[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 163 (Tuesday, September 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H4561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BLACK LIVES MATTER

  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, as a liberated 
Democrat, unbought, unbossed, in the spirit of Shirley Chisholm. And I 
rise, not as a part-time freedom fighter, but a full-time freedom 
fighter. I don't do it just because it is convenient, just because it 
is the issue du jour. I do it because I was born into the struggle. I 
didn't enlist at a later time in life.
  As a full-time freedom fighter, I rise today, Madam Speaker, because 
Black lives still matter; and they matter, Madam Speaker, wherever they 
happen to be. They matter, not because they happen to be in the United 
States. They matter if they are in Haiti. Black lives matter.
  I have been to Haiti. I have seen the conditions there. We need to do 
something about our friends in this hemisphere. And if they matter in 
Haiti to me, surely they matter at the southern border.
  Black lives matter wherever they are. Black lives matter regardless 
as to who is in power. They still matter. Changes in the power 
structure don't change the circumstances. And as long as the 
circumstances exist, Black lives still matter.
  And as a 74-year old Black man, when I see men in uniforms, acting 
under the color of law, on horses, using the reins of the horses to do 
what was comparable to that which was done when you were trying to 
capture a runaway slave, or you were herding slaves in a given 
direction, Black lives matter. When I see that, I find it more than 
appalling. It is sinful. It is something that we cannot tolerate.
  And you just can't say, well, the circumstances are so bad that we 
have to use horses now to run down Black people. Black lives matter. 
That kind of behavior is intolerable. And when I see it, I am going to 
speak up and speak out.
  So here is what I am going to do about it. I am not just going to say 
Black lives matter. I want justice for the Haitians.
  I remember when we had a policy to help the Cubans come into this 
country. By the way, I never opposed it. But the policy was wet foot, 
dry foot. You get one foot on dry land, your other foot could be in the 
Gulf of Mexico, and you had the right to take that other foot out of 
water, go on into Miami and start a life in this country and eventually 
become a citizen. I never opposed that policy. We didn't have a similar 
policy for the Haitians.
  And I remember when Castro opened up the jails and let the criminals 
come down to Florida, we didn't send them back.
  Black lives matter. It is not just a slogan for me. So here is what I 
am going to do. I am going to draft a resolution condemning what we 
saw.
  We need to know whether Black lives matter to this Congress. We need 
to know. I am going to draft a resolution.
  And for those who don't understand the rules, these kinds of 
resolutions are not privileged, so I can't just bring it to the floor 
and demand a vote. So I am going to ask that it be allowed to come to 
the floor because Black lives matter.
  And we need to vote. We need to know where people stand on the great 
issues of our time. This is an issue of all time; it is not just today. 
We need to know where people stand. We need to vote.
  There are a lot of things that we need to vote on. We need to know 
where people stand when it comes to Black lives, and all lives, I might 
add, but this is the Haitian issue that we are dealing with now.

  I have fought for the other persons who have come to the border. I 
spoke up when little girls were being ripped away from their mothers' 
arms, so I am not new to this fight.
  And I want to assure you that I am going to bring the resolution to 
my colleagues, and we will find out whether Black lives matter to this 
Congress.

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