, 10 years before the war broke out. So we aren't 
talking about John C. Calhoun as a Confederate. We are talking about 
John C. Calhoun as one of the Nation's biggest proponents of slavery 
and the relegation of human beings.
  I want to thank my home State of South Carolina, because the people 
of Charleston, Mayor Tecklenburg and the city council in Charleston, 
decided several weeks ago, the John C. Calhoun statue should be taken 
down, and they did it.

[[Page H3661]]

  Clemson University--Calhoun, one of the great founders of that 
university--is one of the original land grant schools. Clemson 
University decided that they would take John C. Calhoun's name off of 
their honors college.
  So if the State of South Carolina, where he was from sees that, why 
is it that we are going to laud him in this building?
  I am asking my colleagues to do for John C. Calhoun what his home 
State is doing for him, putting him in his proper place, not a place of 
honor. They didn't tear down his statue; they very meticulously took it 
down to retire to his proper place.
  Mr. Speaker, you and I spoke last night about one other gentleman 
whose statue is in this building, Wade Hampton. Wade Hampton, he was 
not a Confederate, but he was a perseverer. There were three Wade 
Hamptons, senior, and the third.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from South 
Carolina an additional 1 minute.
  Mr. CLYBURN. But Wade Hampton's history should not be glorified. I 
don't know what my State's going to do about him, but what I would like 
to see us do here is put him in his proper place.
  So those two statues that are here representing the State of South 
Carolina need to be removed from their places of honor and, at some 
point, I would hope the State would bring them back home and put them 
in their proper place.
  So, I would like to say here today that I am not for destroying any 
statue. I am not here for burning down any building. I am here to ask 
my colleagues to return these people very properly and lawfully to 
their proper place. Put them where they can be studied. Put them where 
people will know exactly who and what they were.
  But do not honor them. Do not glorify them. Take them out of this 
great schoolhouse so that the people who visit here can be uplifted by 
what this country is all about.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time 
as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to follow Whip Clyburn and the historical 
context of being a history teacher, and also the historical context of 
serving this institution and what it means. So I thank Whip Clyburn for 
his leadership.
  I thank my good friend, Mr. Butterfield, for his leadership on this 
issue. We are going to work together today to make sure that we are 
sending a message to the American people that it is Republicans and 
Democrats standing together.
  Now, I have a unique district in central Illinois. I am from the Land 
of Lincoln. As a matter of fact, Abe, himself, lived in my district. I 
represent Lincoln's Tomb, Lincoln's Home. The old State Capitol where 
Abraham Lincoln delivered his ``House Divided'' speech in 1858 is in my 
Congressional District. It was there when Lincoln not only spoke out 
against slavery and, specifically, the Dred Scott decision, but stood 
unequivocally in support of a free country, famously saying: ``A house 
divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot 
endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it 
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
other.''
  While Lincoln and many others who stood for freedom are represented 
throughout this Capitol, there are others that symbolize the opposite. 
While we cannot erase our past and should do everything we can--as Whip 
Clyburn just stated--we should do everything we can to learn from it 
instead.

