[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 46 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1269-H1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CELEBRATING VIRGIN ISLANDS HISTORY MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, it is so exciting to be up here and to be 
able to have this discussion.
  I want to thank the minority leader, my colleague and good friend, 
Mr. Hakeem Jeffries, for allowing me this time to direct everyone's 
attention to the importance of this month.
  I know that it is Women's History Month, and we have been hearing so 
much about this. But what an honor it is for me to stand in front of 
you today because it is also Virgin Islands History Month.
  I stand on the shoulders of strong Virgin Islanders who came before 
me, a people who are known for their courage, leadership, sacrifice, 
and, most importantly, their resilience.
  The Virgin Islands are known for so much more than just white sandy 
beaches and as a popular vacation destination. I tell people all the 
time, there are more than just the beaches. There is a reason why seven 
nations have fought, fought, and done what was necessary to attempt to 
own these beautiful islands.

  We are made of culture-rich lands and a diverse history. Though not 
always pretty, there is great beauty in

[[Page H1270]]

our past that shaped our present and directs us toward our future.
  Like most Caribbean countries, the Virgin Islands history begins with 
the story of precolonial inhabitants of the island and, of course, of 
slavery, and even beyond that to a rich history of people, of families, 
of communities working and striving every day.
  Many people are unaware that the Virgin Islands is the only place 
that is part of the United States where Columbus actually set foot. 
Many other places he just looked out and said, I am going to name it 
this or that or the other. But the Virgin Islands and, in particular, 
the island of St. Croix is the place where he actually had resistance 
from the inhabitants who lived there, and we know that from his own 
logbooks, from people on the boat who fought, who recognized that the 
Caribs that were there were putting up a resistance to these men coming 
in 1492.
  In 1733, on the island of St. John, we have recorded the first major 
slave insurrection in the western hemisphere. The individuals and 
people there were so incensed at being enslaved that they organized 
themselves, actually overthrew those who had enslaved them, and held 
the island for a year before the Danes could organize with the English, 
the Spaniards, with others to fight back and take back the land.
  I am so grateful that in this last Congress, this body, in a 
bipartisan way, were willing to support a recognition of that. This 
year, there will be a plaque put up at Ram Head on the island of St. 
John, the site of where the organizers brought themselves together and 
made the determination that they would rather commit suicide than go 
back to slavery. Ram Head is the location where they engaged in 
collective suicide by jumping off of the cliff rather than going back 
to slavery.
  In 1848, the Virgin Islands, on the island of St. Croix, is also the 
place where individuals organized, worked together, and overthrew, 
completely, slavery well before the Emancipation Proclamation was made 
here in the United States. It is one of only two places, the Virgin 
Islands and the island and the people of Haiti, who were able to obtain 
their freedom through violent and organized overthrow.
  We are blessed as Virgin Islanders to celebrate Virgin Islands 
history, as well as the same month as women's history, because Virgin 
Islands history is not complete, of course, without women.
  To begin, I must first acknowledge the record number of women, as 
well as the record number of people of color currently serving in this 
Congress. This record represents a 59 percent increase from the 96 
women who served in the 112th Congress. Women in this body have come a 
long way. I am thrilled to continue to break glass ceilings as well, as 
we impact history.
  For decades, women of all backgrounds have worked to break barriers 
in communities, workplaces, schools, universities. We often forget to 
give recognition to the lesser-known women. The great Shirley Chisholm, 
who was the first Black woman to serve in this body, famously said: 
``If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.''
  I say let's take it a step further. Forget the seat, give women the 
whole table and watch what happens.
  As a Black woman, I think about my own mother and all mothers who 
every day, even when it wasn't common to work, they sacrificed, 
occupied space where they were underrated, underappreciated, and 
marginalized.
  Without that history and those individuals, we would not be who we 
are today, which is why I am proud and I am honored to represent my 
home, my ancestral home, of the Virgin Islands.
  During this Virgin Islands History Month and Women's History Month, I 
proudly recognize the indomitable spirit of women like Mary Thomas, one 
of the organizers of Fireburn; Anna Heegaard, who was the woman who 
spoke to the Danish Governor at the time and convinced and talked with 
him about emancipation; Bertha Boschulte, one of our educators; Arona 
Petersen; Senator Ruby Rouss, who was one of the first aide-de-camps of 
General Eisenhower during the war, a Virgin Islander; Edith Bornn, 
Lorraine Berry, one of the great legislators on our island, who were 
early trailblazers who championed women's freedom, equality, and power 
for Virgin Islanders.
  While the faces of power are growing and there is still work to be 
done, it is refreshing to look back to gain inspiration and 
encouragement from Virgin Islanders who have gone before us as these 
women faced deliberate, unconscious bias, and yet they prevailed.
  We should note the importance of representation for women in 
leadership, politics, law enforcement, across every sphere is evident. 
In politics alone, evidence shows that more women in public 
decisionmaking and public policy produce policies that benefit women, 
children, families, in general.
  Women are more inclined to work across the aisle with colleagues, to 
work in a bipartisan fashion, to negotiate. As a lawyer, I know that 
the best contracts, the best negotiations are when everybody has to 
feel a little bit of pain for it to be the best. Women are willing to 
do that.
  We know that loans given to women's businesses exponentially support 
families and entire communities than loans given to men. We need women.
  Let us all continue the great work, all of us. That includes men who 
are brothers, sons, fathers. We need you all to break the bias and 
advance the cause of women's rights in our communities, our government, 
and our world.
  Throughout the month of March, let us continue to celebrate heritage 
history as we look to our future. Happy Women and Virgin Islands 
History Month.
  I want to rise and highlight a few influential women that have helped 
shape Virgin Islands history during Virgin Islands History Month. Now, 
of course, so often in the Virgin Islands, we talk about the men and 
the men have done amazing things.
  The Virgin Islands has produced great actors and artists like Camille 
Pissarro, one of the founders of French impressionism; actors like 
Kelsey Grammer and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs. We have tremendous athletes 
in our past like Horace Clarke, Elrod Hendricks, and, of course, my own 
cousin, Elmo Plaskett, all having served in professional baseball; 
Peter Holmberg, a native St. Thomian has done amazing things in 
sailing, as well as the Jackson family, father and sons are tremendous 
boxers.

