[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 166 (Thursday, September 24, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4951-H4952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NOTICE OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING A QUESTION OF THE 
                        PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I seek to provide a privileged resolution 
here in the House.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will give notice of his 
resolution.
  Mr. GOHMERT. H. Res. 1148, raising a question of the privileges of 
the House.
  Whereas, on July 22, 2020, H.R. 7573 was brought to the House floor 
for a vote, with the purpose of eliminating four specific statues or 
busts from the United States Capitol along with all others that include 
individuals 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'' 
yet failed to address the most ever-present historical stigma in the 
United States Capitol; that is the source that so fervently supported, 
condoned and fought for slavery was left untouched, without whom, the 
evil of slavery could never have continued as it did, to such extreme 
that it is necessary to address here in order for the U.S. House of 
Representatives to avoid degradation of historical fact and blatant 
hypocrisy for generations to come.
  Whereas, The Democratic Party Platform of 1840, 1844, 1848, 1852, and 
1856 states ``That Congress has no power under the Constitution, to 
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several 
States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of 
everything appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the 
Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to 
induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery . . . are 
calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and 
that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the 
happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of 
the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our 
political institutions.''


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4951, the following appeared: and 
that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the 
happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency 
of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend our 
political institutions.''
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: and that all such 
efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of 
the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, 
and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political 
institutions.''


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Whereas, The Democratic Party Platform of 1856 further declares that 
``new states'' to the Union should be admitted ``with or without 
domestic slavery, as [the state] may elect.''
  Whereas, The Democratic Party Platform of 1856 also resolves that 
``we recognize the right of the people of all of the Territories . . . 
to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery.''
  Whereas, The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials who did 
not arrest an alleged runaway slave and made them liable for a fine of 
$1,000 (about $28,000 in present-day value); Law-enforcement officials 
everywhere were required to arrest people suspected of being a runaway 
slave on as little as a claimant's sworn testimony of ownership; the 
Democratic Party Platform of 1860 directly, in seeking to uphold the 
Fugitive Slave Act, states that, ``the enactments of the State 
Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law 
are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and 
revolutionary in their effect.''
  Whereas, The 14th Amendment, giving full citizenship to freed slaves,

[[Page H4952]]

passed in 1868 with 94 percent Republican support, 0 percent Democrat 
support in Congress; the 15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right 
to vote, passed in 1870 with 100 percent Republican support and 0 
percent Democrat support in Congress.
  Whereas, Democrats systematically suppressed African-Americans' 
rights to vote, and by specific example in the 1902 Constitution of the 
State of Virginia, actually disenfranchised about 90 percent of the 
black men who still voted at the beginning of the twentieth century and 
nearly half of the white men, thereby suppressing Republican voters; 
the number of eligible African-American voters were thereby forcibly 
reduced from about 147,000 in 1901 to about 10,000 by 1905; that 
measure was supported almost exclusively by Virginia Democrats.
  Whereas, Virginia's 1902 Constitution was engineered by Carter Glass, 
future Democratic Party U.S. Representative, Senator, and even 
Secretary of the Treasury under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who 
proclaimed the goal of the constitutional convention as follows: This 
Democrat exclaimed, ``Discrimination! Why, that is precisely what we 
propose. That, exactly, is what this Convention was elected for--to 
discriminate to the very extremity of permissible action under the 
limits of the federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of 
every Negro voter who can be gotten rid of legally.''


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4952, the following appeared: to 
discriminate to the very extremity of permissible action under the 
limits of the federal Constitution, with a view to elimination of 
every Negro voter who can be gotten rid of legally.''
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: to discriminate 
to the very extremity of permissible action under the limits of 
the federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every 
Negro voter who can be gotten rid of legally.''


