[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 115 (Thursday, July 1, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H3591-H3594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALL FOR NATION TO RECOGNIZE SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY
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. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today as I
always do, with great respect for all and love of country at heart.
I rise today for a very special reason. Today is one of the days that
I will cherish for the rest of my life. What I will do today is
something that I believe will help us to commemorate an unfortunate
circumstance that our country has been a part of.
This is the day that I will have the opportunity to bring to the
attention of the Congress of the United States of America a very
special resolution. This is a resolution that is supporting the
designation of Slavery Remembrance Day.
The resolution proposes that August 20, 2021, serve as the first
Slavery Remembrance Day. And this is done to remind us of the evils of
slavery.
Mr. Speaker, I have noticed that as time has passed during my
lifetime, there have been those who have sought to whitewash, to
sanitize, the evils associated with slavery. This is a necessary
resolution because this resolution will forever allow us to remember
the horrors of slavery, the events that have shaped our current
circumstances.
Slavery was our seminal sin. It was the sin that has, for too long--
centuries, for too long--had an impact on the politics, the economics,
the social standing of people in our country.
This resolution reads as follows. I shall not read it in its entirety
today, but there are some portions of it that are exceedingly
important.
Whereas this resolution may be cited as the ``Original
Slavery Remembrance Day Resolution of 2021.''
For those who keep records, it is H. Res. 517. It has been filed, and
it has more than 75 original cosponsors. I am saying original and more
than 75 simply because, right up to the last minute, we were adding
people, so more than 75 original cosponsors.
I shall do all that I can to memorialize the persons who are original
cosponsors, and I shall seek additional cosponsors of this resolution.
Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes August 20,
2021, as ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' and commemorates the
lives of all enslaved people while also condemning the act
and perpetuation of slavery in the United States of America
and across the world.
Whereas we posthumously recognize the following Members of
Congress, who served during and after the Reconstruction era,
as honorary cosponsors of this resolution.
Their names are listed. I will not read them today. I want to do
something very special when these names are mentioned, and they shall
be mentioned in the near future. But their names are all here, persons
who actually served in the Congress of the United States of America.
These are persons who merit a special place in history because of all
that they had to endure to serve our country.
Whereas, on August 20, 1619, the first 20 enslaved Africans
were brought to what is now Fort Monroe, then Point Comfort.
At that time, the time that they arrived, August 20, 1619, it was
Point Comfort. History has a way of reminding us of things. ``Point
Comfort,'' the place where 20 enslaved Africans arrived. Point Comfort.
Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes August 20,
2021, as ``Slavery Remembrance Day'' and commemorates the
lives of all enslaved people while also condemning the act
and perpetuation of slavery in the United States of
America and across the world.
Whereas African tribal chiefs captured, enslaved, and sold
their captives to transatlantic slave traders.
You can't tell the story without telling the whole story. You have to
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If there is
a scintilla of a mistake in what I say, I would beg that people would
contact me and let me know, because the truth about slavery must be
told. And the truth is that African people sold other Africans into
slavery.
Whereas over the period of the Atlantic slave trade, from
approximately 1526 to 1867, millions of humans were abducted
and shipped from Africa, and 10,700,000 arrived in the
Americas as personal property.
Whereas the majority of enslaved Africans brought to
British North America arrived between 1720 and 1780.
I do want to emphasize the fact that they were personal property,
chattels. They could be bought; they could be sold. I do understand
that this is a part of the history that we don't cherish. It is a part
of the history that we don't care to recall, but it is a part of the
history that we must remember.
We cannot allow ourselves to think, for any amount of time, that
history will never repeat itself, and we have to be ever vigilant as to
prevent history
[[Page H3592]]
from repeating itself. This is why we must have a remembrance day.
This is not the only remembrance day, my dear friends. We remember 9/
11, and it is commemorated for the lives that were lost. We remember
Pearl Harbor. We remember January 6, the date of the insurrection. And
my prognostication is that there will be a January 6 remembrance day.
Days such as these, days that are infamous, should always be
remembered in the annals of history, and they should forever live in
infamy. But we have to remember these days.
{time} 1145
Whereas 6 percent of African captives were sent directly to
British North America.
Whereas by 1825, the population of the United States
included about one-quarter of the people of African descent
in what has been called the New World.
Whereas the Middle Passage from West Africa to the West
Indies was dangerous and horrific for enslaved people.
Whereas the Middle Passage carried mothers, fathers,
children, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and
individuals from all walks of life to slavery in the
Americas.
Whereas although the sexes were separated, men, women and
children were kept naked, packed--and even stacked, I might
add--but packed close together, and the men were chained for
long periods.
