[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 121 (Friday, July 14, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3605-H3608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1145
                  AND STILL I RISE: CONSCIENCE AGENDA

  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.
  Still I rise. Borrowing the words of Maya Angelou, ``Bringing the 
gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the 
slave,'' and still I rise.
  I rise as a scion of the enslaved Africans who were sacrificed to 
make America great, sacrificed for some 200-plus years, 240-plus years, 
to make America great.
  I rise because I understand that as a scion and as a descendant, I 
have a duty, a responsibility, and an obligation to those enslaved 
people.
  I think my colleague, John Lewis, put it best, to just have a 
responsibility to ``get in good trouble.'' ``Good trouble'' was his 
term. I added the verbiage.
  We have this duty and responsibility to get into good trouble, to do 
that which is appropriate to honor the enslaved people who are the 
foundational mothers and fathers, the economic foundational mothers and 
fathers, of this country. The foundation upon which this economy 
resides to this day was put in place with sacrificed lives, millions of 
sacrificed lives, millions, literally, over centuries, literally, to 
make America the great country it is.
  Unfortunately, America--the country I love, the country where I sing 
the national anthem, salute the flag, and say the Pledge of Allegiance. 
I stand for the national anthem. The country I love has not shown 
respect for the people who gave it its economic foundation.
  As a matter of fact, we have shown disrespect for them, disrespect. 
They have not been honored. They have been pushed aside and left 
behind. As a matter of fact, there has been an effort to cause people 
to literally be ashamed of talking about these foundational mothers and 
fathers.
  We revere the enslavers, and we revile the enslaved who were 
sacrificed, whose lives were sacrificed, many of whom were born into 
slavery, lived their lives as slaves, and died as slaves. We don't 
honor them appropriately.
  Some of that is changing because of what the Honorable John Lewis 
called to our attention about good trouble. Some of that is changing 
because, last year, this Congress passed legislation for Slavery 
Remembrance Day. We did so on July 27 of last year.
  Mr. Speaker, Slavery Remembrance Day was a historic and monumental 
accomplishment for Congress, but you didn't read about it in the 
newspapers. You didn't see it on television. You didn't hear anything 
about it on radio. It wasn't celebrated on social media.
  This country does not respect the enslaved people, the country I 
love, the country where I salute the flag, say the Pledge of 
Allegiance, and stand for the national anthem.
  None of that was broadcast because there is a desire among many to 
have those who are the scions, the descendants, forget slavery, to 
forgive and forget.
  It is obvious that the scions have forgiven.
  Yes, we forgive, but God gave us memory for a reason. We don't 
forget. We don't forget Pearl Harbor, and we have a Pearl Harbor 
Remembrance Day. We don't forget 9/11, and we have a 9/11 Remembrance 
Day. We are not going to forget and should never forget the Holocaust, 
and we have a Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  We don't forgive and forget. We should forgive and remember. Forgive 
and remember is what we do for 9/11 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 
December 7. That is what we do for the Holocaust. We remember, and we 
should.
  I stand here a scion, a proud person who commemorates Slavery 
Remembrance Day. It is not a day for celebration. It is a day for 
commemoration. As we are approaching the next Slavery Remembrance Day, 
I thought it would be appropriate to do several things.
  The first is to acknowledge Mr. Steny Hoyer. Mr. Steny Hoyer gave me 
his word, and he kept his word. He gave me his word. He indicated that 
we would pass Slavery Remembrance Day legislation in this House, and we 
did. We did it, as I indicated, on July 27, 2022.
  I am eternally grateful to Mr. Hoyer for what he committed to do, for 
what he followed through on, and, in fact, what he did. So, I thank Mr. 
Hoyer. I will forever appreciate him for this and many other things 
that he did as the majority leader. I respect greatly the many things 
that he has done, but I don't respect any of them more than what he did 
to help us inculcate Slavery Remembrance Day into the national fiber 
and fabric of this country.
  I greatly appreciate it, and I will be thanking the gentleman not 
only today but also in Houston, Texas, on August 19, when we will have 
our second annual Slavery Remembrance Day event.
  The second event will be on August 19 in Houston, Texas. Our speaker 
will be the Honorable Bishop Barber, who is well known for his oratory 
and his intellect. He is a preacher par excellence, a pulpiteer par 
excellence, and a person who, without question, is making a difference 
in the lives of poor people. He is engaged in a campaign to help poor 
people.
  It is August 19 in Houston, Texas. It will be open to the public, I 
might add, the first 1,000 people. Last year, we had 1,000 people in 
attendance. We expect to have 1,000 people this year.
  We expect to continue with the Slavery Remembrance Day event not only 
in Houston but across the length and breadth of this country.
  There are other scions who understand that they are bringing the 
gifts our ancestors gave, that they are the dream and hope of the 
slaves. Some of them will pick this up, and they, too, will have 
Slavery Remembrance Day events.
  The actual day for Slavery Remembrance Day to have the most 
commemoration is going to be August 20 because it was on August 20, 
1619, that the ship White Lion docked at a place called Point Comfort 
near what we now call Norfolk, Virginia. When the White Lion docked, 
it had 20 or so--I am not sure of the exact number--persons of African 
ancestry who were traded for goods. They became the first Africans to 
become enslaved in the Colonies.

