[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 130 (Thursday, July 27, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H4132-H4134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CHANGING CONFEDERATE THEMED STREET NAMES IN MISSOURI CITY, TEXAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Green) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, a proud Member of 
the Congress of the United States of America, always honored to have 
this preeminent privilege of standing here in the House of 
Representatives in this Chamber, proud to do so, proud to be an 
American.
  I am one of the persons who likes to stand and sing the national 
anthem, stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. However, that is not what 
makes America great, having Al Green stand for the Pledge of Allegiance 
or singing the national anthem. The thing that makes America great is 
that we, Members of Congress, and other persons of good will, will 
defend the right of those who choose not to stand for the Pledge of 
Allegiance, who stand not to sing the national anthem, nor do they 
choose to stand when the national anthem is being played. That is the 
greatness of America, that we can tolerate each other when we have 
differences.
  Tonight, I am proud to be here, Mr. Speaker, proud to stand here and 
have this privilege. No one could have predicted at my birth that I 
would be here to give this message tonight. This is a special message 
that has to do with something happening in my congressional district.
  I have in my hand a copy of an article from the Houston Chronicle. 
The person who is the writer for this particular article is Juhi Varma, 
a very good writer, I must add. Juhi writes,

[[Page H4133]]

and this is the style of the caption, the title, if you will: 
``Missouri City to change street named after KKK leader as fight 
against Confederate themes continues.''
  I thank Ms. Varma for writing this article because she captures the 
very essence of what happened. I would like to give just a brief 
recitation, if I may, on some of what I know about this circumstance.
  Some years ago, I discovered that we had an area in my congressional 
district in a city known as Missouri City, Texas, an area in Vicksburg 
Village of Shiloh, a subdivision with some 200 homes or more, a 
subdivision with more than a thousand people, a subdivision that had 
streets with Confederate names.
  In 2021, 2022, somewhere thereabouts, this came to my attention. A 
subdivision in this day and time with Confederate street names. Someone 
would say that is not a big deal. Maybe not, but let's explore it.
  There was a Confederate Drive, Confederate Court, Confederate South 
Drive, and then among the many others, Bull Run Court, Stonewall Court, 
Pickett Place. Among them there was also a Bedford Forrest Drive and a 
Bedford Forrest Court.
  For edification purposes, Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first Grand 
Wizard of the KKK. First Grand Wizard. For further information, the 
KKK, for those who may not know--my suspicion is that most who will 
hear this will know, but the KKK was an organization devoted to 
suppressing the rights of African Americans. Devoted. Some might say 
they did a pretty good job over the years of suppressing the rights of 
African Americans.
  We have these streets with the names that I have articulated and some 
others, but we have these streets. I took it upon myself to engage with 
the mayor and council about changing the names. This is when I 
discovered that to change the names you had to have at least 90 percent 
of the residents to sign off on it, 90 percent.
  Well, 90 percent is a good number, but it is not a good number if you 
are trying to get the name of a street changed, I found, because it was 
most difficult to get it done. I went out personally and talked to 
people about getting the names changed, and it was very difficult, to 
say the very least. I won't say it was impossible, but we didn't get 
any names changed at the 90 percent level.