Whereas according to some historians, about 12 percent of
those who embarked did not survive the voyage.
Whereas sharks followed the slave ships to feed on the
bodies of slaves thrown overboard.
Whereas enslaved people suffered a variety of miserable and
often fatal maladies due to the Atlantic slave trade and the
inhumane living and working conditions.
Whereas infant and child mortality rates were twice as high
among slave children as among Southern White children.
Whereas enslaved people often worked from sunup to after
sundown, 6 to 7 days a week often without food for long
periods of time.
Whereas enslaved Black families lived with the perpetual
possibility of separation caused by the sale of one or more
family members.
Stepping aside from the text for a moment, it has to be painful to
hear this, to know that on the auction block a mother could be
separated from her children and to know that on that auction block
families would be separated and could be sent in different directions.
Human beings were treated as property. The suffering that they
endured is unthinkable and unimaginable. It was suffering that not even
the mind of Dante could imagine. They were persons treated, to a
certain extent, like animals. The enslaved Black families were human
beings.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas it is estimated that approximately one-third of
enslaved children in the upper South States of Maryland and
Virginia experienced family separation in one of three
possible scenarios: sale away from parents, sale with mother
away from father, or sale of mother or father away from
children.
These are the horrors of slavery and the evils of slavery that we can
never ever forget. Just as we never forget other horrors and just as we
have remembrance days for them, we should have this remembrance day for
slavery.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas Nat Turner was born into slavery in Southampton
County, Virginia, in 1800.
Whereas Southampton County was home to many plantations,
and enslaved people outnumbered free Whites.
Whereas Turner learned to read and write at an early age, a
young age, becoming deeply religious.
Whereas Turner was sold to several different masters over
the course of his life, the last time in 1830.
Whereas Turner preached to his fellow enslaved people
developing a loyal following.
Whereas Turner began planning a revolt with a few trusted
fellow enslaved men from neighboring plantations.
Generally speaking, we honor people who fight being held in
captivity. Generally speaking, they are held in high esteem, and they
are celebrated for their desire to be free and their willingness to
fight for their freedom--generally speaking.
But one has to ask: Where are all of the statues for Nat Turner?
Where are all of the resolutions that have been written extolling the
virtues of Nat Turner?
The question must be posed: How can we honor those who enslaved to a
greater extent than we honor those who suffered the horrors of slavery?
Continuing with the text:
Whereas Turner began planning a revolt with a few trusted
fellow enslaved men from neighboring plantations.
Whereas Turner's rebellion began in August 1831, quickly
growing from a small handful of enslaved individuals to more
than 70 enslaved and free Blacks.
Whereas the rebels went from house to house in Southampton
County, freeing enslaved people.
Whereas the rebels were ultimately defeated by a State
militia that had over twice the manpower of the rebels, with
three artillery companies reinforcing it.
Whereas Turner was captured 6 weeks after the rebellion was
put down, whereupon he was quickly convicted and sentenced to
death.
Whereas in retaliation for the uprising, Virginia
officially executed 56 Black people with at least 100 more
killed by militias through extrajudicial violence.
We are now talking about people who were killed because other people
fought for their freedom.
Stepping aside from the text, we can never allow ourselves to
sanitize the horrors of slavery. This resolution is important. There
has to be a day of remembrance.
Whereas the rebellion caused widespread panic among
slaveholders throughout the South, resulting in widespread
violence against enslaved people.
Please, Mr. Speaker, understand, I take no great pride in reading
this and presenting this. There is no great pride in this. There is
pain. This is sinful and shameful, and we can never forget the horrors
of slavery.
Whereas in the wake of the rebellion, the Virginia General
Assembly passed legislation making it illegal to teach
enslaved free Blacks to read and write.
I take no pleasure.
Whereas the Underground Railroad was a network of
individuals who helped around 100,000 slaves escape to the
North.
Whereas the railroad began when a conductor often posing as
a slave would enter a plantation and attempt to guide
runaways.
(1200)
Whereas the escapees would travel 10 to 20 miles each night
between safe houses or ``stations'' to avoid detection,
waiting in safe houses for the next along the line to be
alerted to their presence.
Whereas Ms. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery along the
Underground Railroad, a network of abolitionists who guided
escaped slaves to the North, traveling primarily at night to
avoid bounty hunters.
My dear friends, my dear brothers and sisters, many of these persons
were not of African ancestry. We didn't get here by ourselves. There
were people of goodwill, of many stripes who made it possible for us to
have these opportunities that we have today. I thank them all. My
prayer is that there will always be such people of goodwill to assist
those who find themselves in harm's way, due to injustice.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas Ms. Tubman returned to the South no less than 13
times to free 70 enslaved persons, including much of her
family, for which she would be given the name, Moses.