  The statues in the U.S. Capitol represent to visitors throughout the 
world what we stand for as a Nation. I support this important 
discussion about which statues belong in the U.S. Capitol and, also, 
the goal of this legislation.
  Before we began debating this piece of legislation, my friend, Mr. 
Butterfield, and I had a discussion, a discussion about the 13th 
Amendment. And I invite all Members of this institution to come to my 
district, to come to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and 
Library, where I can show you an original copy of the 13th Amendment; 
also, one of the first copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.
  This institution is not just an extended classroom. Where Lincoln 
lived, where Lincoln is honored, the 13th District of Illinois, that I 
am truly blessed to represent, is also a living classroom of the good 
things in our Nation's history.
  Now, we also have to remember that the National Statuary Hall 
Collection was created in 1864 to commemorate States and their 
contributions to this country. And many statues being discussed today 
were donated by States to the collection nearly 100 years ago. And as 
my colleagues earlier said, many States are already working to remove 
them.
  While I support their removal, I believe the better route would have 
been to have some more hearings in the Committee on House 
Administration. But today, today, is not about politics. Today is about 
coming together as an institution. And today is a day that I can say I 
proudly am blessed to be a Member of Congress.
  Our country, right now, is facing a very difficult time, and Abraham 
Lincoln's spirit of unity is desperately needed. ``A house divided 
against itself cannot stand.'' As leaders, we need to come together to 
show there is much more that unites us Americans than divides us, and 
lead this country, together, Republicans and Democrats, through this 
difficult time.
  I hope this legislation today, the bipartisanship that we will see, 
is a shining example to the rest of the country of what we can build 
together.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Let me thank the gentleman from Illinois. I am just delighted that he 
mentioned that his home State, the State of Illinois, was, in fact, the 
home of Abraham Lincoln.
  I am a student of history and love to read that portion of our 
history, and I recall that many people believe that it was the 
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 of 1863 that legally ended 
slavery in America. The Emancipation Proclamation, as great as it was, 
was an executive order.
  It was the 13th Amendment, as the gentleman mentioned, that legally 
ended slavery in America; thereby freeing 4 million slaves, most of 
whom lived in the South.
  Mr. Speaker, you should know, and to my friend from Illinois, that it 
was on January 31, 1865, a few days after Lincoln's re-election, that 
this body, this body, the House of Representatives, passed the 13th 
Amendment to the Constitution. It required the ratification of 27 
States.
  The gentleman from Illinois' home State was the first State, on 
February 1, 1865 to ratify the 13th Amendment. My State of North 
Carolina was the 26th State, and the State of Georgia was the final 
State to ratify the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Hoyer), the State which is the home of both Chief Justice Taney and the 
first African American Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the 
Honorable Thurgood Marshall.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina, 
the former Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, for yielding.
  I am glad that I was on the floor to hear the remarks of the ranking 
member, Mr. Davis. I am going to bring up a quote. I won't get it soon 
enough to read right now, but I will read it.
  David Brooks wrote a column in the New York Times and he said we were 
facing five crises in America. One, of course, the pandemic.
  He said the second crisis was the crisis of confronting racism and 
the history of racism and slavery and segregation in our country.
  The observation he made was that Americans, post-George Floyd, have 
been riveted on the recognition of our past and the recognition of our 
present, and how we need to improve the treatment and the reality of 
equality in America.

                              {time}  1445

  I think Brooks' observation will be proved today on the floor, Mr. 
Speaker, as we come together not in partisan

[[Page H3662]]

