[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 55 (Monday, March 27, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1456-H1463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMEMORATING BLACK WOMEN AND THE ERA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCormick). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Jackson) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
General Leave
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend
their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this
Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to coanchor
this CBC Special Order alongside the Honorable Cori Bush of Missouri,
founder of the first Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights
Amendment.
For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an opportunity to
speak directly to the American people on finally getting the equal
rights across the finish line and recognized as the 28th amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, 100 years after it was first introduced in the
House of Representatives, an issue of great importance to the
Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent,
and all Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate and honor the incredible
efforts of African-American women who have advocated for the equal
rights amendment, ERA, throughout history. Their resilience, passion,
and determination have driven the relentless pursuit of gender equality
and justice for all.
In the 1970s, prominent Black women like Pauli Murray, Shirley
Chisholm, Flo Kennedy, and Barbara Jordan were instrumental in
advancing the cause of women's rights and the ERA.
When the 28th amendment is finally recognized as part of the United
States Constitution, Black women deserve to have significant credit for
its passage. Their legacy reminds us of the power of unity, conviction,
and perseverance in the face of adversity. Let us not forgot the
profound words of feminist lawyer and civil rights advocate, Pauli
Murray, who testified for the ERA at a 1970
[[Page H1457]]
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. She said, ``As a constitutional
lawyer, a woman, and a Black person, I can say with conviction that
Black women as a group have the most to gain from the adoption of the
equal rights amendment.''
Let us draw strength from these words of Congresswoman Shirley
Chisholm, who proclaimed in her speech in 1970, ``I am for the equal
rights amendment.''
``This is what it comes down to: artificial distinctions between
persons must be wiped out of the law. Legal discrimination between the
sexes is, in almost every instance, founded on outmoded views of
society and the prescientific beliefs about psychology and physiology.
It is time to sweep away these relics of the past and set future
generations free of them.''
Mr. Speaker, let us be inspired by the words of Representative
Barbara Jordan, who said, ``The equal rights amendment is a mandate for
change. It is a standard by which to measure our future legal and
social constructs. . . . The equal rights amendment is for men and
women. It is a constructive force for liberating the minds of men and
the place of women. It is inclusive.''
As we pay tribute to these trailblazing Black women, it is crucial to
recognize that the fight for gender and racial equality is still
ongoing. The number of Black women in Congress remains
disproportionately low compared to the diverse population they
represent.
As of today, only 57 women of African-American ancestry out of 12,505
people who have served in this august body have ever served in this
Congress, a mere fraction of the total number of Representatives and
Senators who have shared and served throughout our Nation's history.
Only two African-American women have ever served in the Senate and
none in the Governor's mansion. The Senator is Democrat Carol Moseley
Braun of Illinois, elected in 1992, and current Vice President, Mrs.
Kamala Harris.
This underrepresentation is a call to action for all of us, a
reminder that we must continue to strive for a government that is truly
representative of the people it serves. We must also recognize that the
fight for gender and racial equality is not limited to the Halls of
Congress.
Across our Nation, countless Black women and women of color continue
to face barriers in access to education and access to healthcare and
access to employment opportunities and access to equal pay.
The struggle for justice and equality is a daily battle fought by
millions of women who refuse to be silenced or sidelined in their
pursuit of a more just and inclusive society. It is our responsibility
as citizens and as leaders to ensure that the voices of Black women and
women of color are heard, their concerns are addressed, and their
contributions are acknowledged and celebrated.
We must work together to dismantle the systems of oppression and
discrimination that continue to hold back so many of our sisters,
daughters, and mothers from reaching their full potential. As we
continue to push forward, let us remember the words of the great civil
rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King, who said, ``The arc of the
moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.''
Let us then bend that arc toward justice together and make the equal
rights amendment a reality for all.
In the name of all those who have fought for justice, for equality,
and for the rights of women, let us say amen.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. Bush).
Ms. BUSH. Mr. Speaker, St. Louis and I rise today for the equal
rights amendment.
We rise on this historic occasion, on the eve of the birth of the
Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment, a caucus I am
proud to be founding tomorrow alongside my co-chair-in-service, my
sister-in-service, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
We rise in the tradition of those who led this fight before us, those
whose shoulders we now stand upon: shoulders like Pauli Murray, Shirley
Chisholm, and Barbara Jordan.
On this ERA caucus eve, as we near the close of Women's History
Month, it is only fitting that we are here on the floor of this U.S.
House of Representatives with our Congressional Black Caucus
colleagues, because Black women have always been leaders of the fight
to enshrine equality in our Nation's Constitution, but we haven't
always been in the headlines for leading that work. Today, we are here
to declare that the reason the ERA is a priority for the CBC is because
everyone in our communities has something to gain from its
finalization. Black women, girls, and queer folk have the most to gain.
We are here continuing to lead, demanding exactly what is owed to us:
equality.
