[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 7, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, last week marked the beginning of Black 
History Month. And so I come to the floor today to celebrate the 
important roles Black Americans have played both in my home State of 
Maryland and in U.S. foreign policy.
  Paying homage to our country's rich Black heritage--including 
learning about the challenges Black Americans have overcome--makes our 
Nation stronger, both at home and abroad. But in recent years, this 
history has become increasingly polarized and politicized.
  The rise of the ``war on woke'' has led to a growing hostility toward 
diversity and inclusivity. It has led to the rewriting and even 
omitting, of brutal, but significant parts of our Nation's story.
  We cannot allow this to overshadow our celebration. We must not shy 
away from studying our Nation's history with thoughtful critique. We 
should not settle for sanitized lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and others in America's classrooms--
because Black History Month, like many of our cultural heritage months, 
should be a time to illuminate stories that may otherwise get lost. 
Overlooking such stories, especially in a State like Maryland, a place 
rich with Black history, would be a travesty--Maryland, the site of 
Kunta Kinte's arrival at the docks in Annapolis, as told in Alex 
Haley's ``Roots''; Maryland, home to greats like Harriet Tubman and 
Thurgood Marshall; Maryland, where Black waterman have lived on the 
Eastern Shore for generations.
  This week, I had the privilege of meeting with Black watermen and 
their families, families who were some of the original stewards of the 
Chesapeake Bay. They were boat captains and admirals, fishermen and 
entrepreneurs, oyster shuckers and crab pickers. They laid the 
foundation for the aquaculture and maritime industry that is so heavily 
stitched in the fabric of Maryland's culture. They were descendants of 
William Samuel Turner whose family owned and operated seafood 
processing enterprises that anchored Bellevue, a historic African-
American neighborhood on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
  Frederick Jewett, one of the first in the Chesapeake Bay to sell 
crabs and crabmeat and developed the crabmeat grading system that we 
still use today; Capt. Eldridge Meredith, Sr., a waterman and 
entrepreneur who was honored as the 101st Admiral of the Chesapeake 
Bay, and Downes Curtis, one of the country's few Black sailmakers who 
was renowned for his skillful craftsmanship.
  They were descendants of the often-overlooked Black women, like Hazel 
Cropper, also known as ``Hurricane Hazel,'' who worked in the packing 
houses picking crabs, women who became the backbone of Maryland's crab 
meat industry.
  These Black Marylanders left a legacy of progress and success, but 
their stories also echo a system of inequality that exists today. Many 
of Maryland's Black watermen were redlined. They couldn't get loans. 
They weren't paid fairly. And they lacked access to capital to keep 
their businesses afloat when they suffered economic hardship.
  Maryland's congressional delegation has made Federal investments in 
historic preservation to ensure that Maryland's Black history is told 
because it has laid the foundation for Wes Moore, Maryland's first 
Black Governor; Adrienne Jones, Maryland's first Black speaker of the 
house of delegates; Anthony Brown, Maryland's first Black attorney 
general; Dereck Davis, Maryland's first Black State treasurer; and 
Brandon Scott, Baltimore's youngest Black mayor.
  Of course, Black leaders have not only contributed to Maryland, but 
to our Nation, like Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense 
Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, 
EPA Administrator Michael Regan, and OMB Director Shalanda Young. And 
now, we are proud to have our first Black woman on the Supreme Court, 
Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson and Black leaders have contributed around 
the world. And so, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 
I also want to take a moment to highlight the incredible contributions 
of Black Americans in U.S. foreign policy.
  Ebenezer Bassett, the first Black diplomat who served as Ambassador 
to Haiti from 1869 to 1877; Nobel Laureate Dr. Ralph Bunche, who 
mediated the 1949 Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement and fought for 
African independence; Ambassador Edward Perkins and Dr. Richard Hope, 
founders of the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship; Valerie 
Dickson-Horton, one of the first Black women to serve as a USAID 
Mission Director and Assistant Administrator; Peace Corps Director 
Aaron Williams; and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the 
UN. These are pioneers and visionaries who have advanced our national 
security.
  The truth is that America's diverse talent pool is one of the most 
valuable assets we have on the global stage. And yet, in the last 20 
years, the number of Black employees at the State Department has 
decreased. It is why the Department, USAID, DFC, Peace Corps, and all 
of our international affairs Agencies must expand their diversity, 
equity, and inclusion efforts. And, following the tremendous efforts of 
Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, I am awaiting the announcement 
of the State Department's new chief diversity officer.
  Hard-won progress made thanks to the Rangel, Pickering, and Payne 
programs alongside paid internship programs must continue. Exchange 
programs and research partnerships with historically Black colleges and 
universities must grow. With four HBCUs in my State, I can personally 
attest to the brilliance and talent these institutions contribute to 
our Nation's global food, health, climate, economic, and other efforts 
which bolster national security.
  With the appointment of Desiree Cormier Smith as our Nation's first 
Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, our Nation has 
also increased its efforts abroad. From the North American Partnership 
for Equity and Racial Justice Declaration to the UN International 
Decade for People of African Descent, our country is playing an 
important role in protecting the rights and recognizing the 
contributions of African descendants across the globe.
  At the Foreign Relations Committee, we now have our first director of 
diversity, equity, and inclusion--Dr. Mischa Thompson--to help advance 
these efforts in the Senate, our international Agencies, and across the 
globe. But we must all join this effort.
  And so, as we celebrate Black History Month, let us all recommit to 
fighting to overcome prejudice and oppression. Let us never give up 
hope that with determination and commitment, we can build the world Dr. 
King dreamed of--a fair world, a just world, a better world. We can do 
it as long as we remember what Ralph Bunche's said, that ``anything 
less than full equality is not enough.''

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