[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 110 (Friday, June 23, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3137-H3140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING JUNETEENTH AND SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. I am grateful for 
the time and the opportunity to share some of my thoughts and views 
about crucial issues, to share them not only with my colleagues here in 
Congress but also with the people of our great country.
  And still I rise today to talk about Juneteenth. I believe Juneteenth 
is a very special time in the history of our country, and I would like 
to say a few words about Juneteenth. I would also like to talk about 
Slavery Remembrance Day.
  For those of you who are tuning in, please know that I will speak 
about Juneteenth, and I will speak about Slavery Remembrance Day, but I 
will also speak about a day that occurred before Juneteenth.
  As you know, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation 
on January 1, 1863. Prior to signing the Emancipation Proclamation, 
President Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated 
Emancipation Act of 1862. April 16, 1862, is the day it was signed.
  This is an important piece of legislation because the District of 
Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act impacted Washington, D.C. The 
District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act would accord 
compensation for slaves who were freed--human beings held in bondage, 
human beings who had been kidnapped, likely, or they may have been born 
into slavery. Some people were born into slavery and lived their entire 
lives as slaves and died as slaves.
  These human beings, the genesis of which was persons who were 
kidnapped from the Continent of Africa, for our purposes today, as we 
talk about slavery here in the United States, these human beings were 
kidnapped, brought to this country, sold, forced to work, and forced to 
be separated from their families. Children were sold at the auction 
block. They went to one plantation, and their mother and father went to 
another.
  This is what slavery was about: kidnapping, rape, murder.
  These are true words, words that we don't like to hear because, in 
this country, we have reviled the enslaved and revered the enslavers.
  Let's go back to the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation 
Act of 1862, which impacted Washington, D.C., as I indicated. This act 
was to free slaves. It would free them. It brought with it 
compensation.
  A reasonable and prudent person would believe that the compensation 
would be accorded the slave, the person who had been working at the 
mercy of a person known as a master. Slaves had masters.
  This act, one would assume, would compensate the slave upon the slave 
being freed. That was not so, my dear friends--not so.
  The District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 
compensated the master. The person who owned the slave received 
compensation for allowing a person to have the liberty that God has 
accorded all of his children. Some have been denied the liberty, but it 
was a birthright for every person ever born, the right to be free.
  This act of trying as best as he could--President Lincoln--to free 
slaves accorded persons who owned them approximately $300. Before the 
$300 was presented, as it were, there was a slave owner who came and 
actually appraised slaves. They were considered chattels, property. 
They were appraised, and owners received this compensation, sort of 
like compensating the kidnapper who kidnaps a person, compensating this 
person for the act of kidnapping. Release the person you kidnapped, and 
you can receive compensation.
  It is like the bank robber bringing the ill-gotten gains back to the 
bank and being rewarded for bringing the ill-gotten gains back after 
having robbed the bank. It was similar to this, only more horrific, of 
course, because we are talking about human beings.
  We have this situation where persons who were enslaved in Washington, 
D.C., the Nation's Capital, enslaved right here in Washington, D.C., 
when they were released, they received the opportunity to fend for 
themselves. They were released to the winds and the rains and the 
weather and the elements. They were not given any compensation for 
their labor, for the crime against humanity.
  Slavery was one of the greatest crimes ever committed against 
humanity--committed for centuries, I might add. It is a crime against 
humanity that has never been properly addressed.
  Even to this day, people don't want to hear this message. There are 
people who literally cannot tolerate hearing the message because they 
have been indoctrinated to believe that the enslaved people somehow 
were wrong and that the enslavers were heroes.
  Well, this didn't work so well, emancipation for consideration to be 
accorded the enslavers. It didn't work so well. Hence, we find that 
President Lincoln did, in fact, issue the Emancipation Proclamation, 
which was issued to free these enslaved persons who were a part of the 
States that left the Union. They were said to have been given their 
freedom, but that didn't work too well for the people who were enslaved 
because in States like Texas, the enslavers didn't really honor the 
Emancipation Proclamation.