Because, you see, the Constitution, in all its wisdom, guaranteed
fundamental inalienable rights, but stopped short of guaranteeing those
rights for everyone. Women? We were written out. Black women? Not only
were we written out, but too many authors of the Constitution were busy
enslaving, exploiting, and extracting the labor of our ancestors for
profit and were unconcerned with what was owed to us: equal rights,
nothing less.
We need to start by being honest about who is harmed the most when
equal rights are not enshrined in our Constitution. We know that
without the ERA, the patchwork legislation that we have in place to
protect women--including provisions of the Equal Pay Act, the 1964
Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act--has
primarily benefited and made gains for White women. Now is the time to
build on those gains and expand protections for all women and LGBTQ+
folks, all of us, too.
This is our moment. One hundred years since the ERA was introduced in
this body, 100 years. This is our moment to finalize the ERA so that we
modernize the Constitution and make sure the fight for equality not
only includes but centers the people who have been left behind, because
we were written out of this document.
One hundred years, and all we are asking for is 24 words. In 24
words, 24 simple words, the equal rights amendment will add to our
Constitution that: ``Equality of rights under the law shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
sex.''
That is it. In other words, this amendment would make the ``we'' in
the ``we the people'' become ``us,'' all of us. In doing so, the ERA
can protect people from gender-based discrimination by simultaneously
acting as a vehicle for progress.
We see it here. This is just a portion. It can work to ensure
permanent protections, like fair wages, like violence prevention, like
healthcare equity, like reproductive freedom, like LGBTQ+ rights, and
like much else we not only deserve but are entitled to and are owed.
Equality and nothing less. That is what we are asking for.
But we need the ERA, and we need it now, because equality is overdue.
Equality is overdue.
I rise in support of the equal rights amendment today, on the
shoulders of the scores of Black women and LGBTQ+ people who have
toiled on this initiative for 100 whole years, to amplify their calls,
calls they made in this very Chamber and outside of it, calls that
resonate today even as the attacks against us intensify, calls to
publish the ERA now. Publish the ERA now. Publish the equal rights
amendment now, because equality is overdue.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Cori Bush for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee),
my distinguished colleague.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for
his leadership on a very important topic this evening that brings us
all together.
I thank Congresswoman Cori Bush for the vibrancy, along with
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, in the organizing of the ERA Caucus. It
is important that we work together to ensure that the equal rights
amendment becomes law.
I am reminded of my entering Congress. I don't know if anyone would
realize that there was a statue for suffragette women, women in the
early 1900s who were seeking the women's right to vote. Even earlier
than that, Sojourner Truth, who we galvanized around, with the National
Congress for Black Women, to provide an opportunity for Sojourner Truth
to even
[[Page H1458]]
have a statue here as an early suffragette and abolitionist.
When I came, the statue honoring women, who fought for women's rights
and the right to vote, was in the basement. It was women, Members of
the House and the Senate, who had to organize and fight to lift that
very awesome sculpture out of the basement, covered by dust, to be able
to be put in the rotunda.
We still have work undone, because it was a half-finished sculpture.
African-American women argued that they did not have Sojourner Truth in
that statue, who was an abolitionist and leader on women's rights.
{time} 1945
We did it through legislation, myself and Senator Clinton, we did, in
fact, get a statue sculptured by an African-American woman of Sojourner
Truth, she now remains in Emancipation Hall, and our task is not yet
finished to be able to place her in the rotunda along with the other
statues.
I say that to say that this Caucus, this announcement, couldn't be
more important, and the reason is because Black women were very
instrumental in having the loudest voices; realizing even then that
Black women had the lowest hourly wage, Black women were still domestic
workers, Black women were not, in fact, equal in many aspects of the
law.
Pauli Murray, who I honor; Shirley Chisholm, Flo Kennedy, all of whom
I remember and know, and Barbara Jordan, are a few of the prominent
Black women who have advocated for the equal rights amendment in the
1970s.
Many Black organizations endorsed the ERA, including the National
Black Feminist Organization, the NAACP, and the Coalition of Black
Trade Unionists. A 1970s Gallup poll showed that 60 percent of Black
women wanted the ERA. This has been a long history.
There is a long history of activism that Black women and women of
color in support of women's rights and the ERA, stated by historian and
professor of Africana studies, Dr. Mary Phillips.
Today, Black women still play a critical role in pushing for the ERA.
In three States, to recently ratify the ERA, Black women were at the
forefront. Nevada Senator Pat Spearman led a successful campaign for
the ratification of the ERA in her State in 2017, and Representative
Juliana Stratton made extensive floor speeches in support of the ERA in
Illinois.
As well, Jennifer McClellan led the successful effort to ratify the
ERA in Virginia, finally bringing the total ratification of the ERA to
38 States required to become part of the Constitution.
And yet, we did not make our mark. Yet, we have more work to do. Yet,
we are struggling to ensure that in 2023 Black women will have equal
rights in the court. Black women will have equal rights in healthcare.
