[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 100 (Monday, June 13, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5472-H5475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                         CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and submit additional materials and statements.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to proceed under 
this Special Order of the Congressional Black Caucus. It is my pleasure 
now to begin to frame this very important week to commemorate 
Juneteenth, the second acknowledgment of the Federal holiday created on 
June 17, 2021, by President Joe Biden--present, of course, was Vice 
President Kamala Harris--when the first holiday for nearly 40 years, 
Federal holiday, was established.
  I am pleased to be able to yield to the distinguished gentlewoman 
from Ohio whose vision has helped us craft this recognition and this 
Congressional Black Caucus Special Order and her recognition of the 
cruciality of honoring those who have never been honored, the 
acknowledgment of Juneteenth, a day of freedom, and as well recognizing 
H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals. We 
thank her for her leadership and her guidance.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), 
the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Mrs. BEATTY. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, 
the chair of our Special Order, executive board member, a person who 
you want to be out front. Whether it is an issue on civil rights, 
criminal justice, reparations, voting rights, or domestic violence, 
Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson Lee has earned this day and this right. I could not 
think of a better person to stand here as we talk about commemorating 
Juneteenth. We know the history all too well of what happened in Texas. 
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee hails from Texas.
  Today, as we talk about Black excellence, as we talk about the 
members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Madam Speaker, we speak to 
America tonight. We want America to know that as we commemorate 
Juneteenth, it is about our work; it is about our scholarship; it is 
about our fight. You will hear a broad range of issues that we are so 
proud to stand up for and let America know we are there.
  I could not think of a better issue to weave into Juneteenth than 
reparations, H.R. 40. Sheila Jackson Lee, if you have been in the room 
with her, you have heard her say it at the White House, you have heard 
her say it at caucus, you have heard her go in the Halls of Congress 
talking about H.R. 40. I could stop there, but I can tell you that 
piece of legislation has her fingerprints on it and the signatures of 
200-plus Members. What a great way for me to start and to stand here as 
chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Tonight, we commemorate a day in our Nation's history that can only 
be described as a celebration of freedom, Juneteenth.
  On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas received the 
joyous news of emancipation and that they were finally free.
  Despite that, we are still enslaved in many ways, so it is critical 
for America to know of our fight and our progress.
  Tonight, you will hear Members discuss our work on criminal justice, 
reparations, uplifting of our Black men and boys, racial equity, fair 
housing, and so much more. We are leading the charge and laying the 
foundation to deliver on voting rights, student loan debt, and gun 
control. Tonight, we tell our story of Black excellence.
  Nearly 1 year ago, on June 17, 2021, the Congressional Black Caucus 
went to the White House and joined with President Joe Biden and Vice 
President Kamala Harris as he signed the historic legislation that made 
Juneteenth the 11th national holiday and the first new Federal holiday 
since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.
  Now, more than a century-and-a-half later, I stand here as chairwoman 
of the largest Congressional Black Caucus in the Nation's history.
  Every day, 58 Black members of the Congressional Black Caucus 
legislate in these Halls built by our enslaved ancestors. Six full 
committee chairs, chair of the Democratic Caucus, the House majority 
whip, former senior adviser to the President, and Vice President of 
these United States are all active and former members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus.
  Madam Speaker, we have come so far, but we realize there is still 
work to do. Yes, from being considered one-third of a person, we want 
the American people to know that we continue fighting.
  It was the Congressional Black Caucus that brokered the $1 trillion 
infrastructure law for our roads and bridges and provided little 
children a broadband network. It was the $1,400 in the pockets of 
everyday Americans, the $300 a month for working families with 
children, the historic funding for HBCUs, and each Congressional Black 
Caucus member bringing community dollars to their district.
  We have seen one of the most consequential civil rights legislations 
aiming at interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline and uplifting 
Black men and boys, the U.S. Commission on Social Status of Black Men 
and Boys, created and birthed by our very own Congresswoman Frederica 
Wilson, a sojourner for our Black men and boys.
  Tonight, you will hear other members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus commemorate our successes in the spirit of Juneteenth.
  But, Madam Speaker, in the immortal words of Dr. Maya Angelou: 
Bringing the gifts that our ancestors gave, we are the dream and the 
hope of the slave.
  I am proud to proclaim on this floor tonight: Happy Juneteenth Day. 
Our power, our message.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her 
distinguished presentation.
  I will take a moment, as other Members are on the floor, so I can at 
least set the framework of this evening of which she has done so ably. 
I think the cornerstone of the chairwoman's remarks is that we have 
been building on Juneteenth, as members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, for all of our tenure in Congress. We have done it by the 
myriad of legislative initiatives that continue to build and repair 
what was generated from the 246 years of slavery.
  Let me, first of all, read into the Record that order of General 
Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, on the shores of Galveston, Texas:

