[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 20, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H942-H946]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BUILDING A BELOVED COMMUNITY
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms.
McClellan of Virginia was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of
the minority leader.)
General Leave
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include
[[Page H943]]
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today
to anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour, as we
celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose
national holiday was yesterday and who would have been 97 years old on
January 15.
Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago today was Martin Luther King Day. It was also
Inauguration Day. As I sat in the rotunda watching the President take
the oath of office, I couldn't help but ponder the final question that
Dr. King pondered in the last year of his life: Where do we go from
here? Chaos or community.
Dr. King asked this question after the victory of the Civil Rights
Act and after the victory of the Voting Rights Act. He pondered what
the Black community should do with this extraordinary power, the power
of the vote, when for the first time in American history, a government
by, of, and for the people finally included Black Americans.
He focused on addressing poverty. He focused on addressing
discrimination. He focused on addressing war. I thought about another
speech that he gave shortly before he died called: ``Remaining Awake
Through a Great Revolution.''
Before Inauguration Day, one of the architects of Project 2025, which
has been the blueprint for the second Trump administration, said this
is the second American Revolution, which will be peaceful if the left
allows it. I thought about what Dr. King would say today. His words
remain relevant.
Within hours of the President taking his oath of office, chaos was
unleashed. Through an attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we
saw over the past year efforts to roll back the hard-won victories of
the civil rights movement.
We see at the Supreme Court right now a case that could gut what
remains of the Voting Rights Act after the court gutted section 5 and
section 4 effectively in the Shelby County v. Holder case.
We have seen Black and Brown communities, including American
citizens, living in terror as ICE agents show up on streets, door to
door, in our courthouses, and on the way to school, grabbing people and
violating their due process rights.
We have seen trade wars that make the cost of everything go up. We
have seen a Federal workforce--which was the doorway to the middle
class for many Black Americans--we have seen a Federal workforce, in
the words of Russell Vought, ``traumatized.'' We have seen the largest
cuts to food assistance and healthcare coverage in American history.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. Chaos has been unleashed.
Dr. King in his time, while he fought chaos, he stayed focused on
community. He stayed focused on building what he called the beloved
community. I think the beloved community is best described as a
community in which we care for one another. It is where we feed the
hungry, where we care for the sick, and where we house the homeless.
He focused on making sure that the promises upon which this country
was founded ring true for every American.
{time} 1930
Before he died, he wondered if the dream that he talked about on the
March on Washington had become a nightmare and was too far out of
reach. Yet, on the night before he died, he told us that he had seen
the Promised Land, that he wouldn't get there with us, but he still
believed in the power of community and the power of the beloved
community.
Today, the Congressional Black Caucus is carrying forward his work.
We are his legacy. We ensure that what he fought for--what John Lewis
fought for, and what millions of Americans have fought for--since the
first day in 1619, when Africans were brought to these shores
involuntarily--endures. From day one, through acts of rebellion,
resistance, and self-liberation, fought for an America that included
them, and we the people.
We carry out that legacy, and we will fight the chaos every single
day to ensure that his work continues. Whether it is expanding the
right to vote, whether it is fighting unjust wars, whether it is
working to eradicate poverty, whether it is standing up for the
constitutional rights of every American, as the conscience of the
Congress, we will continue that legacy.
Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield to our chairwoman, the
Congresswoman from New York (Ms. Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am Representative Yvette D.
Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, proudly representing
New York's Ninth Congressional District in central and south Brooklyn.
I thank Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan for anchoring this
Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight with my colleagues of the Congressional
Black Caucus to commemorate the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King held an unyielding belief that women and men everywhere,
regardless of color or creed, are equal. He used the power of words and
the example of nonviolent resistance to bring us closer to racial and
economic justice.
Dr. King was a man of courage, principles, and faith. We are forever
in his debt. Today, his example inspires us all toward our highest
ideals as Americans. As we gather to honor the Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., an American hero and patriot, we are keenly aware of
the pivotal moment in history in which we stand and of the forces
actively working to undermine his life's work.
At a time when the most vulnerable communities in our Nation are
under relentless attack, the Congressional Black Caucus continues to
uphold Dr. King's legacy, rooted in justice, fairness, and equity for
all.