Black women will have equal rights in education. Black women will have
equal rights in the issue of sexual assaults and rape when women are
charged with agreeing or consent, which is not true. Equal rights to be
heard. Equal rights in work. Equal rights in payments.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support my colleagues, and really to
acknowledge these brave and historic women. I am so proud that my
predecessor, the Honorable Barbara Jordan, was one of those who stood
regally tall along with the first African-American woman in the United
States Congress, Shirley Chisholm.
Of course, who could forget Flo Kennedy wearing those hats. Who could
forget feminist and civil rights advocate Pauli Murray, who testified
for the equal rights amendment at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
in 1970. In her testimony, Murray drew up upon her own experience of
race and sex, and these are her words:
``Although my motivation, energy, and effort to meet the highest
standards of performance have been operative throughout my life, I have
experienced numerous delays in my career, not for the traditional
reasons given for the failure of women to develop on par with men in
our society (marriage, childbearing, et cetera), but by a combination
of individual and institutional racism and sexism--Jim Crow and June
Crow.''
As a constitutional lawyer, a woman, and a Black person, I can say
with conviction that Black women, as a group, have the most to gain
from the adoption of the equal rights amendment. All that has been said
about the frustration and deprivations of American women, generally
because of discrimination by reason of sex, can be said with special
force about the position of Black women.
My concluding remarks--maybe she didn't call herself a fighter for
the ERA, but Harriet Tubman was a fighter for justice and took slaves
out of the Deep South. Her words were this:
If you hear the dogs coming, keep on moving. If you hear the noise,
keep on moving. If you see the lights, keep on moving. Because if you
want a taste of freedom, keep on moving.
Tonight we stand here for freedom and the equal rights amendment.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a timeline of the equal rights
movement.
1840:
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are barred from
attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London.
They decide to hold a Women's Convention in the U.S.
1850:
Massachusetts, is the site of the first National Women's
Rights Convention. Frederick Douglass, Paulina Wright Davis,
William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth
attend. A strong alliance is formed with the Abolitionist
Movement.
1851:
At a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner
Truth, a former slave, delivers her speech, ``Ain't I a
woman?''.
1870:
The Fifteenth Amendment gave Black men the right to vote.
The National Woman's Suffrage Association refused to work for
its ratification. Frederick Douglass broke with Stanton and
Anthony over this position.
1890:
The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American
Woman Suffrage Association, merged to formally expand the
National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA
focused on enfranchisement solely for white women.
1913:
The Alpha Suffrage Club was founded, with Ida B. Wells as
one of the co-founders and leaders, this is believed to be
the first African-American women's suffrage association in
the United States.
1920:
Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the
Nineteenth Amendment.
1940:
Jim Crow laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests are
enacted, designed to keep Black citizens from voting.
1965:
500 activists march from Selma to Montgomery, AL to demand
voting rights for Black citizens. They are brutally attacked
by law enforcement.
1965:
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act
into law.
2011:
Record numbers of state restrictions are enacted on voting,
including voter ID laws and restrictions to early voting.
2013:
The Supreme Court strikes down the heart of the Voting
Rights Act by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing states to change their
election laws.
The first Equal Rights Amendment was drafted by the National Women's
Party in 1921 to enshrine equality for women in the Constitution.
Fifty-one years later, the Equal Rights Amendment won the requisite
two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives and passed the Senate.
In 2020, Virginia became the thirty-eighth state to vote in favor of
the ERA, but whether the ERA has accordingly been ratified remains
politically and legally contested.
Since 2013, Black Lives Matter has been a global social movement
advocating against anti-Black racism and state-sanctioned violence,
including but not limited to police brutality against Black men and
women.
The movement has attracted broad participation by non-Black activists
and lawmakers following the police murder of George Floyd.
Suffrage in America: The 15th and 19th Amendments
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Black women played an active role
in the struggle for universal suffrage.
Who got the right to vote when?
August 18, 2020 marked 100 years since the ratification of the 19th
Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to
vote.
However, obstacles like poll taxes, literacy tests and other
discriminatory state voting laws would keep Black women (and men)
disenfranchised for a further 45 years.
Black Women Had to Fight for the Right to Vote on Two Fronts
They were suffragists combating both racism and sexism long after the
19th Amendment was passed.
Women of color were crucial to women's suffrage--it's time we
acknowledge them.
[[Page H1459]]
Wagner, who is behind books such as Women's Suffrage Anthology and
Sisters in Spirit, has for almost 30 years studied the Haudenosaunee
(or the Iroquois) influence on the early feminist movements.
More to the Movement
While Seneca Falls is considered the first American convention to
focus exclusively on women's rights, the first convention to consider
women's rights as an issue was the May 9, 1837, Anti-Slavery Convention
of American Women in New York City.
LEGISLATION: H.J. RES. 25
Women have done the work of preserving and defending our democracy
for centuries, and it is past time our laws recognize our contributions
and the historic role that we have played.
The first time the ERA was put forward, women of color were not part
of the conversation. Now, we're leading and working in coalition to
advance this priority.