  I understand that there are other circumstances that predate August 
20, 1619, but this happened with the Colonies, and it was the Colonies 
that, in a sense--they probably don't like to say it, but it is true--
popularized slavery. They popularized it, legitimized it, made it 
comfortable, made it acceptable, made it part of the vernacular, and 
made it a part of everyday life. It was the American Colonies that gave 
us slavery as an institution in this country for hundreds of years.
  On August 20, we will be commemorating Slavery Remembrance Day. We 
have this breakfast and ceremony on the 19th, but on the 20th, we will 
take it to houses of worship. In these places of worship, we will have 
commemoration ceremonies.
  Last year, we were at Bishop Dixon's Community of Faith Church, to be 
called the cathedral now, the Cathedral of Faith in Houston, Texas. We 
will have another commemoration ceremony there.
  We will have commemoration ceremonies in other churches. We want to 
have them across the length and breadth of the country. We will get 
there. It is not going to be easy, but we will do it.

[[Page H3606]]

  This is what you do, Mr. Speaker. This is, for many people, trouble, 
but it is the kind of good trouble that John Lewis called to our 
attention. It is good trouble.
  I remember how he and I were in good trouble together. We were 
arrested multiple times together, and we literally were in jail 
together. I respect and will always allow his spirit to manifest itself 
such that it can be a guiding light and force in the lives of people 
and hopefully will continue to be one in my life, the desire to be in 
good trouble.
  I have followed through on this good trouble mission, and I have had 
the opportunity to make good trouble in honor of the Honorable John 
Lewis as it relates to voting rights. This is a part of the process of 
honoring the enslaved people, as a matter of fact, this good trouble. 
Honoring them by getting in good trouble to advance the rights of all 
people, which would include them--voting rights, for example--is an act 
of good trouble not just for my contemporaries and for the people who 
will benefit from it now but to show that we respect that the ancestors 
suffered and never had the right to vote.
  They suffered, so someone such as an Al Green who makes it to 
Congress, they would expect that he would try to make a difference and 
get and acquire the rights for others that they never had.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to tell you that I was before the Supreme 
Court a few years back. I was before the Supreme Court, and I have the 
proof of it here. This is the citation that I received on August 9, 
2021. August is a significant month, you see, Mr. Speaker, in my life.
  We were arrested there, and I made a commitment after we were 
arrested--not put in jail; it wasn't that type of arrest. This time, 
when I was arrested, they placed this band on us, and this was 
something to indicate that we have been arrested and had to post bail. 
I paid a fine, and I did not go to a place of incarceration.
  My commitment was to wear this band. This is the same band that was 
placed on me on August 9, 2021. It is the same band. I committed to 
myself to wear this until we passed the Voting Rights Act here in 
Congress, and I have had many tell me that I may be wearing it a long 
time. I have been wearing it now for some years, you see, Mr. Speaker, 
but I don't think that I can wear it too long because the right to vote 
has been denied to people for too long.
  As a scion of the enslaved people who never had the right to vote, 
this is the least I can do to show the world that I am serious to the 
extent that one can do so with a wristband, a wristband that symbolizes 
a commitment to justice for all in the form of voting rights being 
protected for all.
  I want to assure people that we will continue with this conscience 
agenda. This Slavery Remembrance Day is but one aspect of the 
conscience agenda. The conscience agenda, which is to my left, is one 
that we are going to promote, and it is a part of the legislative 
agenda here in Congress. That legislative agenda will be talked about 
on August 19 in Houston, Texas, when we have 1,000 or more people in 
attendance at this event, the Slavery Remembrance Day breakfast.