[[Page H5473]]

  ``The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a 
proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are 
free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights 
of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection 
heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and 
hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their 
present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not 
be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be 
supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.''
  Most people have not heard the entire order.
  Union soldiers, up to 200,000, fought in the Civil War and died. 
Union soldiers were killed by Confederate soldiers. Rather than, under 
the laws of the military protocol, captured as prisoners of war, they 
shot them dead.
  Blood was shed by slaves, or Freedmen, and the order that we all so 
often praised, let me be very clear, General Granger said you are free, 
but your posture, your framework, the guidepost, is you are not to 
leave. You are now employer and not even employee but hired labor.
  There was no obligation for Freedmen to stay and take a job, and most 
of the slaves looked askance. They didn't understand what ``employer'' 
was. That is not a word they had ever heard, in any large sense, and 
``hired labor.'' We are free.
  Tonight, we speak about freedom. They were free. Yet, even in the 
goodness of that order, they were advised to remain at their present 
homes, probably something that had been given to the plantation and the 
masters and to work for wages. It did not say what kind of wages, what 
kind of work conditions you had, what kind of workers' comp, insurance. 
No, they were informed that they would not be allowed to collect at 
military posts, and as if that had been the slaves' mantra, they even 
challenged them to not be supported in idleness either there or 
elsewhere.
  Let me tell you, by this very potent picture, what the ancestors had 
gone through for 246 years. For those who were born, lived, and died in 
the brutality of slavery, this was their lives, the separation of 
families and the unnaming of families. They had first names, or they 
were called ``husband'' or ``wife.'' They were not given the dignity of 
a name. This was their lot.
  So Juneteenth, its essence was freedom, but the words were hesitant. 
Even though slavery had been abolished, as most people will know, 
except for convicted persons, which made them as a challenged 
amendment, if you will, because that process of prisoners continued 
into the 20th century.
  But I say this to say, as we begin our discussion, and I will just 
make this point, I am here to honor those who never were honored, whose 
names were never called, whose funerals or burials were never given the 
dignity of a human being. They died as less than a person, as the 
Constitution dictated, for at least a century. They never had that 
dignity of who they were and the work they did and the building of the 
economic engine of America and the shedding of blood in both the 
Revolutionary War and the wars in between and the Civil War.
  As we look at these scars, that is why I am so adamant about H.R. 40, 
the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals. Because even 
in the pronouncement of freedom, Chairwoman Beatty, Chairman Jeffries, 
Chair Bonnie Watson Coleman--even in the proclamation of freedom, they 
did not have freedom. They were qualified in their freedom.
  With that in mind, I continue to raise up this bill, with almost 217 
cosponsors, to this week even become an executive order, pronouncement 
of such, or ultimately passed by the House of Representatives, that is, 
H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals.
  I am prepared to yield to the chairman of the House Democratic 
Caucus, who has certainly evidenced the essence of freedom in our work 
together on criminal justice reform. I think he well knows what the 
13th Amendment left us with, as well as General Granger's order. I hope 
that he has heard that even in freedom, we were given qualifications 
and structures and strictures, and we were denied the true freedom of 
this Nation.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries).

