[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 16, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S749-S750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Remembering Elizabeth Peratrovich

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I have come to the floor this evening 
to speak in honor and recognition of a woman by the name of Elizabeth 
Peratrovich.
  Elizabeth Peratrovich is recognized in my State of Alaska as a 
champion, a relentless champion, for civil rights for all Alaskans.
  It is on this day, the 16th of February, that the State of Alaska 
observes Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. In communities across the State, in 
schools, cultural centers, you are going to be seeing activities to 
honor this really remarkable Alaska Native leader.
  PBS has an award-winning show for children called ``Molly of 
Denali.'' It is a great TV show, and they recently had an episode 
highlighting the story of Elizabeth Peratrovich.
  It was just 2 years ago, now, that her image was placed on a dollar 
coin issued by the U.S. Mint. So that recognition has gone beyond the 
State of Alaska, clearly, to the national and the Federal level.
  So as we are celebrating Elizabeth Peratrovich Day back home, I am 
going to share a little bit of her story with the Senate because it is 
a legacy of seeking and realizing a more inclusive society and 
certainly a more representative democracy.
  Elizabeth was a Tlingit, a member of the Raven/Sockeye or Lukaax-Adi 
clan. She was actually born on Independence Day, born in Petersburg, 
AK, in 1911.
  And it was just a year after that, 1912, a group of Native people 
from across the southeastern part of the State mobilized to form an 
organization called the Alaska Native Brotherhood, ANB. Then, 2 years 
later, they formed the Alaska Native Sisterhood. ANB, ANS these are 
considered the oldest indigenous civil rights organizations in the 
world, started right there in southeastern Alaska.
  ANB and ANS sought to advance equal opportunities for education, for 
employment, for housing, and they fought to secure Native civil rights.
  Elizabeth married Roy Peratrovich, and the two of them became very 
active in ANB and ANS activities in the 1940s.

[[Page S750]]

  In 1941, they had moved to Juneau, and they encountered a level of 
discrimination in that community against Alaska Native peoples that, as 
we look at the accounts of the time, paralleled the Jim Crow practices 
in the South, but it strengthened their resolve. It strengthened their 
commitment to fight back against the discrimination that they saw.
  Through their work with ANB and ANS, Elizabeth and Roy began 
advocating for an antidiscrimination bill in the Territorial 
legislature. If you will recall, we didn't become a State until 1959. 
This is the early forties, and they are talking about an 
antidiscrimination bill in our legislature. They pointed out to all who 
would listen that Alaska Natives were paying taxes for a public school 
system that excluded their children. They weren't part of that school 
system. They pointed out that Alaska Native men were fighting in World 
War II, but then on their return, they were denied rights that other 
veterans enjoyed.

  Those fundamental discriminations and many more were what drove their 
pursuit for equal rights not just for Alaska Natives but for all people 
in Alaska.
  So they had gone to Juneau in 1941. That antidiscrimination bill 
didn't pass immediately. It was reintroduced in 1945. And there is a 
lot of discussion about the pivotal moment in time when eyes were 
opened and, really, minds were also opened in awareness.
  This was the time of debate where this antidiscrimination bill had 
passed the house, had moved over to the senate, and there was a 
Territorial senator who denounced these efforts to desegregate, and he 
stood up on the senate floor, and he said:

       Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to 
     associate with us whites, with 5,000 years of recorded 
     civilization behind us?

  Pretty inflammatory if you are sitting there in those Senate chambers 
listening to that, certainly--certainly--to an Alaska Native person.
  At the end of the debate, the public was offered a chance to express 
their views in front of the legislature. That is not something that you 
have happen in most legislatures. We don't have it in our legislature 
now, but in our Territorial legislature, the public was offered a 
chance to weigh in here.
  And Elizabeth Peratrovich stood in the back of this senate gallery, 
and in her remarks, she said:

       I would not have expected that I, who am ``barely out of 
     savagery,'' would have to remind the gentleman with 5,000 
     years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of 
     Rights.

  And when asked if she thought that the bill would eliminate 
discrimination, she replied:

       Do your laws against larceny and even murder prevent those 
     crimes? No law will eliminate crimes, but at least you as 
     legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the 
     evil of the present situation and speak your intent to help 
     us overcome discrimination.

  Imagine this scene. You are part of this legislative body, and from 
the back of the gallery, a Native woman stands to speak to address this 
elected body.
  Following her comments, there was a long period of silence, and then 
there was applause through the gallery and through the senate floor, 
including from some who had previously opposed the bill.
  Alaska's Governor at the time, Ernest Gruening, went on to sign the 
antidiscrimination act, the Nation's first antidiscrimination act, 
signed into law on February 16, 1945. This was almost two decades 
before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  So it is something that when we in Alaska think about the history of 
discrimination that we have had, that certainly Alaska Native people 
have endured--endured far too long--to have led the country in terms of 
putting into law the first antidiscrimination act in this country a 
couple decades before the Civil Rights Act advanced through this 
Congress.
  During an Indian Affairs Committee hearing on Native voting access 
last October, the president of the Alaska Federation Natives, Julie 
Kitka, reminded us that these events are not very old, and sometimes we 
think of Elizabeth Peratrovich as part of our history, but she, 
Elizabeth, and her husband Roy, and the impact that they had on Alaska 
and the way that they strengthened our democracy is our current history 
as well.
  So we honor Elizabeth Peratrovich's legacy of standing up for what is 
right. She is an inspiration because she set the example that when you 
see something wrong, you speak out and you do something about it.
  And she also provided a great example for why we need to listen--why 
we need to listen to all perspectives and voices, especially those who 
have been left out or left behind, oftentimes intentionally.
  I think of Stella Martin of Kake, AK, a champion of equal rights 
herself. She described Elizabeth Peratrovich as ``a fighter with velvet 
gloves.'' And she was truly a fighter. Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is 
also a timely reminder for those of us here in the U.S. Senate. We all 
have an obligation to respond to the calls from our constituents who 
are seeking protection, including through electoral reforms and 
improvements for voter access.
  We all know that we went through a very partisan exercise on voting 
rights legislation here on the floor earlier this year. Some may say it 
is hard to see how that advanced the debate on this issue; but it 
didn't change the underlying fact that we do need to come together to 
advance good solid policy in this area. I am working with a group of 
Senators. There are around 16 of us, I think, total. But we are 
continuing to focus on these issues of election reform. We want to try 
to determine a bipartisan path forward so that we can actually move 
important safeguards and clarifications into the law. And it may not be 
easy to take on some of these complicated issues, particularly when you 
get the pulls from both sides to not engage to try to come to the 
middle. But like we did with the infrastructure bill, like we are doing 
with the Violence Against Women Act, we need to follow a path that 
allows us to get some things done as opposed to simply sending 
messages.
  As Alaska celebrates Elizabeth Peratrovich, I hope the Senate will 
look to her legacy for inspiration as we seek unity and follow her 
example of treating our fellow citizens with respect. We have got too 
much at stake to operate in any other lesser manner.
  I thank the Presiding Officer for his attention.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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