                              {time}  1200

  We are going to talk about the legislative agenda. The legislative 
agenda includes expanding Slavery Remembrance Day. We will expand it 
across the length and breadth of the country, as I articulated a little 
bit earlier.
  The legislative agenda will include awarding a Congressional Gold 
Medal to the enslaved. We have in 1956, here in this Congress, accorded 
a Congressional Gold Medal; 1956, a Congressional Gold Medal, to 
Confederate soldiers. Confederate soldiers, for edification purposes, 
are the people who fought to maintain slavery.
  The Congress of the United States awarded a Congressional Gold Medal 
to the enslavers but not to the enslaved, not to the people who are the 
foundational mothers and fathers of this country, the people who 
suffered and who were sacrificed, their lives sacrificed so that we 
would have this opportunity to stand in the well of the House and say 
America is a great country. It is. But it is great for a reason. The 
reason is sacrificed lives, millions of them.
  If we in this Congress can accord a Congressional Gold Medal to 
Confederate soldiers, surely we can accord a Congressional Gold Medal 
to the enslaved people whose lives were sacrificed to lay the economic 
foundation upon which this Nation resides today.
  A Congressional Gold Medal is a part of the conscience agenda. You 
will note we have that at the top of this display; conscience agenda. 
This is our moral imperative. This is our moral imperative, this 
conscious agenda; our moral imperative.
  That means it is something that we have to do because it is not only 
the right thing to do; this is the righteous thing to do. This is a 
righteous movement. This is righteous legislation.
  This is not your typical legislation. This is legislation that 
addresses a similar moment in time that changed the rest of time in 
this country, and that moment in time was August 20, 1619.
  It changed the history of this country forever in an unpleasant way 
for a good many people, I might add, people of color.
  This is a part of it, awarding a Congressional Gold Medal. We have 
legislation that we have filed in the House of Representatives to 
accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved people.
  The next piece of legislation on the conscience agenda, that inner 
thing within us all that says this is the right thing to do, that we 
should respond to. This is the response. This is the response from a 
scion of the African people who were enslaved and sacrificed to make 
America great.
  The next item on the agenda for those who may not be aware--many are; 
the message is getting out--is the removal of Richard Russell's name 
from the Russell Senate Office Building.
  Pardon me while I pick up my poster on this issue. This is a poster 
that displays, depicts the Russell Senate Office Building; a building 
paid for with tax dollars.
  Not only is it paid for with tax dollars, it is maintained as the 
same with tax dollars, the Russell Senate Office Building.
  Richard Russell was a bigot. I am speaking truth. Richard Russell was 
a racist, a White supremacist. Richard Russell was one of the authors 
of the Southern Manifesto.
  Richard Russell fought antilynching legislation. Richard Russell 
fought civil rights legislation. Richard Russell has earned a place in 
infamy, and his name should not be associated with the Russell Senate 
Office Building. It should not. His name should be immediately removed 
from the building.
  The building itself is a symbol of national shame. I don't go in the 
Richard Russell Office Building. I am a one-person protest. I don't go. 
I respect myself enough not to go into this building.
  I guarantee you; if this building were symbolic of some other things 
associated with Anglo Americans, they wouldn't go in it. They respect 
themselves enough not to disrespect themselves by going into a building 
that was antithetical to their best interests, that had the name of 
some person who was antithetical to their best interests. That is what 
they do.
  I am not doing anything that my Anglo-American friends wouldn't do if 
the shoe were on the other foot, to borrow a phrase.
  Unfortunately, the Senate has not found it within its wisdom to 
change the name. I have heard that the reason the name has not been 
changed is because they can't agree on another name. There have been 
efforts to try to do it, but they couldn't agree on a name.
  I have a solution. There is a way to resolve this question of the 
name change. We resolve it by doing this: Let it revert to the name 
that it had prior to becoming the Russell Senate Office Building.
  That name was the Old Senate Office Building. Let it revert to the 
Old Senate Office Building; take such time as needed to select the new 
name.
  I have no name that I am recommending. I am not doing this to give it 
a name. I am doing this to have this name removed.
  I am doing this because this is good trouble. This is the kind of 
trouble that the ancestors expect a scion to engage in. This is the 
good trouble, the