disagreement but in unity of purpose, recognizing that our conscience 
and the conscience of America has also been pricked by the loss of John 
Lewis, who all his life fought for equality.
  Mr. Speaker, the Capitol Building is a sacred space for our American 
democracy. It is where we write our laws, inaugurate our Presidents, 
and say a somber farewell to great Americans who earned our respect, 
like Dwight Eisenhower, other Presidents, and Rosa Parks.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot erase the difficult history and painful truth 
that this temple to liberty was built using the labor of enslaved 
people. But we can, Mr. Speaker, do everything in our power to ensure 
that how we use the Capitol today reflects our commitment to equality 
and justice for all.
  For too long, we have greeted visitors from here and abroad with the 
statues of those who denigrated these values by championing sedition, 
slavery, segregation, and inequality.
  As a Marylander, I have always been uncomfortable that the Old 
Supreme Court Chamber prominently displays a bust of former Chief 
Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who was from my district, as a matter of 
fact, the county across the river from my house, Calvert County.
  Taney, of course, was the son of slaveholders and the author of the 
1857 Dred Scott ruling that upheld slavery and said that African 
Americans could not be citizens. This was a man, Mr. Speaker, who, in 
his zeal to protect the interests of slaveholders and uphold a system 
of white supremacy, wrote an opinion that twisted the very meaning of 
America's founding.
  After quoting the Declaration of Independence, ``We hold these truths 
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,'' Taney wrote this: 
``The general words above quoted would seem to embrace the whole human 
family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day,'' 
meaning 1857, ``would be so understood.'' He went on to say: ``But it 
is too clear for dispute that the enslaved African race were not 
intended to be included and formed no part of the people who framed and 
adopted this declaration.'' Of course, neither did women.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, Taney argued that, in his day, in 1857, people 
of African descent had come to be seen as human beings, but because our 
Founders in 1776 did not view them as such, Black people could never 
truly be citizens of the United States.
  What he was saying, Mr. Speaker, was that Black lives did not matter. 
And so, Mr. Speaker, when we hear that phrase today, that Black lives 
matter, it is fundamental to what America is and has become.
  Sadly, Roger Brooke Taney--respected in his time, the attorney 
general of my State, the Attorney General of the United States, the 
Acting Secretary of the Treasury--could not extricate himself from the 
false premises of the past.
  Abraham Lincoln was, as Mr. Davis pointed out, outraged at the 
decision he wrote, arguably, as my friend the Justice said earlier 
today, the worst case in the history of the Supreme Court of the United 
States.
  In short, Taney argued that people of African descent had come to be 
seen as human beings, but because our Founders did not view them as 
such, Black people could never truly be citizens of our country. Think 
of that, the blindness and schizophrenia of 1787 repeated 80 years 
later in 1857.
  One of the great facets of America is that we can grow. We change, 
and we can accommodate to better knowledge, better insight, and better 
inclinations. The past, Taney argued, bound those in the present to 
follow the errors of their forebears in perpetuity. Let us reject that 
premise out of hand lest the more perfect Union will never be 
attainable.
  What he could not or would not accept is that the passage of time 
allows us the space to grow as individuals, as States, and as a country 
so that we may see our faults and correct them, not repeat them.
  In Maryland, we have grappled with that difficult history of our 
State with regard to slavery and the Civil War. While our State did not 
secede from the Union, many Marylanders sympathized with slavery in the 
South and fought for the Confederacy.
  Mr. Speaker, I represent what was the largest slaveholding area of 
the State of Maryland. We grew tobacco and some cotton, but mainly 
tobacco. Early Maryland was built on the profits of slavery, and it 
sent individuals like Taney to serve in America's earliest 
institutions. Indeed, in his infamous decision, he drew on his home 
State's ban of interracial marriage as justification for his views.
  One of the ironies, Mr. Speaker, is that I was elected to the 
Maryland State Senate in 1966, and one of my first votes in January 
1967 as a Maryland State senator at the age of 27 was to vote to repeal 
the miscegenation statutes in my State. Of course, the Supreme Court 
had ruled on that before, but we still had not repealed it 110 years 
after Dred Scott.
  Maryland today, like other States where slavery and segregation had a 
long history, is not the same place that it was when Taney wrote his 
opinion, nor are these States today the same places they were when many 
of the statues and busts of Confederates and segregationists were sent 
here to our Capitol during a period of intense and racially charged 
sectionalism.
  In recent years, Maryland made the courageous and correct choice to 
remove a statue of Taney from the grounds of the statehouse in 
Annapolis. I strongly supported that decision, as did our Republican 
Governor, Mr. Hogan, and our Democratic legislature.
  Removing a statue--as my dear friend of over one-half century, Mr. 
Clyburn, observed on this floor--does not erase history. That act by 
itself will not make right what was so terribly wrong in the past. But 
the statues we choose to set in places of honor are a reflection of the 
present, not the past. They show our fellow American and foreign 
visitors what our values are today.
  Our decision to remove statues of seditionists, white supremacists, 
Confederates, and segregationists and replace them with defenders of 
justice and equality shows that, as a country, we are capable of 
critical introspection and growth.