                              {time}  1245

  There are some who say, well, they didn't know. Well, they did, but 
in Texas they chose not to honor it.
  Some more than 2 years and a half later, General Gordon Granger came 
to Galveston, Texas, to inform the people of Texas that the persons 
that were being held--and this was after the end of the Civil War, I 
might add--the persons that were being held, to inform them that they 
had been liberated, and to tell the holders, the masters, the 
enslavers, that these human beings had to be released.
  General Gordon Granger was an intelligent man. He did not come by 
himself. He had the good sense to know that the people of Texas were 
not likely to find his words with favor; that they were not likely to 
see and look upon what he was about to do with favor.
  General Gordon Granger, understanding that Texans spoke a specific 
kind of language and, as a result of understanding Texas-speak, General 
Gordon Granger concluded that he would bring some translators with him, 
persons who would be understood by Texans. Well, I say persons; they 
weren't really persons, but these were instrumentalities, if you will, 
that Texans would understand.
  So he brought with him the Colts. He brought with him the Smith & 
Wessons, and the Winchesters. They spoke a language that Texans 
understood.
  But before General Gordon Granger arrived, a wonderful thing 
occurred. It is said about a week before he arrived, they sent in the 
25th Corps. The 25th Corps consisted of about 1,000 or more persons, 
and it was the 25th Corps that came in and ran the rebels out of 
Galveston, chased them to the border of the country, the boundaries, 
chased them all the way to Mexico. It was the 25th Corps that paved the 
way for General Gordon Granger to come into Texas and to issue his 
General Order No. 3.
  But here is what history doesn't say enough about. The 25th Corps 
consisted of Black men. Somehow we don't choose to celebrate these 
Black men who actually were the liberators, who came in before General 
Gordon Granger, came into Texas, fought fiercely to liberate the Black 
people in Texas.
  General Gordon Granger appeared with his General Order No. 3, 
accompanied by a lot of firepower, about 2,000 military personnel with 
him and, as a result, slaves in Texas were free to work for their 
masters.
  Imagine that. The person that has held you in slavery now becomes 
your boss--your employer, is the way it was stated--but your boss, your 
employer. Your slave master is now your employer. Well, that didn't 
work well for the enslaved persons.

[[Page H3138]]

  This was followed with a series of laws that caused Black people to 
have to serve time and become slaves by another name; convict leasing 
is what it was called because we had these Black codes, these laws, 
that would require persons to work. If you didn't work you could be 
arrested, and then you could be leased to a plantation owner.
  In Houston, Texas, just outside actually, in Sugarland, there is a 
grave with about 95 common bodies having been buried in it, called the 
Sugarland 95. These persons served as slaves under a different title.
  But the point is, we had the Emancipation Proclamation. We had the 
enforcement of it by virtue of General Gordon Granger coming into 
Galveston, Texas. Then we had other circumstances that were unpleasant 
for people of color.
  All of these things are things that we should take note of. I think 
we should actually celebrate the persons who came in in the 25th. I 
plan to introduce a resolution. I plan to introduce a resolution to 
honor these persons, the 25th Corps. I plan to introduce legislation so 
that they can be properly honored.
  Now, I know that there are people who hear me say these things and 
sometimes they decide that, well, I think I will do it first. Well, go 
ahead. I will still have the original.
  It is something that we ought to do to celebrate Juneteenth, but also 
to commemorate the lives of the persons that suffered under slavery, 
commemorate them and celebrate them, on Juneteenth. Quite frankly, I 
believe we ought to do that, and I am going to do it. I have supported 
Juneteenth.
  I have supported Al Edwards who is the father of Juneteenth. Al 
Edwards, a State representative out of Houston, the father of 
Juneteenth. He was the person who, as a freshman State representative 
in Texas, managed to get the impossible done, the impossible. We are 
talking about Texas now.
  He managed to get Texans in the State legislature, that would be the 
House and the Senate, and the Governor to sign a law causing Juneteenth 
to become a holiday in the State of Texas. It is a miracle.
  Al Edwards, Juneteenth. He managed to get it to become the first in 
the entire country, the first State in the entire country to recognize 
Juneteenth, June 19, as a holiday. Al Edwards, the father of 
Juneteenth.
  Unfortunately, not a lot has been said about Al being the father of 
Juneteenth, but I will be filing a resolution in this House honoring 
him as the father of Juneteenth.
  We ought to do these things. We ought to tell the truth. This is 
history. And obviously, a person who is the very first to file a piece 
of legislation that becomes law, that eventually permeates and becomes 
the law in other States, and now, in the United States--but it was Al 
Edwards. He is the father of Juneteenth. So I will be filing that 
resolution as well; and other legislation.
  I seem to have become the person whose mission in life is to right 
these wrongs, and I plan to do it with my colleagues, many of whom will 
support what we are trying to do. I thank them, all of them who sign on 
to these pieces of legislation.
  So we have Juneteenth to celebrate the lives of those who were freed, 
and we commemorate the day and those who didn't get the opportunity to 
be liberated because, you see, liberating those who were still alive is 
a wonderful thing to do. But we still really and truly must commemorate 
the lives of those who were not alive on June 19, 1865. Their lives 
have to be remembered and respected.