                              {time}  1200

  Everyone knows us for having had Tim Duncan, one of the greatest, the 
GOAT, NBA players in history, and musicians like Alton Adams, the first 
naval bandmaster; Dion Parson, who has worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center 
and has one of the most amazing jazz ensembles; and Jon Lucien, another 
great artist.
  These are all tremendous. The men are great, but let us first talk 
about a few of the women in Virgin Islands history.
  The first one I can think of is Eulalie Rivera. Ms. Rivera was born 
on August 2, 1907, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, to Carl Rohlsen and 
Henrietta Williams. During her lifetime, Ms. Rivera played a tremendous 
role in the Virgin Islands.
  In her autobiography ``Growing Up in St. Croix,'' Ms. Rivera gives an 
account of her life that portrays the attitudes and culture of the 
Virgin Islands at that time, from witnessing the transfer of the Virgin 
Islands from the Danish West Indies to the Virgin Islands of the United 
States, a change in ownership and culture, to rumors of being the first 
woman to ride a bicycle on St. Croix.
  Eulalie's mother passed away during childbirth, so she was raised in 
homes for children, where she was instilled with a love of learning. 
Ms. Rivera dedicated more than 30 years to the education system in the 
Virgin Islands and taught at the Christiansted kindergarten, the 
Diamond School, La Grande Princess School, and the Claude O. Markoe 
School.
  She was instrumental in helping the Caribbean culture and Virgin 
Islands culture by helping to create such activities as the St. Croix 
Christmas Festival. She served as the president of the Women's League 
of St. Croix, supervisor of the Lutheran Church Sunday school, founder 
of the Independent Citizens' Movement political party, charter member 
of the St. Croix Business and Professional Women's Club, and as a 
member of the Frederiksted Democratic Club, the Frederiksted Hospital 
Auxiliary, the Virgin Islands League of