  That is our strength. That is the glory of America: working toward a 
more perfect Union.
  That is why I introduced this bill along with Representative Lee, 
Whip Clyburn, Chairwoman Bass, and Chairman Thompson, who sits in the 
chair today. That itself is a historic demonstration of the change that 
we have wrought. Not only could a Black man from Mississippi be a 
Member of the Congress, but he can preside over the Congress. He 
matters, and his life matters.
  Taney was wrong because, in the 21st century, we must not be Roger 
Brooke Taney's America anymore, nor can we be Jim Crow's.
  Our bill removes the bust of Chief Justice Taney from the Old Supreme 
Court Chamber and replaces it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a son 
of Baltimore. The irony is the Taney statue was on the east front of 
the Capitol, Mr. Speaker. If you turned around and went through the 
Capitol 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years, if you went through about 
500 feet and walked out on the west front, you walked into Thurgood 
Marshall Memorial, as you would today. He was our first African-
American Justice.
  How appropriate it is that we honor him in place of Roger Brooke 
Taney. Thurgood Marshall is the face of our Maryland in 2020, not Roger 
Taney.
  Second, our bill no longer allows States to display statues in the 
Capitol of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederacy against 
our Union during the Civil War.
  Let me just say as an aside that none of us are perfect. Our Founders 
weren't perfect, but what our Founders did was create a union. The 
statues we are removing tried to destroy a union.
  Third, there are three specific statues in the collection of 
individuals who did not serve in the Confederacy but whose careers were 
built on the perpetuation of White supremacy and segregation. Our bill 
would require those statues to be removed and replaced as well, as my 
friend, Jim Clyburn, said, not destroyed. We urge nobody to tear down 
statues--to remove them, yes; to destroy them, no.
  They do not reflect the diversity and inclusivity of our Nation 
today, nor do they comport with our values as a nation that has reached 
a greater understanding of the principles enshrined in the Declaration 
of Independence, that all are created equal, and humankind,

[[Page H3663]]

Taney admitted in 1857, would have been the understanding of that 
phrase. There are still, sadly, a lot of people in our country in 2020 
who do not understand that our diversity is our strength or recognize 
clearly that Black lives matter.
  Taney forcefully argued they did not. He was willfully wrong. They 
do, and they must. I believe that most Americans are deeply distressed 
by racial injustice and want to see the progress of the civil rights 
movement continue. They want our Nation and our democracy to grow, 
mature, and become more perfect. Part of that process is making it 
clear through our symbols and public displays of honor what our country 
stands for and, as importantly, what it must never stand for again.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
join us not as an expression of partisan opinion but an expression of 
America's values to our citizens and to the world that we do not 
glorify racism, bigotry, and exclusion in the temple to liberty and in 
the land of the free.
  I hope our colleagues will join in making possible and making sure 
that all Americans, no matter their race, can come to this Capitol and 
know that they have an equal share in a government that is truly of the 
people, by the people, and for the people.