Our resolution will help address centuries of gender disparities in
America by removing the unnecessary barriers that have prevented us
from enshrining the dignity, humanity, and equality of all people into
our Constitution.
We as women have done our job, the states have done their job, and
now it's time for Congress to do its job and pass this resolution.
I know how transformative the ERA will be for millions of women and
our LGBTQ siblings across this country.
H.J. Res. 25 History/What the bill does
The ERA has been introduced in every session of Congress until it
passed in 1972 in both the House and Senate.
Congress then placed an arbitrary deadline on the ratification
process.
Our resolution would remove the arbitrary deadline imposed by
Congress and affirm the ratification of the ERA as the 28th Amendment.
The only thing standing in the way of ratification is Congress
passing legislation to remove that arbitrary deadline and declare the
ERA valid, since 38 states, making up three-fourths of the country,
have now ratified the ERA.
80 percent of countries across the world have enshrined language
within their Constitutions that establishes equal rights and protection
for women. The United States must do the same.
Black Women Suffragists In History
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
An abolitionist and women's suffrage leader who became one of the
first Black writers to popularize African American protest poetry.
Ida B Wells-Barnett
Wells-Barnett was a prominent journalist, activist, and researcher,
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In her lifetime, she battled sexism, racism, and violence.
As a skilled writer, Wells-Barnett also used her skills as a
journalist to shed light on the conditions of African Americans
throughout the South.
(Isabella Bomfree) Sojourner Truth
Formerly enslaved, Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for
abolition, temperance, and civil and women's rights in the nineteenth
century.
She challenged the notions of racial and gender inferiority through
notable speeches and a lecture tour, including ``Ain't I A Woman?''
Her work to help formerly enslaved peoples find jobs and build new
lives after the Civil War earned her an invitation to meet President
Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
Mary Church Terrell
One of the first African American women to earn a college degree,
Terrell helped found the National Association of Colored Women, was a
key activist in the suffrage movement, and helped desegregate
restaurants in D.C.
Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin
Lampkin spent her life fighting for the right to vote and centered
her work around many women's organizations, including becoming the
president of the Lucy Stone Woman Suffrage League in 1915.
Nannie Helen Burroughs
A prominent African American educator, church leader and suffragette,
Burroughs also helped found the National Association of Colored Women
and was a lead writer on injustices endured by the African American
community.
Sarah Parker Remond
Born in 1824, Remand brought a legal case against a theater after
being forced out when she refused to sit in segregated seats.
She won the case and the theatre was ordered to stop segregated
seating.
She became a speaker for the American Anti-Slavery Society and fought
for voting rights in the US as well as abolition on an international
scale.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee for those outstanding remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms.
Pressley).
Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I am so appreciative that we have male
colleagues like you who do see this as a shared fight, and we
appreciate your leadership and partnership in this moment.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my sister in service, my partner in good, on so
many issues of consequence, Representative Cori Bush, for your
leadership, your ingenuity, and your partnership. I never grow tired of
your saying: St. Louis and I rise. I know every time that you say that,
St. Louis and those that are the most marginalized, ignored, left out,
and left behind are being advanced in that moment--that justice is on
the way.
As Black women who have earned the right to be Members of this august
body, we find ourselves at the intersection of both race and gender.
Some of the most profound and most impactful policies come directly
from our lived experiences.
Each day as we walk these sacred Halls of power, we see statues and
portraits of White men that serve as reminders of the inequality and
the lack of parity in these Halls in our Nation's past and present.
For centuries, the contributions of Black women have been excluded
from the narrative and marginalized in history, but not today. Today,
there will be no erasure. We will give all the flowers to Shirley
Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, and Pauli Murray.
Black women, they believed, are inherently valued, and our equality
is a necessity. They advocated for the ERA to codify those truths in
our Constitution. Ratifying the ERA is not only about history, it is
about the here and now. Black women are still organizing at the
forefront of the women's rights movement. Zakiya Thomas, Christian
Nunes, Melanie Campbell, and Fatima Goss Graves are community builders
and organizational leaders that are working daily to get the job done:
Black women, justice seekers, truth tellers, pace setters, table
shakers, always doing the work of liberation, even when our own was
often sacrificed.
I feel especially encouraged and emboldened that Black women are a
part of the multigenerational and multiracial coalition leading and
working in an intersectional way to advance policy change.
This Congress, I introduced a joint resolution to finally make the
equal rights amendment the 28th amendment to the Constitution of the
United States of America, but I did not introduce it alone. I was
joined by Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove, Madeleine Dean, Sylvia Garcia,
Abigail Spanberger, and, of course, my partner in good, my sister in
service, and co-chair of the Equal Rights Caucus, Representative Cori
Bush.
When the equal rights amendment was put forward 100 years ago, the
coalition was not as diverse nor as inclusive. As a Black woman who has
experienced firsthand many of the daily indignities of an unequal
society and heard stories from my mother, Sandy, may she rest in peace
and power, who throughout her career had to train men who were paid
more and promoted over her--I know how transformative the ERA will be
for millions of women and our LGBTQ siblings across this country.