Whereas Ms. Tubman deftly led those she saved North during
the fall and winter, when there would-be captors stayed
inside to avoid the cold.
Some things bear repeating. Whereas Ms. Tubman deftly led those she
saved North during the fall and winter, when their would-be captors
stayed inside to avoid the cold.
Whereas in Ms. Tubman's own words: ``I never ran my train
off the track, and I never lost a passenger.''
Whereas during the Civil War, Ms. Tubman served as a nurse,
scout, spy in the Union Army, becoming the first woman to
plan and lead a military operation in the United States,
liberating 700 enslaved people in South Carolina.
Whereas the life of Ms. Tubman continued working to
improving the lives of oppressed people, raising funds and
building schools, as well as a hospital, in the name of
formerly enslaved people, while participating in the women's
suffrage movement.
Whereas John Brown, an abolitionist who ran an important
stop on the Underground Railroad, dedicated his life to
slavery.
Whereas John Brown led a militia in guerilla attacks on
pro-slavery towns in Kansas, losing one of his sons in the
struggle.
Whereas John Brown, with the help of Harriet Tubman,
planned and organized an invasion of the South to free all
slaves.
One has to ask: Where are the statues of John Brown?
One has to ask: How is it that we have statues within a short
distance of where I stand now honoring those who would enslave, but not
honoring those who would set the slaves free?
One has to ask: How do these things happen?
But one has to also be appreciative of the fact that their removal is
almost a certainty now.
One has to be appreciative of the fact that there are those among us
who
[[Page H3593]]
have taken up the fight for freedom, and they have brought it to the
very floor of this House of Representatives.
I am grateful to those who have concluded that we must remove the
statues of those who would enslave, and my prayer is we will replace
them with some statues of those who fought to free the slaves. This is
my prayer.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas John Brown began his invasion at Harpers Ferry,
West Virginia, but was surrounded and captured by Federal
troops led by Robert E. Lee, losing two more sons in the
fight.
There are still people alive today who don't want John Brown to be
celebrated. They don't want the people who gave their very last breath,
the very last ounce of their existence to the cause of freedom.
Celebrate those who would enslave, but not those who would free the
slaves.
I am grateful to those people of goodwill who stand today to continue
the struggle for liberty and justice for all, as extolled in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Whereas the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on
January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, and
provides that ``Neither slavery or involuntary servitude,
except as a condition of punishment, except as punishment for
a crime whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.''
There is much more that can be said about the 13th Amendment. Because
I do not say it at this time, I beg that you not charge me for not
knowing some of the things that can be said about the 13th Amendment.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas beginning in the 20th century, African Americans
began to relocate from Southern farms to Southern cities,
from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West, in a
movement known as the Great Migration.
Whereas the relocation of formerly enslaved individuals and
their descendants also included unfavorable and, at times,
unjust interactions with law enforcement that often resulted
in imprisonment and convict leasing.
Stepping aside from the text, in Sugar Land, Texas, bodies were
unearthed. In Sugar Land, Texas, 95 bodies unearthed. Those who study
these things have concluded that they were likely the victims of
convict leasing.
Convict leasing was a means by which slavery was continued by another
name. Convict leasing allowed laws to be used to have persons who
committed petty offenses held in jail. They were detained. Couldn't pay
a fine. These Black Codes, as they were called, allowed for convict
leasing to continue.
Persons were arrested for just standing around, not having a job, put
into the convict leasing program. And 95 such bodies were found of
persons who are thought to have been victims of convict leasing in
Sugar Land, Texas. Just outside of my congressional district, I might
add.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas convict leasing, also known as slavery by another
name, was a system that allowed persons to lease imprisoned
individuals to private entities, often corporations and
plantations.
Whereas the remains of 95 persons thought to be of African
ancestry, who were subjected to the State of Texas convict
leasing system, were discovered in 2018, at the construction
site of Fort Bend Independent School District's James Reese
Career and Technical Center in Sugar Land, Texas.
There is much more to be said about this. In the days and weeks to
come, I shall say more about this and what has happened to these 95
persons, human beings, buried, to a certain extent, in a common grave
area.
Whereas while slavery was abolished, descendants of the
enslaved continue to live with the effects of slavery's
progenies: Jim Crow, mass lynchings, segregation, police
brutality, mass incarceration, and institutionalized racism.
{time} 1215
Stepping aside from the text, I am a son of the segregated South. I
have experienced these progenies, some of them. Not all of them, of
course. I am 73 years of age. I have been blessed to live longer than
many thought I would, not because of some illness, but because I was
born Black.