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman 
from the great State of Texas, the Chair of the Crime, Terrorism and 
Homeland Security Subcommittee, Sheila Jackson Lee, for yielding and 
for her leadership in so many different areas, particularly as it 
relates to the effort to make sure that we explore to the greatest 
extent possible the legacy that still remains in terms of the damage 
that was done relative to the enslavement of people of African descent 
here in the United States of America.
  We have come a long way in this great country, but we still have a 
long way to go, racism is in the soil of America going all the way back 
to 1619.
  It is an honor to stand here with my distinguished colleagues, the 
chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Honorable Joyce Beatty, 
who has done such an amazing job leading us forward in this Congress 
and, of course, the distinguished gentlewoman from the great State of 
New Jersey, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. I thank you, Madam 
Speaker, for presiding over this particular discussion.
  Juneteenth as a Federal holiday is an amazing development. An effort 
was led by the Congressional Black Caucus and, of course, the 
legislation was signed into law by President Joe Biden. I thank the 
distinguished gentlewoman from Texas for leading the effort.
  I first came to know of Juneteenth when I was a student at the LBJ 
School of Public Affairs in the summer between my junior year and my 
senior year and had not heard--I am just a kid from Brooklyn--had not 
heard about Juneteenth. Folks down there said we are going to celebrate 
Juneteenth. I said June what? I was unsure of it, growing up proudly as 
an African American in New York City, something that had been in the 
heart and soul of the people of Texas and throughout the south but 
hadn't necessarily made it into my consciousness. I was thankful for 
that moment.
  I think about that journey to a point now where we have a Federal 
holiday to mark the journey of African Americans and the progress that 
has been made but the need to continue, of course, to do more.
  As Chairwoman Beatty talked about some of the things that the 
Congressional Black Caucus has worked on, I think this Juneteenth 
marker is an important point in time both to reflect upon what has been 
done, but also, of course, to mark what still needs to be done to 
continue America's march toward a more perfect Union.
  We weren't promised a perfect country. We know the Framers of this 
great Republic themselves were imperfect. We were never promised a 
perfect country. Slavery was in existence when the Republic was 
founded, but they did promise a march toward a more perfect Union that 
America could try to continue to be the best version of herself. And 
that is what the Congressional Black Caucus has really been all about.
  In our 51 years I can't stand here in the time that I have to 
catalogue all that has been done, but if you just look at what has 
occurred in the last 10 or 15 years; signature pieces of legislation 
year after year after year; Congressman   Danny Davis leading the 
effort to pass the Second Chance Act to make sure that incarcerated 
individuals and others who need a second chance at life could 
successfully reintegrate into society in a way that helps them as 
individuals, their families, our communities, as well as taxpayers. 
That was a bill that was signed into law by a Republican President 
George Bush. Leadership from the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Certainly, in that criminal justice reform space we know that 
Chairman  Bobby Scott in 2010 led the effort to pass the Fair 
Sentencing Act, which lowered the 100 to 1 egregious crack cocaine 
sentencing disparity--that disparity between crack cocaine and powder 
cocaine--and dropped it down to 18 to 1 in a way that allowed thousands 
of individuals, the overwhelming majority of whom were Black men, to be 
released back into society to live productive lives.
  There was still more work that needed to be done. We took up the 
effort in 2018, and collectively the Congressional

[[Page H5474]]

Black Caucus passed the FIRST STEP Act. Representative Sheila Jackson 
Lee was very involved in that effort as a member of the Judiciary 
Committee, Cedric Richmond, Karen Bass, myself, others, Joyce Beatty, 
Bonnie Watson Coleman were supportive, and we were able to take that 18 
to 1 and make it retroactive, which the Senate refused to do in 2010, 
and enact a wide variety of sentencing reforms that created a fairer 
more equitable criminal justice system resulting in thousands of 
individuals being able to successfully reintegrate back into society, 
save taxpayer dollars, but also repaired lives, repaired families, 
repaired communities.
  The overwhelming majority of folks, again, who were released, 90 
percent, Black men.
  Why?
  Because it was Black men who bore the brunt of the failed war on 
drugs and the failure of so-called lock `em up and throw away the key 
sentencing schemes, all of which didn't make us safer, as people were 
banished, often for nonviolent drug offenses. That was the 
Congressional Black Caucus.
  It was the Congressional Black Caucus led by Frederica Wilson that 
passed into law the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and 
Boys and it was signed into law by a Republican President, passed 
through a Republican-controlled United States Senate. Because the 
Congressional Black Caucus stays on the case. And as was said during 
its founding, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only 
permanent interests, and the interests to make sure that these 
principles: equal protection under the law, liberty and justice for 
all, and fundamental fairness apply to all Americans regardless of 
race.
  And so that is a very important piece of legislation. That commission 
is a foundation that, under the leadership of Joyce Beatty, we can 
continue to make progress, particularly for those Black men and boys 
who have been isolated and under-resourced and targeted in our society.
  I am thankful that during that same Congress there was an effort to 
more fully and robustly fund historically Black colleges and 
universities. That effort was led by Representative Alma Adams. It was 
also legislation that made it through a Republican-controlled Senate, 
Republican-controlled House, signed into law by a Republican President. 
The CBC stays on the case.