It is long past time the Constitution affirms our equality--and our
very existence--in the eyes of the law. The ramifications run deep as
women face daily sexism, pregnancy discrimination, pay inequities,
sexual violence, and persistent legislated attacks on our bodily
autonomy.
We need the ERA now. I stand proudly with my colleagues in the
Congressional Black Caucus, and my co-chair of the new ERA Caucus, to
demand that Congress does its job, pass our resolution, and codify the
equal rights amendment into the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt that in short order there will be a
calendar one day that will cite: On this day in history, the ERA Caucus
was established. I look forward to the day that there will also be a
calendar that notes: On this day in history, the ERA was passed.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Ayanna
Pressley for her advocacy. I appreciate her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).
[[Page H1460]]
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, to our Special Order Congressional Black
Caucus chairman, Congressman Jonathan Jackson, it is my honor to stand
here with you to thank you for your leadership and for all that you are
doing--to be a Black man standing, talking about the equal rights
amendment with us as members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, it also gives me great pleasure to be here tonight as
the ninth woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, standing
alongside with my colleagues as we pay tribute to countless
advancements, achievements, and hard-fought victories by Black women to
advance the equal rights amendment.
Let me just say, what an honor to thank the chairwomen of tonight's
Special Order Hour, Congresswoman Cori Bush and Congresswoman Ayanna
Pressley.
You will hear tonight words like Sojourner, truth-tellers, fighters
for freedom--that is just what you are. My sister, my friend, thank you
for all that you do.
We stand here tonight on the heels of Black History Month, in the
heart of Women's History Month, and we do so at such a critical time in
our Nation's history. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Sheroes who
paved the way for the fight for civil rights and women's rights today,
for women like us in this room and countless women across the Nation.
Women like Mary Church Terrell, ``unbought and unbossed'' Shirley
Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Flo Kennedy, Pauli Murray, Aileen Hernandez
who were instrumental in elevating the cause of women's equality in the
ERA.
Women like we have heard about already, Senator Spearman to
Lieutenant Government Stratton, to our very own Jennifer McClellan of
Virginia. Black women led the way.
It is interesting when we say: What did it get us? Whose shoulders do
we stand on?
It seems fitting for me to say today, as we bring members of Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority to the Capitol to fight for some of those same
rights as they did in 1913 when, yes, it was 22 Black women who brought
up the rear of the march for the women's suffrage march.
{time} 2000
It is important for me to highlight today, on this chart, nine women
have served as leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, making
history fighting for equal rights.
But for that, we would not have, as noted here, Vice President Kamala
Harris and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
We would not have two Black women in America today who are CEOs of
Fortune 100 companies--just two.
We would not have in the Halls of this Capitol two women's statues,
Rosa Parks, brought to the Capitol by Members--us--fighting for
justice, and we would not have from the State of Florida one of their
two statues, Mary McLeod Bethune.
Nor would we have the only woman when we started, in 1971, in the
Congressional Black Caucus--no other than Shirley Chisholm.
Nor would we have Charity Edna Earley, the first Black officer in the
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.
We have come a long way, and we could put petitions and posters
around this whole Chamber about why we came today.
Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by saying that I am joining my
colleagues to demand Congress act to finally adopt the equal rights
amendment into the United States Constitution because, as I love
saying, when women succeed, America succeeds.
The late Maya Angelou stated: ``Each time a woman stands up for
herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands
up for all women.''
Today, Mr. Speaker, we stand up with Congresswoman Bush and
Congresswoman Pressley.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I sincerely thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of the State of Ohio for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from the great
State of New York (Ms. Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Illinois, Jonathan Jackson, for yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on this day to acknowledge and thank
Congresswoman Cori Bush and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley for their
unyielding, unflinching, and unapologetic leadership and for leading
the charge on the ratification of the equal rights amendment.
I rise today to reaffirm that ever-present need to have this
ratification take place, as well as to recognize the tireless efforts
and work of Black women on behalf of that mission.
It was more than half a century ago that the ERA first passed
Congress due in large part to the efforts in drafting, advancing, and
organizing by trailblazing Black women.
With that said, I am reminded of the words written by one of my
congressional predecessors, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, decades ago
in the very spot where I stand right now. She said: ``Of course, laws
will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings, but that
is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our
laws, to perpetuate injustice through inaction.''
Mr. Speaker, we are tired of the inaction. We are tired of the
injustice. We are tired of being tired. So, it is my privilege to join
the first-ever Congressional Equal Rights Amendment Caucus in history
and support legislative efforts to affirm the ERA as the 28th amendment
to the Constitution.
For decades, Black women have continued to pave the path toward
ratification, and I am proud to see we are carrying on that legacy
today.
Mr. Speaker, I thank every woman who has played a significant and
substantial role and continues to play their position in this battle
and in this fight for equal rights. As the Honorable Marcus Garvey
admonished each and every woman out there: Forward ever, backwards
never.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Yvette
Clarke for her outstanding remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of New
Jersey (Mr. Payne).
