[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 46 (Thursday, March 11, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1346-H1347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            AND STILL I RISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise, a very proud and 
liberated Democrat, unbought and unbossed.
  I rise today with a question, Madam Speaker.
  The question is: Should the taxpayers of this country, the good 
people of the United States of America, should their tax dollars be 
utilized to pay for the upkeep, the maintenance, and the utilities on a 
building that is named in honor of a bigot and a racist?
  Should our tax dollars be used for such a purpose?
  Madam Speaker, let me share something with you. This is the Senate 
Russell Office Building.
  This is how the Russell Senate Office Building looks. It has a 
certain degree of majesty associated with it. This is where Senators do 
their work. The press is found in this building, in an area just off of 
a rotunda. This is the Russell Senate Office Building. This is what it 
looks like to the naked eye. This is what people see when they drive 
by. Unfortunately, there is much to be seen that the eye cannot reveal 
to the brain.
  The building named after this man, Senator Richard Russell, is a 
symbol of national shame. And I think that because it is a symbol of 
national shame--and I shall say more to you about it, Madam Speaker, as 
I do what I am about to do, which is to label it for what it is: a 
symbol of national shame--we ought not pretend that this building is a 
place that ought to honor a person with such a name.
  It is a symbol of national shame paid for with tax dollars. These 
lights and the utilities are paid for with tax dollars.
  Who was Senator Richard Russell?
  This is the Senator, Madam Speaker, who, in 1935, participated in the 
very first filibuster of a civil rights bill--Richard Russell--when he 
and his colleagues stopped an anti-lynching bill with 6 days of nonstop 
talking.
  Senator Richard Russell, in so doing, allowed the lynching to 
continue without legislation that was antithetical to it. In this 
country, up until 1968, some 3,446 persons--more than 3,000 Black 
people--were lynched in the United States of America.
  There are people who don't want to hear this. There are people who 
would say: Wait. At some point we will get around to doing the right 
thing. We will bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice, and 
we will change the name of this building.
  There are some people who would say: Wait, Al, don't bring this up 
now.
  Madam Speaker, I refuse to allow those who are not suffering to 
determine the timeline for the suffering to end for those who do 
suffer. I am one of those who happens to be suffering, and it is 
painful for me to see this symbol of national shame in the United 
States of America, the country I love.
  I believe that it is time now for us to make that change. We have had 
some 40-plus years--about 49 years--to change this, and we haven't done 
it. It is time to change it. I am not going to wait for someone else to 
say that it is okay to come to the floor and say that you can make this 
change.
  I am a liberated, unbought, unbossed Democrat. It is time for this to 
change. It has got to change.
  How soon should we change this?
  Immediately, if not sooner. If it doesn't change today and doesn't 
change tomorrow, I will still stand my ground. It has to change, and I 
will await that change. It must change.
  A little bit more about Senator Russell. It was in 1972, shortly 
after his demise, that the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 99-1, that the 
old Senate Office Building be named the Russell Senate Office Building. 
Madam Speaker, the vote was 99-1. They knew when they did it that he 
was a bigot and a racist.
  Madam Speaker, when I say it ought to happen immediately, I assure 
you there are some names that I could give this evening of people who 
have similar histories who are still alive, and if we named a building 
after one of these people, then this Congress would assemble and would 
change that name immediately.