  In this country, we have days of remembrance. We have a day of 
remembrance for 9/11, a day of remembrance for the bombing of Pearl 
Harbor, a Holocaust Remembrance Day, and this House, just last year, 
passed a remembrance day for slavery, Slavery Remembrance Day. It was 
done by this House of Representatives.
  I must tell you, Mr. Steny Hoyer--Mr. Steny Hoyer, I will never 
forget, nor will I let others forget the role that he played. It was 
Mr. Hoyer that assisted me, or perhaps I ended up assisting him. It was 
my legislation, but legislation that Mr. Hoyer helped get through this 
House. He took, as it were, the proverbial bull by the horns, and he 
helped this Congressperson pass this legislation.
  So Mr. Hoyer, wherever you are, I thank you and want you to know that 
at some point we would like to honor you for what you did to make real 
Slavery Remembrance Day in the House of Representatives.
  The bill did not pass the Senate, but Ms. Warren, the Senator, 
Senator Warren, had legislation in the Senate to honor the enslaved 
people. It was to commemorate their lives, as well.
  So Slavery Remembrance Day passed the House, and on August 20 of last 
year, we actually celebrated, commemorated--excuse me--because Slavery 
Remembrance Day deals with solemnity and commemoration, not 
celebration. We celebrate on Juneteenth and commemorate.
  But Slavery Remembrance Day is for commemoration, not celebration, 
because we want to commemorate the lives that were lost to slavery, the 
lives of people who were born into slavery, lived their lives as 
slaves, many of them, and died as slaves.
  I heard somebody repeat that just recently. It is a wonderful thing 
to hear people repeat that. One of my colleagues did, and I appreciated 
hearing that being repeated.
  But Slavery Remembrance Day is about solemnity, and there is a 
ceremony that we had reminding us that we must always remember. This 
ceremony requires that a person talk about the various things that 
occurred and at some point would say, we must, and those who were in 
attendance would say, always remember, because we must always remember.
  Slavery Remembrance Day, August 20 of last year, the first. We had 
over 1,000 people show up on short notice. We plan to have it again in 
Houston, Texas, and in other places, as well. Slavery Remembrance Day, 
a day for us to commemorate the lives of those who were enslaved in 
this country for centuries, I might add, centuries. It wasn't just some 
short period of time.
  I think many people assume that slavery occurred for maybe a few 
months or a few years, perhaps a decade, maybe several decades. But no, 
my dear friends, it was centuries. Centuries that our country, the 
country that I love, the country where I say the Pledge of Allegiance, 
the country where I sing the national anthem, it was in this country, 
my country that we enslaved people for centuries.
  But it is also in this country, my country, where we decline, to this 
day, to respect the people who were enslaved. We respect the enslavers. 
We have named schools after the enslavers; there are Lee High Schools 
across the country.
  We respect the enslavers. We name military bases after them; Bragg, 
Braxton Bragg. We name bases after them, schools after them, but not 
the enslaved.
  Somehow there seems to be this belief that the enslaved persons must 
have been wrong in some way.
  What was their wrong?
  What did they do to cause this country to demean them to this day?
  I stand here in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the 
United States of America to say that this country has got to respect 
the lives of those that were sacrificed so that it could have the 
riches that it has today. The economic foundation that we stand on 
today was put in place by enslaved people.

                              {time}  1300

  They were the economic foundational mothers and fathers of this 
country and they ought to be at least respected. At minimum they should 
be respected.
  They ought to be respected to the same extent that we have respected 
the enslavers. This is the second item on the conscience agenda. In 
1956, the Congress of the United States of America, honored Confederate 
soldiers with a Congressional Gold Medal. A Congressional Gold Medal 
for the enslavers. A Congressional Gold Medal for the persons who 
fought to keep persons in bondage and disrespect for the enslaved. No 
dignity was accorded the enslaved.
  As a matter of fact, in Texas, there was a movement afoot to rename 
slavery, to style it as involuntary relocation. Theft of human beings, 
kidnapping, rape, murder--involuntary relocation. Let's just sanitize 
it rather than show a person the dignity and respect that they have 
earned by virtue of the suffering and the pain that we inflicted upon 
them so that this country could become the great Nation that it is.