[[Page H1271]]

Women Voters, the Committee on Aging, and the Friends of Denmark. She 
was busy. She loved her home.
  In 1974, the Grove Place Elementary School was renamed after her. She 
was a beloved ancestor and elder.
  I also recognize Eileen Petersen. Eileen Ramona Petersen was born on 
St. Croix and holds the distinct privilege of being the first woman to 
serve as a judge in the United States Virgin Islands. She is also one 
of the few women jurists throughout the Caribbean region.
  I can recall Judge Petersen telling me about the fact that, after she 
was nominated and confirmed in the Virgin Islands as a judge, the men 
thought that they would get her, and she did not have an office. She 
didn't have internal chambers in which to work.
  Every day at lunchtime, she would take all the files from her 
courtroom and go sit in her car to work on the cases before then going 
back to court and making decisions because there was no place else for 
her to work.
  That did not stop her from doing her job, executing justice and doing 
what was right. Judge Petersen was the first-appointed judge of the 
municipal court, now the Virgin Islands Territorial Court, by then-
Governor Melvin Evans in 1971.
  She became a practicing lawyer in 1967 in Washington, D.C., and she 
returned home to the Virgin Islands to give that education, that mind, 
so much that she had learned, back to her people. She became an 
assistant attorney general under Attorney General Francisco Corneiro. 
After 20 years of service on the bench, she resigned and is now in her 
retirement.
  I would be remiss if I didn't mention another judge who is still with 
us, the Honorable Denise M. Francois.
  Denise Francois was born on St. Thomas, obtained her bachelor of arts 
from Amherst College, and continued at the University of San Diego 
School of Law, where she received her juris doctorate. She was admitted 
to the State Bar of California, the Virgin Islands Bar, and the U.S. 
Court of Appeals.
  She was a partner in a law firm on St. Thomas, where she worked for 
the people. In 2013, she was appointed judge of the Superior Court of 
the Virgin Islands. She has chaired the Advisory Committee on Rules and 
aided in drafting the Virgin Islands Rules of Civil Procedure and the 
Virgin Islands Rules of Evidence. She is still blazing a trail as a 
great jurist and legal mind.
  I love libraries, and I love books. Of course, I would have to speak 
about a librarian and archivist, Ms. Enid Maria Baa, for whom the 
library in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, is named. She pioneered 
librarianship within the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean and 
internationally.
  She developed her love of library work when she was young. As a newly 
graduated student of the first high school in St. Thomas, she helped 
establish the first high school library.
  Her interests and professional ambition led to several advanced 
degrees, including Hampton Institute and Columbia University.
  During and after her studies at Columbia, she held professional 
positions at the university, at the United Nations Library, and at the 
New York Public Library in their reference division. After coming back 
home, she was appointed director of libraries and museums under 
Governor Archibald Alexander in 1954. Second to head the Caribbean 
Organization's library in Puerto Rico, she has been an editor and 
archivist.
  Enid Maria Baa has done so much work to make sure that our history, 
the words of people and books, are available to all.
  Many people forget about the smallest island--well, Water Island is 
the smallest--St. John, where there is so much work to be done and 
where people have worked so hard together. There was a woman who was 
born in June 1908, Myrah Keating Smith. She passed away and is with the 
elders since 1994. She was a pioneering nurse and midwife. She was the 
only provider of healthcare on the island of St. John for almost two 
decades.
  She was taught as a small child in homes, organizations of people on 
the island of St. John bringing children together in parlors and 
kitchens to learn. Her parents taught her themselves. At 14, they sent 
her on a boat to New York City and then by train to be taught at 
Tuskegee Institute.

