[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I rise as a 
person who is proud to live in a country where we celebrate the ideal 
of liberty and justice for all; government of the people, by the 
people, for the people.
  I rise today with grateful thoughts on my mind and in my heart. I 
rise with gratitude. I am thankful to those persons, the many, who have 
signed on to H. Res. 517.
  H. Res. 517, Madam Speaker, is a resolution that would allow us to 
remember slavery, Slavery Remembrance Day.
  Slavery Remembrance Day would be a day that we would set aside, not 
for celebration, but for commemoration, for memorialization, to 
remember the atrocities that were imposed upon people, human beings, 
how they were made chattel. Slavery Remembrance Day.
  And for those who may not be aware, we have a 9/11 Remembrance Day. 
We have a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. We have a Holocaust Remembrance 
Day. But we don't have a Slavery Remembrance Day.
  Hence, on August 20 of this year, we will commemorate the first 
Slavery Remembrance Day, because it was on that day in 1619 that the 
White Lion landed in this country with some 20 persons who were held in 
captivity as slaves. Slavery Remembrance Day.
  So I am rising today to thank the many persons who have already 
signed on to the resolution. And I want you to know that we will be 
sending you something very special, something comparable to this. It 
will have the resolution cited on one side of the page. Each of your 
names will be highlighted on the other side of the page. And each of 
you will have a special place for your name that will be highlighted.
  This is historic, and we have to treat it as such. This is something 
that those who will look back on this time through the vista of time, 
they will look, and they will conclude that we did not forget, that we 
made it a point to remember that those who, unfortunately, don't learn 
the lessons of history sometimes repeat history.
  We never want to repeat slavery. Hence, we will have a Slavery 
Remembrance Day resolution.

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