[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 8, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Missouri (Ms. Bush) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BUSH. Madam Speaker, St. Louis and I rise today because, if 
America's students are not taught the truth in school, we can at least 
make the floor of the House of Representatives their classroom.
  My name is Cori Bush. But Bush was not the name that my paternal 
ancestors in Nigeria carried. Bush was the last name forced upon them 
by their slave masters right here in America. My maternal ancestors 
carried the last name Blakney, forced upon them by their slave masters 
in Pageland, South Carolina.
  Our Black ancestors were kidnapped--stolen--from their homelands. 
They were the 12 million Africans who were shackled, branded, and 
packed into the bowels of slave ships during what is known as the 
Middle Passage where 2 million Africans died. Poor ventilation, burning 
heat, no room to stand or room to turn their bodies, forced to lay in 
their own feces and urine, they were starved, dehydrated, poisoned, and 
beaten.
  Those who survived the Middle Passage survived only to be brought 
onto these shores, bought and sold at auctions like the goods their 
forced labor was producing.
  These auctions launched a longstanding practice in America in which 
White folks--including White women--scrutinize and violate the bodies 
of Black people--especially Black women.
  We are going to tell the truth today. Black adults and Black children 
were enslaved and forced to endure being tormented, being tortured, and 
being raped by White slave owners on slave ships and on the 
plantations.
  Our ancestors tried to escape the bondage of slavery just to be 
hunted, captured, imprisoned, and executed via slave patrols and 
convict leasing--those institutions whose primary focus was to 
regulate, exploit, and control Black bodies.
  More than 1,700 Congressmen once enslaved Black people. Those 1,700 
people who routinely cast votes cultivating, conserving, and codifying 
White supremacy did not view Black people as human beings. Our own 
Presidents owned, sold, and enslaved Black people.
  The image behind me is the truth of our country's history that our 
students are denied. This is what a lynching in America looked like.
  What we must remember is that for every Black person they hung from a 
tree, dozens of White people came to celebrate.
  When our students don't learn about these lynchings in school, it is 
not just to deny us our justice, it is because racist policymakers 
don't want White children to know that that may be great-grandpa 
smiling in the picture and pointing at our ancestors dangling like 
strange fruit.
  This is the truth about our country that too many racist lawmakers 
want to prevent our students from learning.
  So to young White people across our country: this is your history. 
The atrocities perpetuated against Black people for generations were 
committed by your ancestors--not all of you, but many of you.
  So you have to know this is American history.
  So what will you do to help repair the damage?
  What will you do to help us achieve reparations for the harm done?
  And if your history books do not teach this history, then question 
the book. Talk to your school district. Tell them that we don't want a 
whitewashed history. We want and deserve the truth.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair, not to a perceived viewing audience.

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