[[Page H3607]]

kind of trouble that John Lewis engaged in when he crossed the Edmund 
Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday. This is good trouble. I don't mind 
getting into good trouble.
  It is good trouble to say that the Senate ought to be ashamed for 
allowing this to persist, knowing that it is an affront to African 
Americans.
  They know it, but we are not that important. Our vote is, but we are 
not that important. They don't have to respond to us immediately. Take 
their time.
  It is a very difficult circumstance to negotiate when people who are 
not directly impacted by something that is an affront to others, when 
they have the authority to set the timeline, when they can determine 
when it is best to do that which is going to benefit people who are 
finding a circumstance unpleasant and unacceptable. They don't have to 
rush. It doesn't impact them; many of them. It does impact one or two 
who are there, in the sense that they are descendants.

  I am a proud descendant. I am not ashamed to say that the Senate 
ought to be ashamed for what it is doing in allowing this to continue.
  It just seems like in this country where we get exposure for 
everything that is under the Sun, that this would get the kind of 
attention it merits.
  The press knows, they do, but they are not taking any action. 
Sometimes the press can be there to maintain the status quo. I have no 
idea as to why, but that is what is happening as a result of the 
inaction.
  The status quo is being maintained, and we need not kid ourselves. If 
this received the media attention that it richly deserves and will not 
receive, apparently, this would change. It would. The name would come 
off of the building. The Senate has shame on its face for allowing this 
to persist.
  The conscience agenda. Another aspect of this agenda is the enacting 
of the securities and exchange atonement.
  Let me explain. I was afforded the preeminent privilege of being the 
chairperson of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the 
full committee of Financial Services, and as such, we held hearings.
  We held a hearing, and we had some of the top banks in this country 
present. We made inquiries about their association with slavery by and 
through their predecessor institutions.
  Well, confessions were made. Predecessor institutions are big banks. 
Before they became as big as they are now, they engaged with slavery. 
Banks were lending money so that people could buy human beings and 
shackle and chain them into slavery.
  Banks would repossess their property. They were chattel by definition 
at the time, human beings as chattel. These are the foundational 
mothers and fathers of this country in chains.
  They were repossessed. If the person who received the loan to 
purchase the slaves didn't make his payments timely, the slaves were 
repossessed, just as you would repossess an automobile or a car, some 
piece of property, an inanimate object. They were repossessed.
  These are the captains of industry. These are the people who make 
millions of dollars a year. The question was posed to them: Have you 
done enough to atone? Not in those exact words. They all gave an 
indication that they could do more.
  Then the question was asked, well, can you give us a plan for doing 
that something more? Not one had a plan or was prepared to say they 
would even present a plan.
  The insurance companies, big insurance companies got their start, 
some of them, dealing in slavery. That wasn't the only thing, but it 
was a part of their portfolio at the time.
  These big companies insured the slaves. When a slave died, then there 
was a payment of funds, just as you would insure a cow and some other 
animal; human beings treated with less respect than you would give a 
cow, in many cases.
  The enslaved people, the foundational mothers and fathers, the 
economic foundational mothers and fathers who laid the foundation such 
that I can stand here and say America is a great country; great because 
of their lives that were sacrificed.
  I say it sincerely. America is a great country. But we have to add: 
because of the ancestors who were enslaved for centuries so that 
America could have the free labor to help it become the economic 
powerhouse it is today.
  We need to have a means by which we can find out just to what extent 
all of these companies, major companies, engaged in some way with 
slavery, and there should be atonement.
  We didn't demand that they atone in some specific way. The 
specificities we allowed them to negotiate within themselves, but so 
far, we have not had any action that I am aware of.