The prognosticators never projected or prognosticated that I would be
standing here. There was nothing at my birth that would have given
anyone reason to believe that I would stand here. And probably there
was nothing that would give persons reason to believe that I would
stand here and read this resolution.
For many, this is a resolution that is not supposed to be filed; it
is not supposed to be heard.
I am a liberated Democrat. I am not going to allow my agenda, the
agenda of those who have suffered, to go unnoticed. It won't happen on
my watch. As long as I am in this House, I am going to remind us that
we have a duty and a responsibility, as well as an obligation, to
understand the evils of slavery and understand how they have not
evaporated. They have not simply faded away. To this day, the progenies
of the evils still haunt us. They haunt us in this very House.
For those who are offended, I beg that you would forgive me, but I
don't have any recourse. Those who sent me here, they didn't send me
here to do all that I can to get along and go along. They sent me here
to try to make a difference. I guess I have a case of the ``can't help
its.''
I do what I can do, because I know my history, and I have suffered
the pain from a progeny of slavery.
Continuing with the text:
Whereas despite the horrors of slavery and against all
odds, enslaved people became thought leaders and
revolutionaries and changed the course of American history.
Too often they are forgotten, pushed aside.
Too often, the history that they made is stolen.
Too often the status quo will wait until they can find a proper
person to attribute the history to.
The status quo too often selects the persons that ought to be
celebrated in history, and too often those persons are not the persons
who suffered to bring the history to a better place.
The status quo has many ways to defend itself. The status quo can do
it with the power of appointment.
The status quo can do it by acknowledging people and ignoring others.
The status quo has many ways to defend itself.
I am reminded of the words of Voltaire. He reminds us that--and I am
paraphrasing--it is dangerous to be right in matters where the
established powers are wrong.
So the status quo defends itself, and the true history is not always
known. There will come a time, however, when the truth about some of
the history I am aware of will be made known.
Mr. Chairman, the House is not in order. Someone appears to be on the
phone in the House. I ask that we kindly investigate. This is a matter
of serious concern, and a person ought not be on the phone in the
House. It is contrary to the rules of the House. A person ought not do
this when a serious matter is being discussed on the floor of the House
of Representatives.
Doesn't matter who that person is, by the way. And if the person
doesn't stop, I will put the person's name in the Record, because I
know who it is. I am not going to suffer that kind of disrespect.
Resolved, this resolution may be cited as the ``Original
Slavery Remembrance Day Resolution of 2021.'' That is section
1 in the short title.
Section 2, Slavery Remembrance Day.
That the House of Representatives:
One, supports the designation of a ``Slavery Remembrance
Day'' to serve as a reminder of the evils of slavery.
Two, condemns slavery and its evil progenies; and
encourages all to acknowledge the importance of slavery
remembrance.
I am grateful to the Speaker for allowing the time. I am grateful to
the majority leader. I am grateful to the whip. I am grateful to all of
the chairs. I am grateful to the many persons who are cosponsors of
this resolution.
As I indicated, it was coming to me as I was moving to the floor, and
I have found a note from my staff. I am eternally grateful to my staff.
Seventy-seven cosponsors. These are the persons who are part of what
I believe to be a historic resolution.
Those who are not should not be condemned. We simply but only ask
that they would become cosponsors, and this can be accomplished quite
easily. Contact my office and let us know that you would like to be a
cosponsor. The love we have for you is not diminished one scintilla
because you are not an original; it is not. I am not that kind of guy.
I am interested in having persons of goodwill become a part of this
resolution. And there is much more that will be said and done as we
move forward with the resolution.
I thank all of the persons who are here today. I appreciate the fact
that
[[Page H3594]]
this House functions as efficaciously as it does.
I am going to remember who was standing with the gavel at hand. I am
going to remember the faces. This is a special moment in time. I will
remember those who were to speak after me.
I will remember this wonderful lady who is seated over to my left,
who has always been so kind and so generous and gentle.
I will remember the person who has prevented someone else from
talking on the phone and who doesn't allow it to happen in this House
when there is business before this House. She is evenhanded; she treats
all of us the same.
I will remember the Parliamentarian, who has allowed his COVID beard
to continue. That is just a joke, friends. I want to bring a bit of
levity. But the Parliamentarian has been very helpful, and all of those
who are associated with the office, have been very helpful.
I pray that on the August 20 or before, this resolution will receive
a vote in this House so that this House can go on record, as it has
gone on record for many other things, as supporting Slavery Remembrance
Day.
Mr. Speaker, it is my honor now to yield back the balance of my time.
____________________