Today, ironically, also marks the 1-year anniversary of the Trump
administration. As we reflect on the damage that this administration
has inflicted on communities across this Nation, we call on our
colleagues across the aisle to honor the teachings and philosophy of
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to work with us to reject
the hateful agenda that has taken hold.
Dr. King devoted his life to reminding us that silence in the face of
injustice is not an option. As he so powerfully said: ``Our lives begin
to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.''
The Congressional Black Caucus refuses to remain silent in the face
of the pain this administration inflicts on the American people, from
the assaults on voting rights with the looming Louisiana v. Callais
decision before the Supreme Court, to deepening economic inequality, to
the threats against our Nation's healthcare.
Today, we are recommitting ourselves to the fight of keeping Dr.
King's dream and his mission alive.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair for her words.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to our immediate past chair of the
Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressman from Nevada's Fourth,
Steven Horsford.
Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Commonwealth
of Virginia for yielding and to the chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus, Congresswoman Clarke, and all of our colleagues for the work
that we do every single day to live out the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the legacy of my dear fraternity
brother and trailblazing leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, I
speak with urgency about the American Dream; specifically, that dream
being under attack.
More than 60 years ago, Dr. King warned this Nation that America had
given Black Americans ``a bad check, a check which has come back marked
`insufficient funds,' '' a promise made but not kept, opportunity
delayed and justice deferred.
Mr. Speaker, that warning still rings true today. Dr. King reminded
us that public policy is a moral act. What we choose to fund and what
we choose to cut reveals who we value and who we leave behind. Right
now, working families in my home State of Nevada and all across this
country are feeling the consequences of those choices: Prices are
rising. Wages are stretched thin. Too many people are working full-time
but still falling behind.
[[Page H944]]
While families are struggling to make ends meet, this administration
is attempting to rewrite history. Just recently, the current occupant
of the White House claimed that civil rights-era protections left White
Americans ``very badly treated.''
These false and dangerous claims tarnish Dr. King's legacy and the
history in which he lived, which is at risk of repeating itself today.
Dr. King called for a revolution of values, and I rise today with my
colleagues to reinforce that cause. Today, that revolution means
choosing people over profits, workers over Wall Street, and families
over special interests.
The American Dream is not dead, but it is under attack. If we lead
with courage, invest with purpose, and govern with our values, we can
revive it for Nevada and for our entire Nation. That is how we honor
Dr. King's legacy: by building an America of equal opportunity, shared
prosperity, and dignity for all.
I encourage all of my colleagues, regardless of party lines, to do
their part in honoring Dr. King through their actions. That is how we
carry on his legacy, and that is how we revive the dream.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the Congresswoman from North Carolina's
Fourth District, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee.
Mrs. FOUSHEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for organizing
this Special Order hour and for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in reflecting on the
life, legacy, and enduring moral leadership of the great Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., whose vision of justice and equality continues to
shape our Nation's conscience.
Dr. King's work reminds us that progress in this country has never
been inevitable and that the rights and freedoms that we cherish have
always required vigilance, courage, and sustained commitment. Today,
that lesson is as urgent as ever. Across our country, communities are
feeling the weight of an administration that governs through extremism,
division, punishment, and exclusion.
{time} 1940
We see it in attacks on our voting rights, in efforts to criminalize
protests, in targeting immigrants and asylum seekers, in the rollback
of civil rights protections, and in policies that deepen economic
inequality while shielding the powerful from accountability.
Dr. King did not believe justice was self-executed. He understood
that progress is never handed down. It is demanded. He warned us, as
you heard from our chairwoman, that our lives begin to end the day we
become silent about things that matter.
Silence, Mr. Speaker, is exactly what this moment does not allow.
Progress is never achieved without persistence, and justice is never
advanced without those willing to confront complacency and demand
accountability.
The Congressional Black Caucus will not be silent while families are
pushed deeper into poverty, while communities of color are targeted by
discriminatory policies, and while the promise of our democracy is
narrowed to serve the few instead of the many.
We refuse to accept the vision of America where cruelty is policy and
inequality is the goal. Instead, we stand in the tradition of Dr. King,
committed to dignity, equity, and justice for all. We will continue to
speak out, to act, and to fight until the promise of this Nation is
fully realized.
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Foushee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ivey).
Mr. IVEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Virginia for hosting
this event, and I also thank the Congressional Black Caucus for the
focus on this issue tonight.