                              {time}  1500

  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from the State of Michigan (Mr. Mitchell), my friend.
  Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Rodney Davis) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I wasn't planning on speaking on this. It is an honor to 
speak after Mr. Hoyer.
  I heard Mr. Clyburn speak eloquently regarding the removal of 
statues, statues including that of former Chief Justice Taney, a statue 
honoring him for what we all agree was the most dreadful decision the 
Supreme Court has ever made in this country, not based upon the law but 
based upon his feelings that African Americans weren't people.
  I am speaking today not so much that it convinces anybody in this 
Chamber, but I am speaking about history, and I am speaking about my 
children, my children and my grandchildren, that they need to remember 
the history of this Nation.
  The history of this Nation is so fraught with racial division, with 
hatred, and the only way to overcome that is to recognize that, 
acknowledge it for what it is.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution, and I support what Mr. 
Clyburn said: to remove statues such as that of Mr. Taney, to lawfully 
remove them--not tear them down, not destroy them--return them back to 
the States and places from which they came, and to study, to put them 
in the study of the history of this Nation, because it should not be 
lost. Tearing it down does not do justice to the history of this Nation 
and what our young people must understand.
  Mr. Speaker, what you have gone through in your life, Mr. Lewis did 
and others, we can't simply ignore it and say, because we tore down 
statues or we burn things, it is suddenly gone. No, we need to 
recognize those things as part of our history in order to move on 
beyond them. Because, as many have said, to not acknowledge, to 
recognize, to understand our history runs a very real risk of reliving 
it. And, my God, we can't continue to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I support the resolution and support the removal of 
statues.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), a passionate advocate for 
underserved communities.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman 
for yielding and for his tremendous leadership and constantly reminding 
us of the accurate accounting of the United States' history.
  Also, I thank our Speaker; our majority leader; our whip, Mr. 
Clyburn; Chairwoman Bass; Chairman Bennie Thompson; and, of course, 
Congressman Butterfield for moving this legislation forward with the 
urgency that it requires.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7573, which would 
remove shameful reminders of slavery and segregation from the United 
States Capitol.
  Now, in 2017, in the wake of the white nationalist rally in 
Charlottesville, I introduced the Confederate Monument Removal Act to 
remove all statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederacy 
from the Capitol building. So, thank you for including this in this 
current bill.
  Venerating those who took up arms against the United States to 
preserve slavery is an affront to the human dignity of all Americans. 
These painful symbols of bigotry and racism have no place in public 
places--certainly should not be enshrined in the United States Capitol.
  It is past time for Congress to stop glorifying the men who were 
traitors and committed treason against the United States in a concerted 
effort to keep African Americans in chains.
  The movement to honor Confederate soldiers was a deliberate act to 
rewrite the very history of the United States and humanize acts 
designed to dehumanize African Americans. They are symbols of hatred 
and defiance of Federal authority and should not be held in a place of 
honor in the United States Capitol.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentlewoman from California.
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I conclude by saying this: In 
this moment, the horrors of systemic racism are front and center, and 
the manifestations are before the public each and every day. The 
removal of the Confederate statues from the United States Capitol is an 
important step in dismantling the systems that hold us back.
  As a descendant of enslaved Americans from Galveston, Texas, and 
enslaved human beings, I thank you for this bill, and I ask for an 
``aye'' vote.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time each side 
has remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from North Carolina has 13\1/
2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from Illinois has 21 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Raskin), a member of the House Committee on 
Administration, a great constitutional scholar and friend.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Butterfield for his really 
exemplary leadership here.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a proud day for Maryland as we move to replace the 
bust of Roger Brooke Taney with the bust of Thurgood Marshall.
  One Marylander wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision, hundreds of 
pages of argumentation about how the Constitution is and must forever 
be a White man's compact and that African Americans have no rights that 
White people have to respect.
  The other, Thurgood Marshall, whose bust will replace that of Justice 
Taney, argued Brown v. Board of Education, argued Shelley v. Kraemer, 
argued Smith v. Albright, became the first African-American Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court. He made equal protection come alive in 
our country. So it is a proud day for Maryland.

  I was delighted to hear the gentleman from Illinois' remarks, but I 
was amazed to hear another colleague in the minority defending the bust 
of John C. Breckinridge on the grounds that we don't honor him for his 
service as secretary of war in the Confederacy but we, rather, honor 
him for what he did before that in his prior service as United States 
Senator and Vice President of the United States.
  Well, that is just precious. Think about that for a second.
  Breckinridge was serving as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky when he 
defected to the Confederacy, signed up to become their secretary of 
war, and betrayed the Union. And they still have his bust outside of 
the United States Senate saying ``Vice President'' on it, despite the 
fact that, on December 4, 1861, he was convicted of treason by the 
Senate and stripped of all of his titles--including Senator, President 
of the Senate, and Vice President.
  So we may as well put up a statue of Benedict Arnold to honor him for 
his service to the Continental Army before