  And that is certainly what occurred this particular Congress with 
passage of historic infrastructure legislation. That effort was, in 
part, when we were at a stalemate led by our chairwoman, Joyce Beatty, 
who worked to bring the caucus together to a place where we could enact 
groundbreaking legislation that will create millions of good-paying 
jobs, make sure that there is clean water in every single community, 
and we know that it is Black communities that often suffer from water 
that has been poisoned.
  And, of course, it was our great whip,  Jim Clyburn, who led the 
effort to make sure that we put into place a process so that we can get 
high-speed internet access in every single community. This is the CBC 
staying on the case.
  So I am thankful for the leadership of my colleagues within the 
Congressional Black Caucus, thankful that our chair has continued to 
pull us together and lead us in such a phenomenal way, thankful for 
Bonnie Watson Coleman, who is one of the most principled public 
servants you will find anywhere in these United States, thankful for 
Sheila Jackson Lee and what she is doing to lead us forward to examine 
through H.R. 40 the legacy of slavery and the fact that perhaps the 
least that we can do is have a study to figure out the damage that was 
done through the systematic rape and kidnapping, lynching, and 
oppression decade after decade, century into century and then its 
progeny in the context of Jim Crow and the institutional discrimination 
that remains with us today. The least that perhaps we can do at some 
point is figure out how we can study the issue, building upon all of 
the work that the CBC has been able to do today.
  Juneteenth gives us an opportunity to mark the progress that we have 
made, and of course, think about a vision for the future as we continue 
our long, necessary, and majestic march toward a more perfect Union.
  I thank you, Madam Speaker, for presiding. I thank my classmate and 
good friend, Joyce Beatty, for her work, and I certainly approve any 
message that she articulates. I thank my colleagues Sheila Jackson Lee 
and Bonnie Watson Coleman who are helping to lead the charge with this 
Special Order.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for taking us 
through this powerful journey of a continued fight for freedom by the 
Congressional Black Caucus and incorporating all of the relief given 
for the continued ailments and disparities of African Americans and 
leading us to H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation 
Proposals for African Americans Act, which really are components of the 
work that we have been doing. They are the building blocks of trying to 
cure extensive disparities.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. 
Watson Coleman), a Member that has worked on disparities focused on the 
journey of Black women, leading on issues of Black women maternity 
mortality, as well as my colleague on the Homeland Security Committee 
and a number of other collaborations.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the leader of our Special 
Order hour, the magnificent, exquisite, and always on point the 
Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee for her work on H.R. 40 and reminding us 
every day that within that word ``reparations'' is repair and our 
opportunity to study how we can repair the pain and the injustice that 
was accorded to our community.
  I need to recognize my leader, Joyce Beatty, because under her 
leadership she has amplified our voice is our power. And on whatever 
level we decide that we must speak and we must act, Joyce Beatty has 
reminded us that our voice is our power because the Congressional Black 
Caucus believes in exercising that power on behalf of communities that 
have been underrepresented for so very long, whether it is 
environmental justice, social justice, criminal justice reform, 
housing, or just whether or not the whole system needs to be examined 
as it impacted us.
  I thank the chair of our caucus, who took us through a journey that 
reminded me, as I was sitting there, of the good work that we have been 
able to do. I tell you that I feel like I am standing here in a very 
sacred space, and I want to speak in the spirit that flows through us 
that was left by Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, John Lewis, Elijah 
Cummings, and Alcee Hastings, and so many more that have gone before us 
and have opened the doors and pushed through the doors so that we might 
be here this evening to address you.
  So, yes, slavery--supposedly freedom from it--came to us in 1865, and 
today we commemorate and we celebrate this end of slavery and all the 
progress that we have made over the last 157 years.

                              {time}  2015

  We must also acknowledge, as Chairman Hakeem Jeffries reminded us, 
the long road ahead toward what would be full equality for Black 
Americans. Let Juneteenth be not just a celebration or a commemoration, 
but a rallying cry as we recommit ourselves to the centuries-long 
struggle for civil rights.
  Through historic measures like the American Rescue Plan, the 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and executive orders on policing and 
advancing racial equity, the Biden administration, along with this 
Congress, has taken important steps to address the unique needs of 
Black communities across the country. The time is now to keep that 
momentum going.
  Our current moment presents an opportunity to dismantle systemic 
injustices by bringing Black people from the margins to the mainstream 
of American society. We as a society must stop treating Black people as 
an afterthought. That means we must take direct action to end the 
racial discrimination that, contrary to what our colleagues across the 
aisle might like us to believe, still exists today.
  It means ensuring that Black people, especially Black women, are in 
the rooms where decisions are made. It means passing legislation like 
the CROWN Act, which would put an end to the insidious discrimination 
against Black people because of their hair.

