[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 159 (Tuesday, September 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S5602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Racism

  Madam President, 57 years ago today, a bomb exploded outside a church 
in Birmingham, AL. A bomb was placed underneath the steps that led to 
the sanctuary of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
  Four young girls were killed in that blast: Addie Mae Collins, 
Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson--killed senselessly 
simply because of the color of their skin. It was a tough time in 
America; it was a tough time in Alabama.
  I am not going to recount all of what happened at that time. Many of 
you have heard me speak on it before because it was in 2001 and 2002 
that we put the final two perpetrators into prison.
  What I have spoken about this summer, though, is how 1963 and 2020 
seem to align. The year 1963 in Birmingham started off with police 
brutality, where peaceful demonstrators who were simply trying to get 
civil rights for African-American people in this country were accosted 
with fire hoses and dogs set upon them by the police commissioner 
``Bull'' Connor.
  People took notice. People took notice when George Wallace stood at 
the schoolhouse door in June of 1963. People took notice when Medgar 
Evers was killed that same night. People took notice when Martin Luther 
King stood on the Mall in Washington, DC, and said he had a dream--he 
had a dream that one day we would all live in peace and harmony 
together. It was a dream of hope at that time. It was about a month 
later when that bomb exploded and destroyed the dream for so many 
people, but at the same time, that bomb woke the conscience of America. 
The horrors of Jim Crow and segregation came home to roost, came down 
to television sets across this country, and people stood up and made 
their voices known and said enough is enough--not just for Birmingham 
in the South, but enough is enough in this country.
  We have to make the changes. It woke that conscience of this country, 
but it also woke a conscience of a President who began to work on the 
Civil Rights Act. It woke the conscience of a Congress that later 
passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The conscience was aroused again 
in 1965 when our friend John Lewis was beaten at the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge.
  The similarities between that and today are striking. We cannot 
overlook the historic moment we are in today, when once again our 
conscience is getting the best of us, and we see the images of George 
Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and Jacob Blake.
  We also see something else. We see the images of violence. We see 
looting. We see the images of two police officers in Los Angeles who 
were brutally--brutally--attacked while just sitting in their car.
  What we are seeing is really something that America is not about. It 
is incumbent upon us all to do something about it--to stand together, 
to have the discussion, to have the dialogue, to have the frank 
discussions about what we know is going on in law enforcement but also 
the violence we see in the streets. It has to stop. We have to make 
sure that we talk to each other, to have these dialogues.
  I have talked about this before, and I will not go on and on tonight, 
but it is weighing heavily on everyone in this country. I know it. You 
know it. It is weighing on everyone. For everyone in this country, as 
we approach the election, it weighs heavier and heavier. Unfortunately, 
it gets into political discussions and partisan divides on both sides 
of the aisle. We cannot let that happen.
  We have to come together. We have to do what John Lewis talked about 
and make sure that love conquers hate, however we can do it.
  In that regard, I want to display this photograph. It was taken on 
the morning of the bombing in Birmingham. It is of an incredible 
stained glass window in the church. If you look closely, you will see 
that the most significant damage is the face of Christ that was blown 
out.
  That picture had such an emotional impact on people in Birmingham and 
around the world. To this day, when people see it, it has an emotional 
impact because it is as if God simply cannot look at what his children 
are doing to his children.
  We need to remember our faith. We need to remember who we are as a 
country. We need to remember an image like this. No matter what faith 
you might believe or even if you don't have a faith, you need to 
remember this photograph where this stained glass window--the image of 
Christ--cannot bear to see what is going on. I suspect that in today's 
world, that image may be replicated somewhere beyond what we can touch.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas