[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 16, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H8525-H8528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN SLAVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Leger Fernandez). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Green) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, as my friends are assisting me, I

[[Page H8526]]

shall start by thanking the leadership for the opportunity to give this 
message today. I believe this is a message that is long overdue. In 
fact, it is hundreds of years overdue.
  I thank the persons who are assisting me. They have done an 
outstanding job. I thank all of the persons associated with this body 
for making it possible for me to have this opportunity to speak today 
on a matter of vital importance, an issue that is hundreds of years 
overdue, an issue that can make a difference in the life of our 
country.
  I am Al Green, Member of Congress from Texas, and still I rise, Madam 
Speaker, and still I rise today to call to the attention of the 
Congress that I will be asking for a Congressional Gold Medal for the 
many persons who toiled and slaved in this country such that our 
country is the economic and, quite frankly, the world powerhouse that 
it is when it comes to all of the things that can make a country great 
as it relates to its economic standing.
  This is the message that I would have my colleagues take note of, the 
message that I hope they will give consideration to.
  The message: Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold 
Medal in 1956. When some people hear this, they have what we call a 
double take, because it is difficult for them to believe that 
Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
  Some things bear repeating. A Confederate soldier, more than one, 
were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. What Congress did for 
the soldier enslavers it should do for the enslaved. I am asking my 
colleagues to support the historic Congressional Gold Medal for 
America's economic foundational mothers, fathers, and children.
  I say children because in this country, persons of African ancestry 
early on were born into slavery, lived in slavery, and died in slavery. 
This was the status of things in the United States of America at one 
point and when the country was known as the colonies at another point.
  The enslaved people made a difference in the lives of those who were 
living here as persons other than slaves. The deadline for this 
document, this monumental piece of legislation, this bill requesting a 
Congressional Gold Medal, will be February 1, 2023. This will be the 
first day of Black History Month.
  Black History Month has been chosen, Madam Speaker, because the 
history of Africans in America has not been told. There are many 
aspects of it that have been deleted from history. I believe that it is 
time for us to clear the record.
  The deadline will be February 1, 2023, the first day of Black History 
Month. This date was chosen because Black history has not been told. It 
is one of the greatest stories never told, and we are still trying to 
complete it. This will be a part of that process, to let people know 
more about what the enslaved people in this country contributed to the 
country.
  Some people would say to me, and I have had at least one person to 
say: Do you really believe that Congress will accord a Congressional 
Gold Medal to the slaves? And my answer is: Yes, I believe Congress 
will do it.
  I believe Congress will do it because I remember what the father of 
Juneteenth suffered in his effort to get Juneteenth as a holiday in 
Texas. I remember how he was called names and castigated. I remember 
how there were people who felt that Juneteenth was a country holiday, 
they felt that it was too bucolic, too rustic, for intellectual society 
to embrace. But he fought and he won. The Honorable Al Edwards is now 
the father of Juneteenth. At the time he introduced it, he was thought 
of as a person who would never succeed in the Texas House of 
Representatives, but he served well and he showed and demonstrated to 
us that persistence can make a difference.
  So we plan to be persistent with this legislation, and we plan to 
make sure that we continue until we get the legislation passed.
  The letter that I will send to my colleagues reads--continuing to 
read it--on July 18, 1956, Congress--this would be the House and the 
Senate--awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldier 
enslavers. However, to this day, Congress has never awarded a 
Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, 
and children.
  I have to pause. Ten million men, women, and children. Who can 
imagine that a country would have a process by which a person is born 
into slavery, lives his or her entire life in slavery, and dies in 
slavery. This was the status of things in this country at one time.
  The country has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 
10 million enslaved men, women, and children who toiled for over 240 
years to build the economy and the infrastructure, the foundation, if 
you will, of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on the planet Earth.
  These foundational mothers and fathers of our country labored 
arduously, constructing our roads, bridges, wells, and cities. They 
laboriously planted as well as harvested the food that fed our Nation. 
How ungrateful can we be to people who made such a sacrifice for this 
country, to still to this day see them as less-thans, to this day not 
accord them some degree of honor and dignity for the suffering that 
they endured for some 200-plus years.
  They were the de facto producers of the cash crops that fueled our 
Nation's foundational wealth. America is the wealthy powerhouse that it 
is today because of Black people, people from Africa, who were 
enslaved, brought to this country, and made to work their entire lives, 
many of them, so that America could be the economic powerhouse that it 
was then and has continued to be until this day.
  These enslaved human beings of African ancestry toiled as slaves 
without remuneration or recompense. They have not been given any 
emolument, and to add insult to this injury, they have not been given 
any degree of respect for what they did to make this country great.
  Their humble hands were relied on for the erection of some of our 
Nation's most renowned edifices and monuments, including the White 
House, the Capitol Building--this is the Capitol Building, for those 
who may be unaware--and the Washington Monument. Humble hands, forced 
to do the bidding of those who lived lives of luxury, many of them, 
made America great, built the Capitol, humble hands, the Washington 
Monument.
  In truth, their sacrificed lives provided the genesis of our Nation's 
economic preeminence. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and 
children--were the greatest contributors to the foundational economy 
whose contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, 
ignored, overlooked, and/or undervalued.

                              {time}  1415

  Many of the things that I read to you today I will repeat. They have 
not been said before. They should be heard multiple times, and some 
things just bear repeating.
  So let me repeat. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and 
children, with the emphasis on children--were the greatest contributors 
to the American foundational economy whose contributions are almost 
universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and 
undervalued.
  For these and countless other justifications, I am beseeching the 
Congress to award the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the 
human beings who are the foundational fathers, mothers, and children 
who toiled as slaves without recompense or recognition for their 
unparalleled contributions to the infrastructural and economic 
development of the Nation that we enjoy today.
  Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not 
unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate 
enslavers. I think this bears some sidebar commentary. Confederate 
enslavers. The people who fought to maintain slavery have been awarded 
a Congressional Gold Medal. The people who sought to maintain the 
institution that prevented people from having the freedom that they had 
have received a Congressional Gold Medal.
  What is wrong with us? What mindset could we have had in 1956 when 
this House decided that it would accord Congressional Gold Medals to 
Confederate soldiers? I cannot understand how we would ever do this. 
But then to add additional insult to injury, to never consider the 
people who helped build the country, the people who made it the 
economic powerhouse that it was then and is now.

[[Page H8527]]

  What is wrong with us? Is racism such a disease that it infects our 
minds to the extent that we cannot see and concentrate with the degree 
of clarity necessary to make righteous decisions? This was one of the 
saddest days in this Congress when it voted to give a Congressional 
Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers.
  But there is a way for Congress to redeem itself. Redemption is at 
hand. And here is the means by which you can redeem yourself, Members: 
Give these persons who toiled and slaved, born into slavery, lived and 
died in slavery, give them the same level of respect that you gave the 
people who sought to enslave them, that fought to enslave them. Some of 
them died in their effort to keep them in chains, in bondage, subject 
to the whims of their masters, and their whims were many times things 
that are unacceptable in decent societies.
  Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not 
unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate 
soldier enslavers, also to the Tuskegee Airmen--some of them received 
their Congressional Gold Medals antemortem, and some others 
postmortem--to the Navajo Code Talkers, and posthumously to the 
servicemembers who perished in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.
  So, friends, the point to be made here is, you can't make the 
argument that we can't do it because it is a group of people. We have 
done it for other groups. You can't make the argument that we can't do 
it because none of them are alive. We have done it posthumously for 
others.
  There is really no argument to make except you don't believe that 
persons who toiled all of their lives--many of them lived, died, born 
into it--that they deserve respect and recognition. That is what this 
is about, respect and recognition.
  I am bringing this to your attention so that you can give 
consideration to it. We won't ask for signatures until the next 
Congress because to ask for them in this Congress with the short period 
of time left would be futile, and I believe that we should wait, and we 
will wait until February 1 of next year to do it during Black History 
Month.
  It is my belief that men, women, and children who suffered a great 
crime against humanity--and this was a crime against humanity; slavery 
was a crime against humanity, one of the greatest crimes ever 
perpetrated on humanity--it is my belief that men, women, and children 
who suffered a great crime against humanity, toiling unremunerated as 
slaves, many for their entire work lives, are more deserving of a 
Congressional Gold Medal than those who soldiered to preserve slavery.
  To be as clear as I can be, perspicuously so, it is my belief that 
those who were enslaved have a greater entitlement to a Congressional 
Gold Medal than the soldiers who fought to maintain slavery.
  The zeitgeist of our time, the mood, the spirit, the zeitgeist of our 
time impels the introduction of this historic legislation. I am going 
to ask if Members wish to be recognized as a courageous historic 
original cosponsor, they should contact my office. We will more than 
honor requests that are made early, but officially we will start in the 
next Congress. We will have this historic legislation made available on 
our website. In my office, you might contact Aaron, and his email 
address is readily available for those who would like to contact him, 
or you can simply call our office, and we will be more than pleased to 
speak to you.
  I will close by talking about a couple of pictures that I have here. 
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a 
depiction of the arrival of these first 20 or so persons in this what 
is now the United States of America. It wasn't then, 1619. If you can 
see this, you can see a representation of persons who are standing 
around.
  This is purported to be the White Lion, the ship that brought them 
here, and these persons standing around, you can see that they have on 
clothing that would protect them from the weather. It appears to be a 
day wherein the weather is not kind, inclement weather. But if you look 
at the persons who are enslaved, shackled, to say that they are 
scantily clad is a gross understatement. It would be an insulting 
euphemism.
  This picture speaks volumes about what slavery was all about. It was 
about people who were thought of as less than human. Didn't have to 
treat them fairly. Didn't have to keep them warm if you chose not 
to. Didn't have to keep them alive. One insult could cost a person his 
or her life. The picture is worth a thousand words. These people, well-
clothed, looking on, some of them possibly contemplating what they 
would do with these human beings.