[[Page H3664]]

he defected over to the British side and led British groups against 
America.
  So let's go all the way here. If there are statues of traitors and 
racist White supremacist supporters of the Confederacy up in the 
Capitol, then we need to get rid of them. This is our opportunity to 
remake the social contract as represented by the symbolism in this 
great House.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).
  Mr. Speaker, before he speaks, the history that I have read over the 
years suggests to me that, on January 31, 1865, when the 13th Amendment 
was passed by this body, this Chamber, Mr. Kennedy, the gallery was 
full of White abolitionist women from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
who waved handkerchiefs and cheered for a prolonged period of time, 
cheering the 13th Amendment.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman.
  Mr. Speaker, 155 years ago, Senators from my home State of 
Massachusetts, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, knew that a bust of 
Roger Taney deserved no home in our government's highest institutions. 
Yet here we are, in 2020, and the bust of a man who tried to codify and 
protect our original sin remains only a few hundred feet away.
  Statues honoring traitors willing to destroy our Nation so that they 
could own Black men, women, and children litter our Capitol, and 
somehow we still need to have this debate.
  Let me be clear: Dismantling the symbols that glorify White supremacy 
is a bare minimum, but dismantling those symbols is no substitute for 
dismantling the system that those men created.
  This cannot be the end or the best of what we can offer the millions 
who took to our streets demanding justice. This cannot be the end of 
our work. This shouldn't even be considered the beginning of that work. 
It should have been done 150 years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, the Senate needs to pass the George Floyd Justice in 
Policing Act. We need to dismantle and destroy White supremacy that 
exists everywhere, from our education system to our healthcare system, 
to our incarceration and juvenile justice systems and our financial 
institutions and our economy. That is where we need to be working, and 
that is what begins.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the chairman of the Committee on Homeland 
Security, a great warrior of many years, Mr. Bennie Thompson.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman 
from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) giving me an opportunity to 
speak.
  Mr. Speaker, for those of us who are sons of the South, for those of 
us who have endured hardship, discrimination, and a lot of things that 
are very difficult to even talk about, for this moment in time where we 
are today, where we are going to start the process of healing and 
setting the record straight as it relates to the real history of this 
country, it is fitting and proper that those individuals who fought to 
keep many of our ancestors enslaved should not have to be recognized in 
a place where people who do good expect to be recognized.
  This is not a way of erasing history. It is a way of correcting 
history so that those people who come and see it will see it in the 
manner for which it is presented. So, at the end of this debate, I hope 
we all will be on the same page.
  This notion that in America it is not your color, it is not your 
race, it is not your sex, we have to stand for something; our values 
should mean something as Americans.

  So this bill establishes what America stands for, and we should not 
recognize traitors in order just to say we are together. Traitors have 
a place, but not in a place of honor.
  My State recognizes the president of the Confederacy. If he had won 
the war as president, none of us of color would be in this institution 
today. But thank God he lost and the South lost and we are better 
because of it. Mr. Speaker, for that, I ask support of this 
legislation.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), from the 18th District of 
Texas, a senior member of the Committee on the Judiciary, Committee on 
Homeland Security, and the author of H.R. 40, Ms. Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager of this legislation 
for his leadership.
  Let me also acknowledge and thank Mr. Hoyer for his, as well, and to 
Mr. Clyburn, Ms. Bass, Mr. Thompson, and, as I indicated, Mr. 
Butterfield.
  Mr. Speaker, let me start as I did just a few minutes ago, ``In God 
we trust,'' and recognize that God has created, in many of our faiths, 
all of us equal as humans. We stand together dealing with the 
Confederacy that diminished and denied those descendants, those African 
slaves, their humanity. And yet, in a place of freedom, this place, we 
honor them.
  Mr. Speaker, I welcome H.R. 7573 and am glad to be joining as a 
staunch supporter, for, if Justice Taney viewed me as inhuman, then 
that means that those today, those babies yet unborn from descendants 
of enslaved African Americans, would be inhuman. This is needed not 
because we don't put it in the historical context, but because we need 
to unify America.
  Mr. Speaker, as we have lost a great warrior, John Lewis, and, as 
well, C. T. Vivian, I know they are looking down to say that we are not 
to honor those who voluntarily serve to deny us our humanity and to 
fight for the Confederacy and were treasonous.

                              {time}  1515

  Alexander Hamilton Stephens--it is interesting that he secured the 
name of Alexander Hamilton--has a statue in Statuary Hall. It says:

       I am not fearful of anything on Earth, I am not fearful of 
     anything above, except to do something wrong.