I was a child in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in the late 1960s. I
lived across the street from the Booker T. Washington High School, so
you know what side of town I lived on.
Rocky Mount was a city that was still segregated. In fact, it was
literally divided by the railroad tracks that ran through the middle of
the town. The Whites lived on one side; the Blacks lived on the other.
My parents were both graduates of that high school, and I had gone to
work at that point. My mother worked in the school system. In the late
1960s, the schools were still segregated. I was able to see how that
changed as my mother was working and then had the chance to work at
other schools as the schools integrated.
I knew that the connection was the civil rights movement that was led
by Dr. Martin Luther King, and Dr. Martin Luther King had preached at
that gymnasium at the Booker T. Washington High School a few years
earlier. I was probably too young to remember him even showing up, but
we recognized the power of that movement and his leadership.
His leadership was a courage rooted in faith and total commitment to
public service. He knew he was going to be killed, as you know from the
``I've Been to the Mountaintop'' speech he delivered the night before
he was assassinated, but he still went on.
In 1956, after he had just graduated--or he was still working on his
dissertation, actually working on graduating with his Ph.D.--he was
called to Montgomery to preach at a church there and lead the church.
When he got there, he was drafted to become the leader of the SCLC, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was put in that position
because they had conflicting groups. They couldn't decide who the
leader should be, but they knew it was a critical time, and they knew
that this young man, whose father had been a preacher, had talent. They
put him in the middle of that position.
This is a young man--I think he was around 26--who moves to a new
town, doesn't know anybody there, with his wife and child. He becomes
the pastor of a church. He is still writing his dissertation at night,
and then he becomes the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. Talk
about gifted leadership.
Not too far into that--they were a few days in, actually--the White
segregationists realized that this bus boycott was serious. They knew
that it was real. They started with the threats. They tried to threaten
people and threaten to take their jobs away, but they weren't able to
get away with that. They weren't able to undermine the bus boycott with
threats, so they actually started calling Dr. King's house. They
threatened his wife, and they threatened him.
Eventually, the threats became real. In 1956, somebody put a bomb at
his house and blew up the front part of it. His wife was there. His
young baby was there. Thank God, neither of them was hurt. When Dr.
King heard about it, he prayed and then ran to his house as quickly as
he could.
When he got there, a crowd had gathered, hundreds of people, African
Americans who lived in that community and knew about Dr. King and
attended his church. They were angry. If they had guns, they brought
those. If they had weapons, they brought those. If they didn't have
that, they grabbed a shovel or whatever they could get their hands on
and went to the house because they were ready to seek revenge, but Dr.
King said: That is not our way.
The Christian leadership that he provided was deeply rooted in faith,
deeply rooted in nonviolence, and was ultimately tested that night. He
met the test that night and continued forward.
Part of that movement ended up resulting in the civil rights
legislation that became the crown jewel of the American democracy,
because America wasn't really a democracy in 1776 or when the
Constitution was written in the 1787-1789 era. It certainly wasn't a
democracy after the Civil War because right after that, when
Reconstruction ended, the Ku Klux Klan rose up. They reasserted their
right to white supremacy.
African Americans who had been freed from slavery were pushed back
into an ugly version, an ugly, violent version that we called
segregation. The Jim Crow laws were put in place. Many of them had
achieved positions, including being elected to this body, and all of
that was stripped away.
For the next 100 years or so, African Americans lived under the
threat of violence. If you looked at a White woman the wrong way, you
could end up dead. If she just thought you looked at her the wrong way,
you could end up dead. That is what happened to Emmett Till.
[[Page H945]]
Not only that, you had African Americans who came back from service
after World War II, including my father-in-law, and what they found was
an America that was still deeply violent, deeply racial.
In fact, one of the veterans who came back who had served in the
military and fought in World War II had his eyes gouged out when he
came back, an act of violence that shocked the country, but didn't
shock it enough. We had other lynchings, and the like, that went
through that era and continued until the 1960s. That is when Dr. King
and the civil rights movement had their rendezvous with destiny.
I am here tonight to thank him for the work that he did. The Voting
Rights Act, which is one of the key pieces of legislation that came out
of that era, is now under attack. It is under threat. It is pending in
front of the Supreme Court across the street. We won't know how it is
going to turn out until the opinion is released, but I tell you what:
We are not in the same place we were even then. When the Voting Rights
Act was passed in 1965, yes, there was division. There were people who
opposed it. There were segregationists--they called themselves
Dixiecrats then--who opposed it, as well.