  I plan to go to Norfolk, Virginia, Old Point Comfort, if you will. I 
want to see this place. It is identifiable. I want to see it. I want to 
say I was there. I want to say I stood on the soil where human beings 
were first introduced, by many accounts. There may be some discrepancy, 
but my most accounts, this is where it happened. I am going to go.
  Here is another rendition. This one shows a baby. Looks like the baby 
is with a female, possibly the mother, dressed in clothing that I would 
consider more acceptable for the weather than in the other. There are 
many renditions, but we still have the White Lion, and we still have 
persons standing around talking about these human beings, contemplating 
their fate is my speculation.
  What kind of person enslaves a baby? What kind of person enslaves a 
baby? What kind of person would see a child and see labor that can be 
the benefit of having this human being survive and have this child grow 
up and deny the child an opportunity to get an education? What kind of 
person denies a baby the opportunity to grow up and just understand the 
world by virtue of being able to read?
  There are still places on the planet where young girls are not 
allowed to get the same level of schooling and education as young men. 
I am opposed to that. I am opposed to the people who do that. I have 
good reason to be opposed. Here is one. I understand what has happened.
  What kind of person keeps people in ignorance intentionally? The kind 
of person who would want to make sure that this person never has a 
life, but only an existence. They didn't have a life. They just existed 
to serve their masters.
  Anybody who believes that this piece of legislation is inappropriate 
is a person that doesn't understand this, and I am being kind by saying 
what I just said. There are many other ways; there are many adjectives.
  When I first examined these photos, I had tears well up in my eyes 
because I realized who they were. Not only were they human beings, 
these were my relatives. These are the people on whose shoulders I 
stand. More than 240 years they suffered. These are the people that 
this country ought to honor and appreciate, and these are the people 
that deserve what we have given to the enslavers.

                              {time}  1430

  I won't give up, friends. I will not. These are my people. I am not 
ashamed to say that I am a proud descendant of the enslaved people who 
made America great. I am not ashamed of it.
  My dear brothers and sisters, my dear friends, I beg that you give 
consideration to the legislation. Those who want to have further query 
can call me, talk to me. I will be on the floor.
  It would be no surprise, when I initially thought about introducing 
the legislation, my thought was, well, we will just wait and introduce 
it and start asking for signatures. But, no, I want to make sure that 
everybody has an opportunity to read it, peruse it, dissect it, 
scrutinize it, and do all the things you need to do to make a decision. 
Then, once we file it, I am going to come back to this floor, and I am 
going to announce and thank the persons who have signed on to the 
legislation. Anybody who signs on to this legislation deserves a word 
of gratitude, and I will be one of the many who will, hopefully, give 
these expressions of gratitude. I plan to come back to the floor and 
say to the public at large: We thank you for supporting this 
legislation.
  My hope is that we will get the signatures necessary for the benefit 
of the public at large. You cannot get this legislation passed in the 
House with a majority of votes. It will take 290 votes or more.

[[Page H8528]]

  I see the Parliamentarian looking in my direction. If I am incorrect, 
Madam Parliamentarian, will you give me some nod as to being correct or 
incorrect? She indicates that I am correct. So, now you have heard it 
from me and you have heard it echoed from the Parliamentarian: 290 
votes we will need, not 289, 290 people of goodwill who have the 
courage to recognize the people who made America great.
  Others have done things to make America great. I don't mean to 
minimize the efforts of any others. I just mean to maximize the efforts 
that have been ignored, that have been, quite frankly, with 
intentionality pushed aside.
  They are people who are ashamed to acknowledge that they are the 
proud descendants of the enslaved people who built this country. I am 
not one of them, of course. But there are still people who are. They 
are ashamed. We have to change that. I want to do everything I can to 
bring about that change.
  I will return to Al Edwards, the father of Juneteenth. I remember 
what he went through. He was my friend. I saw him suffer. I know about 
his fight to rid South Africa of Apartheid, how he went to jail in that 
struggle.
  I am prepared to do whatever it takes, however long it takes, as long 
as I am in Congress.
  Madam Speaker of the House of Representatives, I thank you for this 
time, and I will be asking for additional time to have additional 
commentary about this subject. I assure you that those who take this 
seriously will be doing the righteous thing, not just the right thing, 
but the righteous thing.
  Again, I will close with Maya Angelou's very powerful words. She 
reminded us that we--persons of my ilk, if you will--were:

     Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
     I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

  I plan to fulfill their dreams.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________