  That is what Alexander Hamilton Stephens said.
  Well, this is wrong. It was wrong to enslave so many human beings and 
for that slavery to last over 200 years.
  I am delighted with the gentleman from Illinois for his congenial and 
historic moment today, and we do it in unity. I offer peace to this 
Nation and to this body that we remove these by bringing America 
together.
  I know the family of George Floyd, who struck a chord in the hearts 
of all Americans and Black Lives Matter, would welcome this magnificent 
decision today. Let us do it together, under this flag. In God we 
trust.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes time to the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Mfume), my friend, who is not only the 
representative of a district in Maryland, but also the former national 
president of the NAACP.
  Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, 33 years ago, I stood near this spot and 
watched Thurgood Marshall come through these doors as a member of the 
Supreme Court at a State of the Union address. And as a Marylander and 
as a Baltimorean, I had a great sense of pride.
  I got to know Mr. Marshall. All he ever said by his eloquence and his 
example was this is how we ought to be as Supreme Court justices.
  I must tell you, I was dismayed, though, years earlier, to learn as a 
young student at Morgan State University the history of Roger B. Taney, 
who did just the opposite to my spirit and just the opposite, I think, 
to what we believe Supreme Court Justices should act like and how they 
conduct themselves.
  A gentleman from the other side earlier said that Mr. Taney rendered 
the worst Supreme Court decision ever. And he is exactly right. That 
decision said that Black people had no rights for which the White man 
must respect, and therefore that the Negro might justly and lawfully be 
reduced to slavery for his own benefit. It also said that Black people 
born in America, like Dred Scott, were not citizens and it eviscerated 
the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
  So replacing the statue of Taney with one instead of Thurgood 
Marshall

[[Page H3665]]

seems to me the way we ought to go as a Chamber. I hope in a bipartisan 
fashion, not only for ourselves, but to say to all the visitors that 
come through this building that we will continue to hold high real 
American heroes that sought to keep us together, and we will not honor 
those who sought to divide us.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance 
of my time, and I will close.
  Mr. Speaker, it is great to follow our new colleague, Mr. Mfume.
  Because of COVID and the restrictions we have in getting together and 
getting to know each other like we did before this pandemic, I have not 
had a chance to meet you yet. Welcome to this institution. Thank you 
for your service here. Thank you for your service leading the NAACP.
  I don't know if Mr. Mfume is aware, but many say that the birthplace 
of the NAACP is also in Springfield, Illinois, because of the 1908 race 
riots that took place in my district.
  We are trying to honor those who suffered during that instance in our 
Nation's history, still centuries after we saw the scourge of slavery 
come to our shores.
  We still have a lot of work to do. But I welcome Mr. Mfume. Come to 
my district and see the artifacts from those race riots that have been 
dug up and displayed for all to see, to be honored. That is what 
education and history is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Mfume).
  Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's kind and overly 
gracious remarks. I appreciate also his sense of history and for what I 
think today is being displayed as a bipartisan effort to draw attention 
to and to reconcile a very real problem.
  So I will be more than happy to do that. And Lincoln was one of my 
heroes in many respects, not just because he signed, as Mr. Butterfield 
said, an executive order in 1863, but that he reminded us of what we 
were supposed to be as a Nation. Was he flawed? Yes. Are we flawed? 
Yes. Do we increase our ability to grow together? The absolute answer 
is yes. So I do appreciate the gentleman's comments, and I appreciate 
him yielding.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I will reclaim my time.
  That is exactly why we still, as a Nation, have so much to learn 
about each other. We have so much to learn as to why we live, and we 
are blessed to live in what I consider the greatest country on God's 
green Earth.
  The opportunity for every American to do what we do, to serve in this 
great institution, is something that should be cherished.
  Those issues that seemingly divide us more in a Nation of prosperity, 
we need to educate the youth, we need to educate America, and how we 
can come together, not just correcting some of the awful, evil parts of 
our Nation's history, but let's continue to correct the division that 
exists today, not just on this floor, but in this country.
  And if we can stand together in this instance, we can surely stand 
together and make this country, at a time and place of civil unrest, a 
better place for every single American in this country.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank again all of my colleagues. I respect 
their opinions, their ideas. But today is a day of history. Today is a 
day that we are going to band together in a bipartisan way.
  And I commend my good friend and look forward to hosting him in 
Springfield, Illinois.

  Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. 
I thank all of the speakers for their eloquent words today.
  Mr. Davis, we have talked a lot about President Abraham Lincoln. 
There is one thing I failed to mention, and the other speakers failed 
to mention as well. And that was, before the ratification of the 13th 
Amendment, Lincoln was actually assassinated on April 14, as I recall, 
of 1865, and did not live to see the full ratification of the 13th 
Amendment, which was the culmination of a lot of his work. So I just 
wanted to put that into the Record.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased with the tone of this debate. I don't even 
want to call it a debate. I would call it a discussion for the last few 
minutes. I feel the bipartisanship in the air, and I thank Mr. Davis so 
very much. It is appreciated.
  History teaches us that there are times in our history where eras 
must be closed, and we must begin a new era in this great Nation.
  We need to continue to strive for a more perfect union, and today is 
a good example of that.
  I ask my colleagues to vote ``yea'' on this legislation. I ask for a 
unanimous vote. Hopefully, we can do this by voice vote. That is my 
prayer and that is my hope that we will show the world that we are 
united on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7573, as amended.
  H.R. 7573 directs the Joint Committee on the Library to remove the 
bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the Dred Scott 
decision in the Old Supreme Court Chamber with a bust of Justice 
Thurgood Marshall, and requires the Joint Committee on the Library to 
remove statues of Charles B. Aycock, James P. Clarke, and John C. 
Calhoun, as well as a bust of John C. Breckinridge. H.R. 7573 would 
also amend section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131) to 
change the criteria for those eligible for inclusion to prohibit those 
who ``served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate States 
of America or of the military forces or government of a State while the 
State was in rebellion against the United States.'' The Architect of 
the Capitol would be charged with identifying those statues which do 
not meet the revised criteria and the Joint Committee on the Library 
would remove the statues and turn them over to the Smithsonian 
Institution or their respective states, if desired.
  As Chairperson of the House Fine Arts Board and the Vice Chairperson 
of the Joint Committee on the Library I am more than pleased to remove 
these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol. 
This has been a long time coming, and it is long past time to act.
  The United States Capitol is one of the most visible, and most 
visited, symbols of liberty, freedom and democracy in the entire world. 
Who we choose to honor in this space is uniquely indicative of our 
values and principles.
  Contrary to those who argue in opposition to this long overdue 
action, this action does not seek to erase history nor ask that we 
forget that history. We must never forget the shameful scar of slavery, 
segregation and racism. Instead this is about who we honor. When we 
think about the holocaust the words ``never forget'' admonish us to 
always remember the millions murdered by the Nazis. But we do not 
accomplish that by erecting a statue of Adolf Hitler to put in a place 
of honor.
  Those who violently rebelled against our government upon the belief, 
as Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens infamously said, 
``that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery 
subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal 
condition,'' and those who enabled and protected the practice of 
holding human beings as property deserve no place of honor in the halls 
of our nation's Capitol. Slavery is the ``original sin'' of our 
country, and its disastrous effects are felt to this day.
  It is long past time to remove these symbols of bigotry and cruelty 
from the halls of Congress, and it is long past time to repair the 
lasting damage their hatred and racism has visited on the fabric of 
this country. The removal of these symbols from the People's House is a 
necessary step in this long-overdue work, I urge my colleagues to join 
me in supporting H.R. 7573 and in working to right the wrongs of the 
past to better perfect the promises of our country.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thompson of Mississippi). The question 
is on the motion offered by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Butterfield) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 
7573, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 
965, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion 
will be postponed.

[[Page H3666]]

  

                          ____________________