[[Page H3139]]

  How sad it is to know that Members of this House refuse to this day 
to show them the dignity and respect that human beings deserve after 
having been enslaved for centuries. The House is a symbol of national 
shame just as the Richard Russell Office Building is, by the way.
  I will say more about that, perhaps, in a moment or two, but we are a 
symbol of national shame. If anybody thinks that I am going to cease to 
say this, you are entirely wrong because it is the truth. We ought to 
do for the enslaved persons what we did for the Confederate soldiers in 
1956. We ought to accord a Congressional Gold Medal to them. We should, 
but we won't.
  We have the power to do it. We did it for the Confederate soldiers, 
but we lack something else that we don't have to do it--the integrity. 
It takes integrity to do this. Don't have the integrity to do it.
  By the way, this circumstance is not something that is unknown to 
Members because I have circulated the request for the Dear Colleague, 
the request for persons to sign on and help us acquire the signatures 
necessary to accord the enslaved persons who built the country, planted 
the seeds, harvested the crops, fed the Nation, the enslaved persons, 
accord them a Congressional Gold Medal.
  My colleagues are aware so it is nothing new that I am saying, but it 
takes integrity. It takes being a person of good will to do this. I am 
sad to say that we cannot get 290 persons of good will. All they have 
to do is sign a piece of paper and we can then move forward with the 
process to present a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved people. 
Sign your name. That is all. That is not going to happen. It hasn't 
happened so far.
  I don't mean to sound pessimistic; I am just realistic. It is not 
happening. I hope that there will be a change in the hearts of Members 
so that we can do this. I pray for a change in the hearts. It hasn't 
happened so far. It takes a person with integrity, a person of good 
will, a person who understands the wrong that has to be corrected, that 
has to be righted, and we can do it.
  I am going to ask my colleagues to do, again, for the enslaved 
persons what we did in 1956 for the enslavers. We have shown that we 
revere the enslavers and revile the enslaved. We don't consider them 
heroes.
  I was at the Museum of the Bible just recently with a dear friend 
here, a name I need not and shall not mention, but we went to the 
Museum of the Bible located just a stone's throw if you got a really 
strong arm, but near here. It is about a mile or two away at most.
  There in the Museum of the Bible on the wall, they had this huge 
painting of what we will call liberators, and there was a word 
``liberators'' under the painting. They showed the liberators. One of 
the liberators was Abraham Lincoln. I think Abraham Lincoln qualifies 
as a liberator, but here is something that will offend a lot of my 
colleagues to know that one of the liberators at the Museum of the 
Bible was John Brown.
  You see, we have been taught in this country that John Brown was a 
murderer. John Brown was a liberator. People were enslaved. John Brown 
sought and fought to liberate people from slavery. He was a liberator. 
We revere the enslavers, who murdered, killed, kidnapped, and raped. We 
revere them. We pay tribute to them, but to the persons who were the 
victims of the kidnapping, murder, rape, we revile them and anybody 
that tried to help them.
  John Brown was a liberator. This is over at the Museum of the Bible. 
I beg that people would go over there, dear brothers and sisters. We 
are one race and that is the human race. We are all related. I love 
you, but you have got to be told the truth.
  Go to the museum and see for yourself. Nat Turner was a liberator. Go 
over and view this for yourselves. Nat Turner's name was not among 
those. I don't want to mislead you, but he was a liberator, as well.
  The point is, we have a duty, a responsibility, an obligation to 
ourselves, Members, to do justice, to demonstrate that, yes, we have 
come a long way and we are going to go the rest of the way.
  Yes, we have a Juneteenth. We need a slaver remembrance day that has 
been acknowledged by the Senate, signed into law by the President. This 
House has already taken one step.
  We need that, but we also need to accord dignity and respect to the 
enslaved people. One way of doing it is with the Congressional Gold 
Medal to them just as we have done it for the enslavers.
  I am of the opinion that we can do it, but it hasn't happened and I 
have indicated to you that it probably won't. However, I am going to 
keep hope alive. I will be back to remind us again and again and again. 
I don't know that the reminder is sufficient. I am going to use prayer, 
and we will find out if we have 290 people in this House who have the 
courage and the heart to just sign their names so that we can do for 
the enslaved what we did for the enslavers.
  Dear friends, I love the words of Maya Angelou. She indicates in 
these words--I might not quote her exactly, but she indicates: ``. . . 
bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope 
of the slave.'' ``. . . the dream and the hope of the slave.''