[[Page H5475]]

  In the fight for a more perfect Union, we can, we should, and we must 
think bigger and bolder. Through policies like those that are outlined 
in the Black Women Best economic framework--which include everything 
from guaranteed basic income to sweeping criminal justice reform--we 
can bring the Black community from peril to prosperity. When we do 
that, we bring everybody else along with us. Only then will all 
Americans have the freedom to thrive.
  Today, we celebrate this turning point in our Nation's history. 
Today, we look back on the milestones we have achieved since then. 
Today, we continue fighting for that more inclusive, that more 
equitable, that fairer society that really represents the best that 
America can be.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for bringing 
to our attention some very unique aspects, again, of the Congressional 
Black Caucus and her work.
  As I travel the country, it is interesting to hear that our community 
has been so deprived as it relates to the discrimination against you 
with respect to your hairstyle. Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, 
among other things, was able to lead on something, and I hear it often, 
that they are so proud of this legislation because it has given dignity 
to people whose dignity was taken away.
  These are the building blocks that the Congressional Black Caucus 
pours into the symbolism of honoring Juneteenth and H.R. 40, the 
commission that studies slavery.
  Madam Speaker, as I prepare to allow for an additional speaker to 
come, let me make this point--let me just take this moment as we 
prepare to yield.
  Madam Speaker, would you give us the time, please?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 26 minutes remaining.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, let me put this into the record as I 
prepare to yield, and emphasize what H.R. 40 does. As I do so, let me 
emphasize why H.R. 40 is so important.
  This is what you see--it is the hanging of Black men, and it is the 
presence of individuals who are making a spectacle of this. There is 
one Black man already on the ground. There is no evidence of a trial, 
no evidence of guilt. This is an example of what preceded 1865.
  When you talk about H.R. 40--or even when we were trying to make 
Juneteenth a Federal holiday--I introduced resolutions over and over 
again and finally got the bill introduced as a Federal holiday, which 
then we proceeded and worked to get it passed. There was always a 
question: Why?
  There was always a question about this issue of freedom. You are 
already free. You live in America. The same goes for this issue of: Why 
H.R. 40? Because the continuing--continuing--ailments that ailed our 
community did not end.
  This was obviously not in 1865. This was into the 1900s, the 20th 
century, as evidenced--or maybe the late 1800s that Black men were 
being hung, Black women were being raped and separated from families, 
and the abuse of racism was deep and abiding. The Klan would raid and 
burn communities, hospitals, churches, homes, and have a reign of 
terror.
  This work of the Congressional Black Caucus, with the many splinters 
of legislation, can be culminated by the passage through a vote on the 
floor of the House or through an executive order that clearly would 
provide an answer to the language here that says:
  Following the abolition of slavery, the United States Government, at 
the Federal, State, and local levels, continued to perpetrate, condone, 
and often profit from practices that continued to brutalize and 
disadvantage African Americans, including share cropping, convict 
leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, unequal education, and disproportionate 
treatment at the hands of the criminal justice systems, and lack of 
access to healthcare. Harvard University said, If we had it, we would 
not have been that impacted by COVID in terms of dying and sickness. 
This is a symbolic depiction that racism and discrimination continue to 
exist.
  This legislation was updated to say: And develop reparation 
proposals. That is the key. It is an action item. We want a response to 
Black America; a response to African Americans; we want a response to 
the 57 members of the Congressional Black Caucus--coming from a variety 
of districts--some with small measures of African Americas. Yet, the 
recognition of wherever they live in America, and as our members 
represent all people, millions of Americans, they understand the stark 
disparities they see even in their congressional districts.
  That is why we stand here today, to honor Juneteenth which equals 
freedom. That is why we are here today, to say that we are never giving 
up the fight. We are most proud of the fact that we collectively came 
as a body, embraced our work as individual members, and got Juneteenth 
signed. We will now go into this week speaking about freedom, but also 
speaking about truth and the work we have to do.

  Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to gentlewoman from Ohio 
(Mrs. Beatty).

                          ____________________