  After working for some years, she came home in 1931. By foot, boat, 
or by horseback when there were no roads or trails, she provided 
healthcare to the people of St. John.
  Our history is rich. There is so much that we all can learn from 
people who were so resilient and who were so willing to give of 
themselves, to go out to learn and educate themselves and come back to 
give to the history and the future of the people of the Virgin Islands.
  I am so grateful to be a part of that history and to be a Virgin 
Islander whose roots go back seven generations. It is my joy to come 
home on the weekends during district work periods and run into, most 
times, people who are my cousins, my family, and, more importantly, my 
friends.
  In this month, during March, it is even more important for us to 
reach back to that history. This July will be our 175th year of 
emancipation from slavery.
  It is important that all Virgin Islanders understand the importance 
of working together. When we tell the story to our children about our 
emancipation, one of the most amazing things is that, as the slaves 
were organizing, they really kept it to themselves what they had 
planned and the day that they designated, July 3, to march to the fort 
and demand their freedom from the Danish military.
  As they reached the fort, the Danish soldiers began looking around 
and decided to put the cannons toward the crowd. They went to get the 
gunpowder to put in the cannons and realized that the gunpowder was all 
gone from the fort. The slaves, over a series of months, had 
surreptitiously and quietly removed all the gunpowder and replaced the 
barrels with molasses.
  That takes people organizing and understanding that you can have no 
snitches to get something like that done and know that what was most 
important was them working together.
  On that day, as they reached the fort in Frederiksted, the conch 
shell blew to give notice to the other slaves through the rest of the 
island. Everyone, from Christiansted at the other end of the island, 
out east, began marching all at once to try to demand their freedom.
  When the governor realized that these slaves had organized in the 
manner that they had, he declared that all enslaved were now free in 
the Danish West Indies from henceforth on. The people of St. Croix not 
only liberated themselves but liberated their brothers, their sisters, 
and those who were on the other islands under Danish rule in St. 
Thomas, St. John, the Little Cays, all of the places throughout.
  It is that resilience, that fortitude, which I am so grateful to have 
within my blood and to be a part of my history. That is now American 
history. That is a part of all of our history that we can all 
celebrate. That is an example for all of us.
  That is not something to be shunned or to be ashamed of or for people 
to feel embarrassed about or sad. Many people would say that that could 
be banned in other locations. That is my history. That is a history 
that is now part of American history.
  I am hopeful that we can all take that in, that we can all see 
examples for our own lives, whether we are Caribbean, Black, Hispanic, 
Latina, White, Caucasian, or whatever. It is a history for us all. I am 
so grateful for that history as we continue to live it each and every 
day.
  To end, I also recognize outstanding Virgin Islanders who are doing 
amazing things today in the arts. We have Virgin Islanders who have 
been awarded some of the highest honors in these last months: Theron 
Thomas, Masai Harris, Cori Alexander, and Kyle Francis. Each received 
recognition at the 75th Annual Grammy Awards for their excellent work 
in the music industry.
  Masai Harris, a native of St. Croix, was an integral part of the team 
that worked on reggae artist Kabaka Pyramid's second album, which 
garnered a Grammy for album of the year.
  Theron Thomas from St. Thomas, a world-renowned producer and 
songwriter, received recognition for his songwriting on Lizzo's record 
of the year.
  Both Cori Alexander and Kyle Francis, natives of St. Thomas, worked 
on the album ``Kingdom,'' which won best gospel performance.

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  I would be remiss if I didn't lift up our sister, native Virgin 
Islander Janelle James from St. Thomas, who won the 54th NAACP Image 
Award for best supporting actress for her role in ``Abbott 
Elementary.''
  These are Virgin Islanders doing amazing things.
  We might be a small place, but we think big. We live our lives big. 
We do not restrict ourselves just to the waters surrounding where we 
live.
  In the words of the popular Rock City song that has as its authors 
individuals that I mentioned who received Grammy Awards: ``The world is 
ours, Scarface, even though we come from a small place. No matter where 
I'm at, I'm VI all day.''
  Let's continue to be VI strong and VI proud. Happy Virgin Islands 
History Month.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________