  We got a new mayor and council, a mayor and council with persons who 
were a little bit more sensitive to the issue. There was a 
Councilmember Boney, a councilmember who is a historian, lay historian, 
and who understood what these names meant, a councilmember who decided 
that he was going to do something about this.
  I am proud to say that Councilmember Jeff Boney was able to lower the 
threshold from 90 percent to 70 percent. At the 70 percent threshold, 
we were able to get some names changed.
  We had a couple living in the neighborhood, the Gilbos, they were out 
front in getting names changed. Let's just reflect for a moment before 
I continue with the Gilbos and others in the neighborhood on this. One 
of the chief proponents of leaving the names as they were was a person 
of African ancestry.
  I personally talked to this person, tried to convince the person that 
it would be appropriate to get names that would be more inclusive, as 
Ms. Varma has mentioned in her article. The person said to me: The 
people shouldn't have bought the land. They knew what the name was when 
they bought it, and they shouldn't have bought homes in that 
neighborhood.
  I choose not to live in a neighborhood that has streets with 
Confederate names. I choose not to live in a city that has streets with 
Confederate names. I choose not to live in a country that has streets 
with Confederate names. That is why I am doing what I can to change 
these names. I don't think we ought to have a street, especially one 
with people of color--I would imagine all people of good will would 
agree that we ought not have a street named after the first Grand 
Wizard of the KKK, but everybody is entitled to their opinion.
  We worked through the process with Councilmember Boney, who took the 
lead to lower the threshold so that we could change some names. 
Confederate Drive under his leadership, and with the aid and assistance 
of the residents, especially the Gilbos, Rhonda and Beau, the 
Confederate Drive street was changed to Prosperity Drive. That is where 
they live now. They didn't want to live on Confederate Drive.
  Confederate Court was changed to Prosperity Court, Confederate South 
Drive to Prosperity South Drive. I thought that after the name changed 
from Confederate to Prosperity, I thought after that name change, we 
would have little difficulty changing the name from Bedford Forrest 
Court and Bedford Forrest Drive to some other names.
  I thought that there would be little challenge to these two with a 70 
percent threshold. I thought that people would gladly change the names. 
Regardless of their station in life, it just seemed to me that in the 
United States of America, liberty and justice for all, an inclusive 
country, the country I love, where I say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing 
the national anthem, I just thought that it would be relatively simple 
to move on these streets with this name. How wrong I was. How wrong I 
was.
  After much work, time, energy, and effort, the name Nathan Bedford 
Forrest--actually Bedford Forrest, Nathan wasn't there--was not 
removed. Thank God for Councilmember Boney. He went back to the 
council, and the council had to lower the threshold to 60 percent. It 
was only after we lowered the threshold--I say ``we,'' it was the city 
council and the mayor in Missouri City, Texas. The mayor's name is 
Elackatt. By the way, he is of Indian ancestry, born in India, mayor in 
Missouri City, Texas. It is a wonderful thing to know that we can have, 
appreciate, and celebrate this level of diversity.
  With that mayor and council, it was lowered to 60 percent. As a 
result, the Pearsons, Rodney and Angie, don't have to live on a street 
now that bears the name Bedford Forrest.

                              {time}  1815

  That name will change on August 7 of this year. It will become 
Liberty Way. Liberty Way Drive is the street that they will live on and 
there is a Liberty Way Court. But it will become Liberty Way.
  Inclusive speaks to something associated with the founding principle 
of this country, liberty, justice for all in the Pledge of Allegiance. 
That is a wonderful thing to see occurring. Perhaps we will get to Bull 
Run Court, Stonewall Court, and some others, Pickett Place, Confederate 
General Pickett, or maybe we can get to these in the near future.
  But I am proud of what has been done, and I commend Councilmember 
Boney. I commend the Pearsons. I commend all of the persons who were 
associated with these endeavors, the Gilbos, for what they have done to 
bring a sense of justice to the people who live in this neighborhood.
  There is something more sinister that has taken place that I want to 
call to your attention with reference to this, and the best way to 
explain it is to tell you about my flight that I took in from Houston 
to Washington, D.C. I fly over 100 times a year.
  On this occasion, a couple of weeks ago, I saw a movie while I was on 
the plane. It was a movie that was heart-wrenching for me, a movie 
about a young man who was born to a father who was a wealthy plantation 
owner and a mother who was a slave. The name of the movie is Chevalier. 
I won't spoil it for you. I am going to go right to the gravamen of my 
message, the heart of this.
  The essence of it is this: He was talking to his mother and they were 
talking about how evil had caused some physical harm. I won't spoil the 
movie for you because I think that it is worthy of seeing. But they 
were talking about how evil had caused this harm, physical harm.
  His mother said to him, she reminded him, yes, of the physical harm, 
but it is really the evil that has impacted our minds that she called 
to his attention; how evil had caused people to accept things that were 
unacceptable to other people, unacceptable to the masses, but evil can 
teach you to accept things.
  There were people who accepted the notion that this was all right, to 
live on a street named after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. Evil 
can do this. It