                              {time}  1430

  I know what we can do when we want to do something, so there is no 
question about whether there is a way to get this done. The question 
is: Do we have the will to do it? Do we have the will to take a racist 
and a bigot's name off of a building that is housing the Senate, 
Members of it?
  I decline to go into the building. I will never say that I will never 
go in, simply because there are times when, of necessity, I may have 
to. But when I do, I do it with a degree of shame. I am not proud when 
I have to go into that building.
  The last time I was there it was to show some other person the 
rotunda where his statue happens to be. He occupies a space all to 
himself. It is not like going through other areas where you see 
multiple personalities represented. He has a space all to himself, a 
bigot and a racist; and we, who have the power to make the change, 
tolerate it.
  A bit more about Senator Russell. Here is a statement from the 
Senator; perhaps not a direct, exact quote, but here is a statement 
from the Senator: ``As one who was born and reared in the atmosphere of 
the Old South, with six generations of my forebears now resting beneath 
southern soil, I am willing to go as far and make as great a sacrifice 
to preserve and insure white supremacy''--some things bear repeating. 
He said: ``To preserve and insure white supremacy in the social, 
economic, and political life of our State as any man who lives within 
her borders.''
  He is taking a pledge to maintain white supremacy, Senator Richard 
Russell; a Senate office building in his honor, in his name.
  Let's just continue with a bit more about Senator Richard Russell. 
Senator Richard Russell blocked the passage of a 1942 bill to eliminate 
poll taxes.
  Senator Richard Russell co-authored the ``Southern Manifesto'' in 
1956 with Senator Strom Thurmond, in opposition to the integration of 
public schools. Fought integration. It was segregation. He was a 
segregationist.
  It was segregation that caused me to get on a bus that was in 
disrepair, that would break down, to ride within blocks of other 
schools predominated with persons who are Anglo, or were Anglo at the 
time, ride past those schools for some 20 to 30 minutes to get to 
another school in another city. That is what segregation did.
  It was segregation that caused me to get books that were hand-me-
downs when the other schools where Anglos were had the books. When they 
were finished with the books, when they got new books, then I could get 
a better book that was not the latest edition of the book I needed.
  It was segregation that caused me to have to go to colored water 
fountains.
  It was segregation that put me in the back of the bus.
  It was segregation that forced me to the balcony of the movie.
  It was segregation that locked us up in the bottom of the jails.
  I know segregation. I know what it looks like. I have seen its ugly 
face. The Klan burned a cross in my yard.
  I know what it smells like. I have had to drink from those filthy 
water fountains.
  I know what it sounds like. I have had people call me ugly names.
  So I just hope my friends will not get too discombobulated when they 
hear that Al Green came to the floor and said what he is saying now. 
Don't expect me to tolerate this. You can get some others to do it, but 
you won't get me to do it.
  I will not tolerate this. I demand that this change take place. I am 
not asking.
  Why would I engage in the protocols of polite society when this level 
of bigotry exists in my face?
  Let's talk a little bit more about Senator Richard Russell. He led 
the 60-

[[Page H1347]]

day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964; led the southern 
boycott of the Democratic National Convention in 1964, after LBJ--one 
of the greatest Presidents ever, in my opinion--signed the Civil Rights 
Act.
  He called the Civil Rights Act shortsighted and dangerous. Those 
civil rights acts, the act of 1965, when President Johnson signed it, 
he signed it in ink, but it was written with the blood of those who 
crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Honorable John Lewis having been 
one of them.
  I remember talking to him. He said he thought he was going to die.
  Signed in ink but written in blood.
  John Lewis was a great and noble American.
  That Civil Rights Act is probably the reason that I am here. I 
probably wouldn't be in Congress if not but for what happened on the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge; people who had the desire to see liberty and 
justice for all, but who also had the ability to take the blows to 
their bodies without resorting to retaliation.
  If they had retaliated on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, it would have 
been just another melee. It would have been just another skirmish. But 
they didn't. And because they suffered, I am able to stand here and 
make these comments.
  So you can well understand, I hope and I pray, that--because I know 
how I got here--I am not going to tolerate this. I know how I got here.
  I didn't get here because I am so smart. I got here because somebody 
found out what a 90-pound German Shepherd bites like.
  I am here because somebody understands what it is like to go to jail 
for a cause.
  I am here because somebody understands what it is like to lose a 
loved one--Myrlie Evers--for a cause.
  So let's not play games. I am not here to satisfy and satiate those 
who would say wait, give us a chance to do this on our own terms.
  You have had 49 years; 49 years too many, in my opinion. So I am not 
going to wait. And I will be back again to talk more about this after I 
finish what I am about to say now.