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I
thank my colleague, Mr. Jackson of the great State of Illinois, for the
opportunity to speak with you today.
Let me acknowledge my colleagues who are leading this fight, the
Honorable Cori Bush from the great State of Missouri, the Honorable
Ayanna Pressley from the great State of Massachusetts, and all the
women who have held us down in the struggle. There would not be the
great strides of African-American men if it were not for African-
American women. I understand that, and I appreciate that every day.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the tremendous work of African-
American women in the continued fight to pass the equal rights
amendment, and I thank, once again, Representative Bush for hosting
this Special Order hour tonight.
The equal rights amendment is one of America's most important pieces
of legislation. The amendment would guarantee equal legal rights for
all Americans, regardless of gender.
The Constitution is an amazing document, and it is amazing how many
people were left out of it. The ERA was written 100 years ago by Alice
Paul, a New Jersey advocate for women's rights.
There have been several prominent African-American women who have
made significant contributions to the Nation's fight for the equal
rights amendment.
Pauli Murray was a lawyer and civil rights advocate who wrote the
book ``States' Laws on Race and Color.'' Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall called her book the bible of the civil rights movement.
Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman in Congress,
and she introduced dozens of bills for gender and racial equality.
Flo Kennedy challenged the reputation of African Americans in the
media and advertising.
Barbara Jordan was a lawyer and the first African-American woman from
the South to be elected to Congress.
Many of my congressional colleagues continue their fight for women's
rights every single day.
I am proud to be from a State with a long history of support for
women's rights. In 1790, New Jersey was the first
[[Page H1461]]
State to enfranchise women in its constitution. Then, New Jersey's
constitution was rewritten in 1947 to include equal rights for women--
but that was only White women. In New Jersey, equal rights have been
the law for 76 years.
Thanks to New Jersey's constitution, it is impossible to take those
rights away. That is why we need a national equal rights amendment.
I am so proud of the gentlewoman from Missouri for spearheading this
fight. It would keep extremist legislators from taking the hard-earned
rights of women away from them.
If you look now at what is going on in this country, there is an
effort to take rights away from many people--making it harder for them
to vote, eliminating polling sites in minority areas, and not allowing
people to get drinking water handed to them from someone else. There is
already an assault to turn the clock back.
Is that what making America great again is all about, returning to a
day when people don't have equal rights and making sure that minorities
have a more difficult time exercising their rights?
Everyone thought that Roe v. Wade was the accepted law of the land,
and look at where that has gone. It is chipping away at rights slowly
but surely.
When African Americans got the right to vote, why was it only for a
period of 25 years and then we have to revisit this topic every 25
years: Should we let Blacks vote, or should we not?
That baffles me. That absolutely baffles me. Why was it not just made
the law of the land and forget about it?
It is because of times like now that we see what is going on. We are
turning the clock back. We are questioning whether or not people should
have the equal right to vote.
We are in a very dangerous time in this country. People are arming
themselves with AR-15s. Someone is requesting that that be made the
national gun of this country.
We are in a very dangerous time, and now an extremist Supreme Court
has taken away the fundamental right for women to determine their own
healthcare for their own bodies.
Mr. Speaker, one day my friends on the other side of the aisle say
that government is too much in your business and your privacy--except
when they want to take a woman's right to her healthcare. They want
government to be involved in that. They don't want the government to be
involved in anything important to them, but they feel that they have
the right to determine what another woman does with her body. It is
hypocritical. It is hypocrisy.
We must not let the legal rights that women deserve to be taken away
from them. That is why we must pass the ERA, and we must pass it now.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Donald
Payne, Jr., for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 18 minutes remaining.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from
North Carolina (Ms. Adams).
Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me thank the gentleman from
Illinois for co-hosting this Special Order hour with the gentlewoman
from Missouri. I thank Representative Cori Bush as well for
spearheading the ERA and for working toward this fight for all of us.
I rise today to observe Women's History Month and to reiterate this
year's Black History Month theme of Black Resistance.
Since we last celebrated Black History Month and Women's History
Month, Ketanji Brown Jackson has become the first Black woman on the
Supreme Court; Beyonce claimed the record for most Grammys won in a
lifetime; Serena Williams retired as one of the most accomplished
athletes of all time; Congresswoman Summer Lee became the first Black
woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress; and Jennifer McClellan
became the first Black Congresswoman from Virginia.
{time} 2015
In my home of Charlotte, North Carolina, Vi Lyles made history as
both the longest serving woman and the longest serving Black mayor in
our city's history.
In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, my friend and mentor, the late
Annie Brown Kennedy, the first Black woman to serve in the North
Carolina General Assembly, passed away at the age of 98 after a long
and storied career.
These women join the legacy of other women we are celebrating here
today, the women who helped lead the movement for the adoption of the
equal rights amendment.