  I stand here in the Congress of the United States of America knowing 
that somebody some centuries ago prayed for a day when they would 
receive the dignity and respect God accords all human beings as a 
birthright. Dignity and respect of liberty and justice for all as we 
have placed in our Pledge of Allegiance. Dignity and respect, that is 
all. That is all we are indicating we should have, dignity and respect.
  Now, as I bring this to a close, dignity and respect would also 
require that the name Richard Russell--Richard Russell, dear friends, 
was a man who fought antilynching legislation, fought civil rights 
legislation, coauthored the Southern Manifesto. Richard Russell was a 
self-proclaimed white supremacist. Richard Russell said this is a White 
man's country.
  By the way, there are some Richard Russells alive today. He wasn't 
the last Richard Russell, but this Richard Russell said this is a White 
man's country and he wanted to keep it that way.
  Now, this Richard Russell has his name on a building, the Senate 
Russell Office Building. Richard Russell, the white racist, his name is 
on a building.
  Is it asking too much to remove Richard Russell's name from the 
building? We haven't named any buildings John Brown or Nat Turner. By 
the way, I am not asking that this building be named John Brown or Nat 
Turner, but we haven't done it. No taxpayer dollars go toward a 
building being named John Brown, but we have a building named in honor 
of Richard Russell, a white supremacist.
  I don't think tax dollars ought to support a building that honors a 
white supremacist. The Senate is a place of shame. The building is a 
symbol of national shame. Senators can change this. Senators can change 
this almost overnight. All they have to do is remove his name. The 
Senate has the power and the authority to take Richard Russell's name 
off of the Russell Senate Office Building.
  They haven't done it. Some tell me that if they did it, we would have 
to have another name and we can't agree on a name, so they keep the 
name of the bigot on the building because we don't have another name.
  By the way, I haven't said name it Martin Luther King. I haven't said 
name it Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman. I haven't said name it John 
Brown, Nat Turner.

                              {time}  1315

  Here is what I have said. I have said to remove his name and let the 
name become what it was before it was the Russell Senate Office 
Building. It was called the Old Senate Office Building. Revert back to 
the Old Senate Office Building and take as much time as you like to 
develop a process, if you like, and then a name, a name that is 
suitable for the building.
  The excuse of ``we can't take it off because we can't agree on a 
name,'' that is shameful. Every Senator over there ought to be ashamed.
  I don't go into the Russell Senate Office Building. I am a one-person 
protest. I am not going to demean myself. I have enough respect and 
dignity for myself not to go into a building named in honor of a racist 
and bigot. I am not going to do it. Those who do it, it is their 
choice. If you don't have to, you are disrespecting yourself.
  I have written a letter to various organizations when I was invited 
to come

[[Page H3140]]

and speak over in the building for various reasons. I have written a 
letter, and I am sending it to all the human rights and civil rights 
organizations, letting them know that I am a one-person protest and 
that I won't be going into the Russell Senate Office Building, except 
to protest. There is an exception. I will go in to protest.
  I will be going in to protest, so I am giving everybody fair notice. 
There will be protestation at the Russell Senate Office Building. I 
won't say when, but I will be going to protest.
  I am hopeful that we can take the name of Richard Russell off the 
Senate office building paid for in tax dollars. It is easy to do but 
difficult if you don't have the courage, if you don't have the 
integrity, and if you don't have the heart to do what is right.
  Here is what I suspect will happen at some point. At some point, my 
brothers and sisters in the Senate will find a way to do this and 
ignore the fact that I have been standing in this House appealing to 
them to do it.
  You see, people are written out of history who make these kinds of 
demands. They are written out of history because it can never be said 
that a person of African ancestry had the courage to do this and then 
it was done. That would mean, then, that there are other things that 
people of color might have the courage to do and to get done in a 
similar fashion.
  They will find a clever way to get it done. The name will change, and 
we will just go on as though none of this ever happened.
  I just pray that the record will show that someone came to this well 
and stood for justice. Just as we like to record the history of all the 
things that people do, let it be known that at least one person came 
here and asked that we take that name off of that building.
  It will happen. It is just a matter of time. At some point, there 
will be people who are going to coalesce around this, and the Senate 
will have to do it. It is shameful that they haven't done it, but they 
will have to do it.
  Maybe not while I am here, but at some point, this Congress is going 
to award a Congressional Gold Medal to those persons who suffered 
slavery. Congress will do it, but they have to find a way to do it so 
that it doesn't look like they were forced to do it, that they were 
forced by a person, a Black man who had the courage to come and stand 
in the well and say this is something that we must do.
  They can't let it seem as though this person did this, so they will 
find a way to do these things, and it will be as though none of this 
ever happened.
  Do you know what? The good news is that it will happen. Maybe not in 
time for me to see it, but it will happen.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that I love my country. In spite of 
the way my country has behaved, I still love it. It is sort of like a 
mother or father loving children. Sometimes children don't behave 
properly, but you don't cease to love them. You want to correct them. I 
come here to correct my country and help us to do the right thing. 
Actually, more important than that, Mr. Speaker, is to do the righteous 
thing. I love my country, and I pray that my country will do the 
righteous thing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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