                              {time}  1215

  To do something along the lines of just a few handouts here and a few 
handouts there, and receiving applause while you are getting your 
millions and millions of dollars as a salary, that is not enough. That 
is not enough. I can call some names of people who think that they have 
done great things while receiving those big salaries and done very 
little to atone for what their predecessor institutions have done. 
``Securities and Exchange Commission''--securities and exchange 
atonement, more appropriately stated.
  Finally, on this agenda, which we will talk about on August 19 in 
Houston, Texas, with 1,000 people assembled, we will talk about all of 
these and one additional--this is the good trouble that you get into 
when you are a scion and you respect yourself--establishing the 
department of reconciliation, establishing the department of 
reconciliation.
  It is intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer that we 
have not atoned. We have not. Not only is atonement less than 
appreciated, but we are finding now that, in my opinion, we are 
backsliding in the House of Representatives--backsliding, moving back, 
moving backward in the House of Representatives.
  We are very close in this House to having racism legitimized as a 
talking point or the verbiage associated with racism legitimized as a 
talking point.
  Case in point, yesterday, a Member of the House of Representatives 
came to this floor and uttered what I consider a racial slur on the 
floor of the House. There was an appeal to take down the words, to have 
them stricken, right here on the floor of the House of Representatives.
  We are becoming more comfortable in this country with racism, 
homophobia, Islamophobia, nativism, sexism, all of these invidious 
``isms.'' We are becoming more comfortable with them.
  There are people who are very comfortable with them who are Members 
of the Congress of the United States of America. We had a President who 
was very comfortable with these invidious phobias and ``isms.'' That, 
my friends, laid the foundation for much of what we are seeing and 
suffering to this very day.
  The behavior of the person at the top will set the tone and tenor for 
persons up and down the line. We are suffering because of the behavior 
of someone that we elected to public office. We in this country are 
moving in the wrong direction when it comes to the progress that we 
should be making in terms of relationship building and living together 
in harmony.
  A lot of the legislation in the NDAA evidences exactly what I am 
saying. By the way, I voted against it.
  This department of reconciliation is needed. It is needed because, 
for too long, we have ignored the chasm between the races in this 
country, and there is a chasm. We have ignored it. Rather than span the 
chasm, build a bridge such that we can all enjoy liberty and justice 
for all, we ignored it. We have somehow hoped that it would just go 
away, that if we could just let time pass, it would go away.
  However, the passage of time in and of itself does not cause pain, 
hurt, and sorrow to evaporate. It is what you do with the time, and we 
have not used our time wisely, as evidenced by the fact that we had all 
this celebration of those who were the enslavers and literally ignoring 
those who were enslaved--vilified the enslaved. We need a department of 
reconciliation.
  This department would be--something just came to mind. Let's pause on 
the department of reconciliation and what it would be because I have 
another thought.
  I really think that I need to amend the agenda. In honor of the 
Honorable John Lewis, I need to call this the ``good trouble'' because 
for a lot of people, this is trouble, see? They can't

[[Page H3608]]