[[Page H4134]]

can convince you that what others would not accept and what you would 
not accept for them you will accept for yourself.
  This gets back to the person that I told you of African ancestry who 
was one of the chief proponents of maintaining the names, convinced 
that it was okay for people of African ancestry to live on a street 
named after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, but was not convinced, I 
assure you, that he or would have anyone live on a street that had a 
name associated with the Third Reich.
  I wouldn't live to on a street with a name associated with the Third 
Reich. I would dare say that there are few people in Congress--there 
may be one, but I can't imagine there being one who would tolerate it.
  Yet, people who will tolerate living on a street, who happen to be of 
African ancestry, will tolerate living on a street named after a Grand 
Wizard of the KKK would not tolerate living on a street or having 
anyone else live on a street named after someone associated with the 
Third Reich.
  This is the essence of what this mother was conveying to her son 
about the evils and how they can impact the mind. Evil can have a 
sinister impact on the mind.
  Unfortunately, in this country, the country I love, for too long we 
have allowed ourselves to be disrespected, our ancestors to be 
disrespected. We have allowed the enslavers to be revered and the 
enslaved to be reviled.
  Our minds have been corrupted to the extent that we find it 
acceptable to send our children to a Lee high school named after a 
Confederate general but would not dare send our children to a high 
school named after someone associated with the Third Reich. I wouldn't 
have a child go to one.
  Our minds have been corrupted. We tolerate living in a country where 
we preach liberty and justice for all, a country founded, to a certain 
extent, on the principle of persons having inalienable rights--I think 
the way it is stated in the Constitution is unalienable--but 
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, 
we, many people of color, accept what we would not accept for others 
under other circumstances.
  I marvel at how we have arrived in the year 2023 and we have a 
building on the campus, on this campus, named after a person who was a 
white supremacist, a person who fought against anti-lynching laws, a 
person who fought integration, a person who was a segregationist, and 
we have a building named after this person and we, people of color, 
tolerate it.
  I am a one-person protest. I do not go in the building unless I am 
going there to protest; and, of course, I am talking about the Russell 
Office Building.
  Richard Russell is the person of whom I speak, the person who was one 
of the coauthors of the Southern Manifesto. Richard Russell, the Senate 
has a building named after Richard Russell.
  I have here what we refer to as the Conscience Agenda. The third item 
on this agenda is to remove Richard Russell's name. Taxpayer dollars, 
my dollars, taxpayer dollars ought not be on the name of a building 
that would honor a bigot and a racist, Richard Russell.
  Here is the amazing thing about this, other than the fact that we 
have persons of African ancestry who will accept it, who could do 
something about it, but accept it.
  Here is the amazing thing. The United States Senate changed the names 
on military bases, changed the names of Confederate generals, removed 
them. In concert with the House and the signature of the President, we 
did it. We changed the names.
  The same Senate that has changed the names on these military bases 
named after and in honor of Confederate generals, that same Senate will 
not take Richard Russell's name off of the Russell Senate Office 
Building. Same Senate.

  It shows a lack of respect. The Senate ought to be ashamed. The 
building itself is a symbol of shame. I marvel at how this has been so 
accepted that it is commonplace.
  People just walk in and out of the building like it is any other 
building. The Richard Russell Office Building. The same Senate that 
took the names off of these Confederate bases, names on military bases 
named after Confederate soldiers, usually generals, the same Senate has 
not removed this name.
  Now, the question becomes why. Here is what I have been told. I have 
been told that the Senate can't agree on another name; this is why the 
Senate will not remove the name that is offensive to me and many of my 
friends and relatives. They said they can't agree on a name.
  But I have a solution. Let it revert to the name that it had before 
it became Richard Russell. Let it revert to the Old Senate Office 
Building, and then choose any name you want. Take as much time as you 
need, but you can change the name.
  I beg the Senate, and I demand of the Senate that you do not just the 
right thing but do the righteous thing and remove Richard Russell's 
name from this office building, just as you have done it for military 
bases around the country. This would be the honorable thing to do.
  Members of the Senate, you dishonor the flag when you do this, 
liberty and justice for all. You dishonor the anthem. Stand up for 
justice. Stand up for people of color who are offended by this name.
  I am grateful for the time. I want the persons who make it possible 
for me to have the time to know that I appreciate them. I also want 
people to know that I love my country, and I love it enough to want to 
see the best of it and remove the notion that we can tolerate this 
level of injustice being perpetrated on a daily basis by people who 
have the power to change it almost overnight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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