  Senator Richard Russell twice, 1949 and 1964, introduced 
legislation--this is a painful thing to read. This is a painful thing 
to have to utter--twice introduced legislation to move African 
Americans out of Southern States. That is Senator Richard Russell.
  So dear friends, I beg your pardon if anyone takes offense at what I 
have said. But I must tell you, I would say it again, and probably 
will, given the opportunity because, at some point in life, you just 
have to take a stand.
  The people who sent me here, they didn't send me here to go along as 
a result of toleration of things like this. They didn't send me here to 
go along so that I could move along. They sent me here to take a stand. 
And there are times in life when it is better to stand alone than not 
stand at all.
  I am a liberated Democrat. I stand alone, but I stand on truth. I 
stand on the words of Carlyle, ``No lie can live forever.''
  This is the ultimate manifestation of insidious prevarication to 
imply that this should be honored with the name of Russell.
  Now, there are those who are going to say, well, Al Green, what would 
you name the building? A tactic quite often used, because when I say, 
well, let's name it--you complete the sentence--they will say, well, I 
think it ought to be named--you complete the sentence.
  But that is not what I am saying, dear brothers and sisters--and I 
say brothers and sisters, because, in my heart, I believe there is just 
one race, as Dr. King put it, the human race. And I believe that all 
persons are created equal, from a bass black to a treble white on God's 
keyboard, as he put it.
  So, my dear brothers and sisters, that is not what I am saying. I am 
saying, take this name off, Russell. I am saying, let it revert back to 
the name it had before Russell was placed on it. That name was the Old 
Senate Office Building. I am saying, let it revert back to the Old 
Senate Office Building, and you decide the name. The name I will leave 
to you until and unless there is a need to prevent this from happening 
again, something similar.
  But there are many people worthy of having this building bear their 
names. This man is not worthy. This man does not deserve this honor.
  So let it revert back to the Old Senate Office Building, and then do 
what we do; get a committee; get a commission; find a way to name it 
appropriately. And then I believe that those that I speak for, who do 
not live in the suites of life, who live in the streets of life, those 
that I speak for, who are among the least, the last, and the lost, 
those that I speak for, who are not among the well-off, the well-
heeled, and the well-to-do, those that I speak for, many of whom have 
gone to glory, but I believe that they will find reason to know that 
change, long though it may be in coming, that change can take place, 
and that this country will be a better place for it. The country I 
love, by the way.
  I am not the guy that you are going to tag with this mantra, this 
label, this caption, this style: He doesn't love his country. I love my 
country.
  I am not the guy that you are going to tag with, he is a flag burner. 
I wear the flag.
  You can't tag me with being a guy who refuses to stand for the 
national anthem. I stand and I sing the national anthem.
  You can't tag me with being the guy who refuses to say the Pledge of 
Allegiance. I say the Pledge of Allegiance.
  But now, tag me, label me as the guy who loves his country and who 
refuses to accept this level of bigotry, who refuses to accept allowing 
the tax dollars from people who are eking out a place in the world, for 
their tax dollars to be used for this. I am that guy. I am the guy who 
is going to stand up for this--against this, if you will.

                              {time}  1445

  Finally, this: I never came to Congress to say what I am saying. I 
came to Congress to help people who were in need of housing. That was 
what I thought I would do. I came to Congress to help people get a 
decent day's pay for a hard day's work.
  This is not something that I planned, but it is something that I 
cannot stand, and I have to stand against it. There is just something 
that won't allow me to tolerate this.
  I know that this will engender some additional detractors. I get the 
calls; I know. But there just comes a time in your life when you have 
to decide that there are some things worth making a sacrifice for. I 
choose to do what I do because I know how I got here.
  Madam Speaker, I am grateful, and I yield back the balance of my 
time.

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