The equal rights amendment is still absolutely necessary because,
according to the Constitution, we are not equal. Just look at the Dobbs
decision. Look at all of the legislation from the State to the Federal
level that aims, intentionally or not, to tell women what they can do
with their own bodies.
Look at the maternal health crisis in America. Even as science,
technology, and healthcare make amazing advances, the number of women
dying due to childbirth is going in the wrong direction, and Black
women have mortality rates that are three times that.
As Women's History Month comes to an end, we must continue to teach
the history of women--Black women, indigenous women, LGBTQ women, and
women of color--from the halls of our campuses to the Halls of Congress
because if you learn women's history, you learn very quickly how far we
have come and how much further we have to go.
Each of us have a role in this history. If you learn this history,
teach it. If you live this history, make it.
Join me and join us, join the CBC and all of my colleagues in
renewing the push for the equal rights amendment and equality for women
not only in the United States but across the world.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Alma Adams for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Brown).
Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my wonderful colleagues in the
Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this session tonight.
I join them today in recognizing the significant contributions of
Black women to the advancement of the equal rights amendment.
Of the more than 12,000 Americans who have served in Congress, only
58 have been Black women. Remarkably, despite our historic and
continuous small number among the Members of the House, Black women
have often been the driving force behind significant policy shifts that
have paved the way for change.
Among those achievements are landmark bills like the equal rights
amendment, championed by Black women since its inception. A hero of
many Americans inside and outside Capitol Grounds, Congresswoman
Shirley Chisholm was a relentless advocate for equal rights in America.
Nicknamed ``Fighting Shirley,'' she stood on this very floor in her
first term and decreed that the ERA was destined to become the law of
the land. Today, we honor her legacy by advocating for the long-overdue
ratification of the ERA.
Congresswoman Chisholm did not stand alone in her fight for equal
rights. From educator and activist Mary Church Terrell in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries to Congresswoman Barbara Jordan in the 1970s,
Black advocates for women's suffrage helped drive the ERA forward.
In recent years, we have seen leaders fight for State ratification of
the ERA, including our newest colleague, Congresswoman Jennifer
McClellan, who along with two Black female colleagues--State
Representative Jennifer Carroll Foy and fellow State Senator Mamie
Locke--led the final charge that resulted in Virginia being the 38th
State to ratify the amendment in 2020.
That legacy lives on, as my colleagues in the 118th Congress maintain
and build on the work of our predecessors. With Representative
Pressley's efforts to remove the constitutional deadline for
ratification and Representative Bush's leadership of the first-ever
Congressional ERA Caucus, we are closer to ratification than ever
before.
I stand in awe of the power, strength, and contributions of these
trailblazers and icons, both past and present.
As we continue the fight today, it is an honor to walk alongside my
Democratic Women's Caucus colleagues to enshrine the ERA in the
Constitution, continuing the legacy work started by the Black women who
came before me.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm envisioned the ERA as the law of the
land
[[Page H1462]]
in 1969. She once said she wanted to be remembered as a woman who dared
to be a catalyst of change, and she will always be known as just that.
Like our ancestors Terrell, Chisholm, Jordan, and more, Black women
will continue to help lead the charge, but we cannot do it alone.
To my colleagues who have yet to join us in championing equal rights,
I say to you: Dare to become a catalyst of change with us.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Shontel Brown for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker I now yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Kamlager-Dove), the Congresswoman from the city of Los Angeles.
Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my brother and friend,
Congressman Jackson from the great State of Illinois, for managing this
Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour and standing with his
sisters.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the work that my CBC
colleagues are doing as we continue fighting to enshrine the equal
rights amendment into our Constitution.
The ERA was sent to the States for ratification in 1972. As we
reflect on the 100 years since the ERA was first proposed in 1923,
attempts to ratify the amendment each year have faded. What is old has
become new again, but the state of gender equality in our country has
sadly remained unchanged.
Why all the controversy and why such difficulty in giving women the
protection of the Constitution that should have been given to us long
ago?
It is 2023. There is no reason that an arbitrary deadline should
prevent women from having basic fundamental rights under the
Constitution.
Around the country, women, especially women of color, continue to
face discrimination in healthcare, in the workforce, in the boardroom,
in the schools, and in everyday life.
Enough States have finally ratified the ERA, but it is past time that
it becomes an official part of our Constitution and gives every woman
in America full protection under the law.
If you support women, you should support the ERA. If you don't
support women, stand up and say why you don't think your mother,
daughter, sister, aunt, or grandmother deserves equal rights.
My colleagues, Representatives Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley, have
led a renewed charge to add a 28th amendment to our Constitution and
enshrine the ERA into law. I thank them for their commitment to
confronting gender equality in the face of disheartening challenges.
The first ever Equal Rights Amendment Caucus is dedicated to this
cause, and as vice chair and co-lead of Representative Pressley's
resolution, I stand arm in arm with my colleagues as we bring this
battle home.
I am going to say this. This charge is being led by Black women.