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Whereas, In 1912, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson's 
administration began a racial segregation policy for U.S. government 
employees and, by 1914, the Wilson administration's Civil Service 
instituted the requirement that a photograph be submitted with each 
employment application.
  Whereas, The 1924 Democratic National Convention convened in New York 
City at Madison Square Garden; the convention commonly known as the 
``Klan-Bake'' due to the overwhelming influence of the Ku Klux Klan in 
the Democratic Party.
  Whereas, Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued 
Woodrow Wilson's policy of segregating White House staff and maintained 
separate dining rooms for white and black staffers. He also continued 
the White House Correspondents Association's ban on credentialing black 
journalists for White House duties until outside pressure from black 
publications finally forced a change in policy in 1944, the last year 
of his presidency. According to the American Journal of Public Health, 
prior to his presidency, Roosevelt not only banned blacks from 
receiving treatment at his polio facility in Warm Springs, Georgia, but 
black staff were forced to live in the basement of the facility or in a 
segregated dormitory while white staff lived in the hotel or in 
surrounding cottages.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4952, the following appeared: 
Whereas, Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued 
Woodrow Wilson's policy of segregating White House staff and 
maintained separate dining rooms for white and black staffers. He 
also continued the White House Correspondents Association's ban on 
credentialing black journalists for White House duties until 
outside pressure from black publications finally forced a change 
in policy in 1944, the last year of his presidency. According to 
the American Journal of Public Health, prior to his presidency, 
Roosevelt not only banned blacks from receiving treatment at his 
polio facility in Warm Springs, Georgia, but black staff were 
forced to live in the basement of the facility or in a segregated 
dormitory while white staff lived in the hotel or in surrounding 
cottages.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: Whereas, Democrat 
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued Woodrow Wilson's 
policy of segregating White House staff and maintained separate 
dining rooms for white and black staffers. He also continued the 
White House Correspondents Association's ban on credentialing 
black journalists for White House duties until outside pressure 
from black publications finally forced a change in policy in 1944, 
the last year of his presidency. According to the American Journal 
of Public Health, prior to his presidency, Roosevelt not only 
banned blacks from receiving treatment at his polio facility in 
Warm Springs, Georgia, but black staff were forced to live in the 
basement of the facility or in a segregated dormitory while white 
staff lived in the hotel or in surrounding cottages.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Whereas, Democrat Congressman Howard Smith, former chairman of the 
House Rules Committee introduced the ``Declaration of Constitutional 
Principles'' in a speech on the House floor where he attacked the 
Supreme Court's 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education of 
Topeka (KS) which determined that segregated public schools were 
unconstitutional. Smith's declaration urged people to utilize all 
``lawful means'' to avoid the ``chaos and confusion'' which would occur 
if they desegregated schools. History.House.Gov states that, ``Under 
Smith, the Rules Committee became a graveyard for numerous civil rights 
initiatives in the 1950s.''



 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4952, the following appeared: the 
Supreme Court's 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education of 
Topeka (KS) which determined that segregated schools were 
unconstitutional.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: the Supreme 
Court's 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 
(KS) which determined that segregated public schools were 
unconstitutional.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Whereas, In 1964 the Democratic Party led a 75-calendar-day 
filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  Whereas, Leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights 
for African-Americans was a fellow member of the Democratic Party, 
Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia--a known recruiter for the Ku 
Klux Klan.
  Whereas, Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws and civil codes 
that forced segregation and restricted freedoms of black Americans in 
the United States; and


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4952, the following appeared: 
Whereas, Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws and civil 
codes that forced segregation and restricted freedoms of black 
Americans in the United States.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: Whereas, 
Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws and civil codes that 
forced segregation and restricted freedoms of black Americans in 
the United States; and


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Whereas, On June 18, 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the 
removal from the Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of the 
House who served in the Confederacy saying that the portraits, ``set 
back our nation's work to confront and combat bigotry;'' the men 
depicted in the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, Democrat 
Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr and Democrat Charles F. Crisp: Now, 
therefore, be it
  Resolved, 
  That the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall remove any 
item that names, symbolizes or mentions any political organization or 
party that has ever held a public position that supported slavery or 
the Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or 
any House office building, and shall donate any such item or symbol to 
the Library of Congress.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  September 24, 2020, on page H4952, the following appeared: 
Whereas, On June 18, 2020, House Speaker NANCY PELOSI ordered the 
removal from the Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of 
the House who served in the Confederacy saying that the portraits, 
``set back our nation's work to confront and combat bigotry;'' the 
men depicted in the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, 
Democrat Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr and Democrat Charles 
F. Crisp. Resolved, (1) That the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives shall remove any item that names, symbolizes or 
mentions any political organization or party that has ever held a 
public position that supported slavery or the Confederacy, from 
any area within the House wing of the Capitol or any House office 
building, and shall donate such item or symbol to the Library of 
Congress.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: Whereas, On June 
18, 2020, House Speaker NANCY PELOSI ordered the removal from the 
Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of the House who 
served in the Confederacy saying that the portraits, ``set back 
our nation's work to confront and combat bigotry;'' the men 
depicted in the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, 
Democrat Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr and Democrat Charles 
F. Crisp: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives shall remove any item that names, 
symbolizes or mentions any political organization or party that 
has ever held a public position that supported slavery or the 
Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the Capitol or 
any House office building, and shall donate any such item or 
symbol to the Library of Congress.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the 
floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader 
as a question of privileges of the House has immediate precedence only 
at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after the 
resolution is properly noticed.
  Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the 
gentleman from Texas will appear in the Record at this point.
  The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution 
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at 
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.

                          ____________________