When it was reauthorized in 2006, the vote in the House was 390-33,
and it passed the Senate unanimously. President Reagan had signed a
previous reauthorization. President Bush signed this one, and that was
just 20 years ago. What has happened to the country since then?
I will say this: We all know that the vote is the most powerful tool
in a democracy. We all know that there are challenges to votes, voting
ability, and voting rights across the country. We have disagreements, I
suppose, with our Republican colleagues about some of that, but we need
to make sure we remain vigilant and keep working hard to protect those
rights.
I had a chance over the weekend to do a couple of things. Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I had a chance to visit churches and
groups that were celebrating Dr. King, remembering Dr. King. I went to
First Baptist Church of Highland Park, Faith Temple No. 2, and the AKAs
had a day of service that I was happy to attend and have a chance to
speak to them, worship with them, and work with them.
{time} 1950
They are all concerned about where the country is going and the
challenges to American democracy and the civil rights movement that
gave us the rights that we have today.
I think it is critical for us to remember a couple of things. One is
the work continues, no doubt. I have strong disagreements, to say the
least, with the current administration, and I commit myself to fighting
against the excesses and the wrongs that are going on there.
On Friday, I went with a group of Democrats to Minnesota to deal with
the protests there, to see them firsthand. They reminded me in some
ways of the civil rights protests from back in that era, the protests
in Selma that led to the Voting Rights Act passage, the protests in
Birmingham. The violence is shocking. People are dying. The shooting of
Renee Good is just one example of those that has reached the media
attention, but there are more of these going on all across the country.
I saw clips of people and heard their testimony, people who were
dragged out of cars, people who were citizens but were still arrested
anyway and taken to the ICE detention center and not released for
hours, people who were denied the right to call for an attorney, people
who were denied the basic constitutional rights that my colleague from
Virginia was talking about.
We have got to make sure we turn that around. We have got to make
sure that we protect the rights that the civil rights movement was
about defending and even beyond that the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth
Amendment, all of those things were put in place 250 years ago, which
is the anniversary we are about to celebrate later this year, and
rightly so.
We are not a perfect country. We are not a perfect nation, but we
have been called to a perfect mission. We need to fulfill that mission.
I think it is important to wrap up with this. Dr. King's dream, kids
learn about it in school now, and they see the replays, but in some
ways the dream has become a memory for many. I think it is important
for us to recall that the dream is not a memory, it is a mandate. It is
a mission. It is a movement that we need to continue to make sure we
get that work done that Dr. King died for and so many others died for,
as well.
I thank my colleague again for putting on this event tonight, giving
us a chance to remember Dr. King and think about the civil rights
movement and where we are going as a nation. I want to continue to
fight alongside her and all my colleagues with the Congressional Black
Caucus and my colleagues here in the House of Representatives on both
sides of the aisle as we work to get this done.
Ms. McCLELLAN. I thank Congressman Ivey for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, you see behind me a quote from Dr. King that he gave in
an interview in 1967 where he talks about how in many ways the dream
that he articulated in the march on Washington had become a nightmare.
Most people are surprised by that.
Why did it become a nightmare?
It became a nightmare because after the victories of the Civil Rights
Act, after the victory of the Voting Rights Act, when he really began
to address the systemic issues facing this country of poverty, of
hatred, of war, he began to see how deeply ingrained in American
culture racism really was.
He began to see that the systemic racism couldn't just be overcome
with laws. I think for many African Americans today that is the
heartbreak that we face. When Dr. King spoke at the march on
Washington, he said that in many ways the marchers had come to collect
on a promissory note in our Declaration of Independence written 250
years ago, which promised that all men were endowed by their creator
with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. Thomas Jefferson didn't mean all men. He didn't include the
men, women, and children that he owned, including his children and the
mother of those children.
When James Madison, the architect of the Constitution wrote the
Virginia Plan that led to the Constitution in the beginning, ``We the
people . . . in order to form a more perfect Union'' and laid out a
vision of government by, of, and for the people, it didn't include all
the people.
My ancestors, our ancestors here in the Congressional Black Caucus,
weren't even deemed people. They were deemed three-fifths of a person
for purposes of apportionment. They were treated as property and in
some cases animals.
We have a country that was literally built on the backs of a whole
race of people with an ideal that was revolutionary: it said the power
of government derives from the people.
My ancestors believed in that ideal just as much as yours, Mr.
Speaker, but it took us a long time to participate in that government,
in that promise. That is what the civil rights movement was about.
It was also about recognizing the basic decency and dignity of every
human being, regardless of where they are born, regardless of how they
worship, regardless of the color of their skin.
We still have a long way to go, because what diversity, equity, and
inclusion recognizes is that when the Civil Rights Act and the Voting
Rights Act and all of the laws that were passed because of the work of
Dr. King, they weren't a magic wand that erased over 300 years of the
impact of slavery and Jim Crow. That requires intention, intentional
unwinding to recognize that you have people like my mother's family,
who her parents, her brothers, and her sisters didn't go to school
beyond the eighth grade because the State of Mississippi didn't find it
important to educate Black children, and while the Catholic church did,
they only educated Black children until the eighth grade. Their
opportunities were limited.
You had neighborhoods like Jackson Ward that I represent that was
once the Harlem of the South, decisions were made to cut that
neighborhood in half by a highway and segregate part of that
neighborhood away from everything that they needed. Those were
intentional decisions that were made rooted in this community doesn't
matter.
[[Page H946]]
So, part of the nightmare has been the very things used to try to
erase the legacy of Jim Crow and slavery have now been weaponized
against that progress. When you see the President of the United States
deride the very things used to try to eradicate the legacy of Jim Crow
and slavery to divide again, to wedge, to sow division, it is as old as
time.
The history of this country has been every time we make progress
towards the ideal, there is backlash, and it involves three things:
violence, propaganda, and voter suppression.
My great-grandfather lived through the first backlash. He was a man
born on a plantation. His parents were enslaved. He exercised his right
to vote after he was given a literacy test. He got all the questions
right, and he heard the registrar say--and this is the only time you
will hear me use this word is in a direct quote--``I need more
questions because this nigger got them all right.'' He was on a list,
do not register this man to vote.
{time} 2000
My parents saw the second backlash to the civil rights movement. We
are in the third backlash now.
What the backlash involves is propaganda that breaks up coalitions,
whether it was a coalition of previously enslaved Black men and poor
nonlandowning Whites who came together during Reconstruction to rebuild
this Nation, the backlash to that involved racial terror lynching, or
the lie of white supremacy and a rash of voter suppression laws that
completely ignored the 14th and 15th Amendments.
The backlash in the civil rights movement of Dr. King was a Southern
strategy that intentionally carved a wedge between Black and White
communities--it was intentional in order to suppress the vote--and the
murder of our leaders who fought to change those laws and to change the
system.
We are in that backlash right now. We have a choice, and Dr. King
spelled it out. We decide where we go from here.
We decide: Is it more chaos, division, hatred, propaganda, violence,
voter suppression, and tyranny where we pit one group against another
to stay in power?
That is one choice.
Dr. King gave his life for community where we come together, where we
work together, and where we uplift each other. We care for one another,
we love one another, and we live up to the ideal upon which this
country was founded.
He died for that because it meant some people found that idea
dangerous.
We, the Congressional Black Caucus, stand here today recommitted to
making his dream a reality. We won't give in to the nightmare. We will
not give in to the chaos. Not only will we fight the chaos, we will
fight for community. We can't do it alone.
Just like the civil rights movement during Reconstruction and just
like the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, it required
people coming together from all walks of life putting aside hatred and
division and loving their neighbor and their enemy. We can do that. We
need a little love today. We need a little light in the darkness. We
need community in the midst of the chaos.
We have to do it because while we are fighting the same fights that
our parents, our grandparents, and our great-grandparents fought, we
cannot leave those fights to our children, our grandchildren, or our
great-grandchildren if we expect this country to survive.
That is because what Dr. King also recognized was that now human
beings hold the power to destroy each other and to destroy this planet.
If we don't get ahold of our hatred, then a lot of lives will be
destroyed.
That is not what Dr. King wanted. That is not what people elect us to
do. They elect us to help people and solve problems. They elect us to
focus on community. Let's not give into the chaos.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________