Historically, we are the ones who take up the mantle of equality and
fight to not only uphold our democracy but to move it forward.
Abolition, suffrage, civil rights--all of these movements supported
Black women even though they were not always recognized for their
leadership and courage. A glaring irony of gender discrimination.
I am going to say the names again. Mary Church Terrell, Shirley
Chisholm, Pauli Murray, Nevada Senator Pat Spearman, and even our own
Jennifer McClellan. These activists have led fierce fights for gender
equality to uplift Black women and women across the country.
In fact, Pauli Murray once said: ``If anyone should ask a Negro woman
in America what has been her greatest achievement, her honest answer
would be, `I survived.'''
We must recognize the work of these pioneers as we continue their
fight today. The ERA would allow Congress, Federal agencies, and courts
to address the needs of women as they relate to pay equity, pregnancy
discrimination, sexual harassment and violence, abortion access, and
LGBTQ protections because women are insulted, harassed, demeaned,
demoted, and assaulted just for being women.
Enshrining these rights brings our Constitution into the 21st
century. We might have been written out, but don't count us out. We
will persevere until we can finally celebrate the addition of a 28th
amendment to secure equal rights and a better and brighter future for
our children and the women that we love.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms.
Lee).
Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I first acknowledge and thank
our convener, the gentleman from Illinois. I thank the bold and brave
women, our colleagues Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley who have put
together this convening as well. And I also thank all the women on
whose shoulders we stand, particularly those who brought an
intersectional perspective and urgency to the fight for all women
throughout this country, but also adding on to that urgency, a reminder
that it is Women's History Month in the year 2023, and yet we pretend
to be surprised that a document written by rich, land-owning White men
in the 18th century does not protect my rights.
We pretend to be surprised that a document that saw my Black
ancestors as property until the 19th century legally does not yet
empower people who look like me.
We are oh so surprised that a document that did not allow women the
right to participate in our democracy through voting, let alone the
right to have land or a bank account until the 20th century is in need
of an update.
Well, I am not surprised. Actually, I am pissed. I stand today as one
of the vice chairs, the new vice chairs of the ERA Caucus to demand the
obvious need for a constitutional amendment so that our future
daughters and granddaughters, mine and yours, are not discussing what
we failed to do in the 21st century.
Yes, I stand today frustrated that it is not obvious to all elected
Members of Congress that the rights of all women, and specifically
Black women, need to be protected. As we are wrapping Women's History
Month, I remain steadfast in making sure that our daughters and
granddaughters of the future do not have to continue to discuss this.
Constitutional equality is powerful. Women and the States have done
their part to ratify the ERA, as we have heard, including our new
colleague, who is joining us in the 118th, but now Congress must
swiftly follow suit. We must take this action to move one step closer
to enshrining the dignity, humanity, and equality of all people into
the highest law of the land.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania,
the Honorable Congresswoman Summer Lee, for her remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs.
McClellan).
Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Jackson for
convening this Special Order and Representatives Cori Bush and Ayanna
Pressley for their leadership in creating the Congressional ERA Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the first Black woman to represent
Virginia, the birthplace of American democracy and the birthplace of
American slavery.
I rise as a former State legislator who led Virginia to become the
38th and final State necessary to ratify the equal rights amendment. It
is poetic justice that Virginia was the final State necessary for
ratification.
It has been a long march toward equality in Virginia's history. In
1619, when the first women were recruited to Jamestown, it was to make
wives to the inhabitants, and their rights were surrendered to their
husbands. They couldn't vote, they couldn't hold public office, they
couldn't control their own property.
African-American women who arrived in 1619 were considered property
and had fewer rights, if any at all.
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence established the principle
that all men were created equal with inalienable rights. They didn't
mean me.
When the Constitution was developed for we the people in order to
form a more perfect Union, it didn't include me.
The Constitution purported to create a government by, of, and for the
people, but not for me. Only for White men.
[[Page H1463]]
For the past centuries, we have made major progress to secure the
blessings of liberty for every American.
We have made that progress thanks to the struggle and sacrifice of
Black women who were in the fight from the beginning but were the last
to benefit from our work. We were there in the fight to abolish
slavery. As you heard, we were there in the fight for women's suffrage,
even when we were told to march in the back.
{time} 2030
We marched for civil rights in the 1960s, even though we weren't
given a speaking role. We have fought, organized, and marched for
ratification of the equal rights amendment for over a hundred years.
It is absurd that, a hundred years after the ERA's introduction,
women still do not have the same constitutional rights as men.
That is why I am not only committed but honored to carry on this
fight in Congress with my sisters in this fight, with Representatives
Bush and Pressley in the Congressional ERA Caucus.
Women across our Nation have waited too long for equality. It is our
time. Publish the ERA today so that, tomorrow, our daughters don't have
to fight the same fight.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Jennifer
McClellan, our newest Member, for her remarks.
You heard from our distinguished colleagues about our topic on the
ERA, all issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to avoid vulgarity in
their remarks.
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