stomach what we have here, the good trouble conscience agenda. I am 
going to do that, the good trouble conscience agenda, because I 
understand the trouble that this creates in the lives of people who 
want to forget and go on.
  However, they don't do that when it comes to 9/11, Pearl Harbor, or 
the Holocaust. We have to remember those things, and we should. But 
when it comes to slavery, let's just forget that. Let's not talk about 
it. Forgive and forget, Al, but remember the others. Just forgive and 
forget the people who made America the great country it is, the 
foundational mothers and fathers.
  As I was saying, back to our regularly scheduled program, 
establishing a department of reconciliation, here is what this 
department would do, what it would allow us to do: To have a secretary 
of reconciliation, just as we have a Secretary of Commerce, just as we 
have a Secretary of Education, just as we have a Secretary of Labor, a 
secretary whose job it would be to wake up every morning with 
conciliation, reconciliation, on his or her mind.
  That secretary would have undersecretaries, just as we have 
Undersecretaries in the Department of Labor, Department of Commerce, 
Department of Education, undersecretaries who would have various 
aspects of reconciliation to deal with.
  Reconciliation would be broader than the enslaved people. 
Reconciliation would also include others with whom we have not 
reconciled.
  We need to reconcile. We have not reconciled. It is bigger than the 
enslaved people, the foundational mothers and fathers, the economic 
foundational mothers and fathers who have made America great. It is 
bigger than this. There are others. This is what the department of 
reconciliation would be charged with helping us resolve.
  It is not going to be resolved over a year or two or the term of one 
President. It is not going to be resolved in a few years, one decade. 
It is not. It is going to take time. Just as we are committed to labor 
issues with a Department and a Secretary who report directly to the 
President, we could be committed to reconciliation with a department 
and a secretary that reports directly to the President.
  The Department of Labor is not going anywhere. Labor issues are going 
to be available to be addressed, and this department will address these 
issues. The same with education and commerce. We have these 
departments.

  When we have specific needs, we develop specific solutions. The needs 
of labor are addressed through the Department of Labor. The need to 
reconciliate should be addressed through a department of 
reconciliation. We need a department of reconciliation to address the 
needs of this country so that we can live together in harmony and 
better understand each other.
  An example of something that we need to better understand: In this 
country, Fort Bragg existed for many years. Bragg was the name of a 
Confederate officer--a Confederate officer, Bragg. We changed it to 
Fort Liberty. I thought that was something that we should celebrate and 
appreciate, but now there is a movement afoot. At least one person who 
is running for President has connoted that, should he become President, 
the name will revert back to Fort Bragg.
  This is what we are experiencing across the length and breadth of the 
country, a rolling back. Remember, I said that we are moving in the 
wrong direction. We are experiencing a rolling back of gains that were 
fought for, won, and earned, many of them with the blood, sweat, tears, 
and lives of people. There is a good possibility that if a certain 
person becomes President, the name of Fort Bragg will be reinstated on 
what we now call Fort Liberty.
  We are moving in the wrong direction, but we are going to persist 
with the conscience agenda. We are going to give people the opportunity 
to do the righteous thing. It would be within them to make a decision 
as to whether the righteous thing is the appropriate thing to do. There 
is nothing about this agenda that is not right. Slavery Remembrance 
Day--we have Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 9/11 remembrance, Holocaust 
remembrance.
  Nothing in the world like the Holocaust, a horrific event. Slavery 
remembrance, nothing in the world like it. Slavery was a horrific 
event, a crime against humanity, in fact. That is a righteous agenda 
item, a good trouble agenda item.
  A Congressional Gold Medal is righteous. If we can do it for 
Confederate soldiers in 1956, we can do it for the enslaved people 
today if we chose to. That is a part of our righteous agenda.
  Removing Richard Russell's name--a person who fought civil rights, 
fought antilynching laws, coauthored the ``Southern Manifesto''--that 
is a righteous thing to do. Not just the right thing, Senate, who ought 
to be ashamed, who won't do the righteous thing. That is the righteous 
thing to do. Senate leadership who won't do the righteous thing.
  Enacting the securities and exchange atonement. We need to know about 
the affiliation association of these megacorporations with the 
institution of slavery, and there needs to be some atonement. The 
universe is constructed such that atonement is a part of the process of 
making wrong right, righting wrongs. We need atonement.
  Of course, to do all of this, much of it, all of this could be issues 
taken up under a department of reconciliation. As I indicated earlier, 
and still I rise, I am truly a scion of the enslaved people who were 
sacrificed to make America great.

                              {time}  1230

  I am a good troublemaker in the spirit of John Lewis and many others. 
I want to be a good troublemaker. I will continue to be a good 
troublemaker.
  And still I rise, bringing the gifts my ancestors gave. I am the 
dream--to paraphrase Maya Angelou, I am the dream and the hope of the 
slave.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________