[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 3, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H2343-H2344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING VIRGIN ISLANDS HISTORY MONTH

  (Ms. Plaskett of the Virgin Islands was recognized to address the 
House for 5 minutes.)
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Virgin 
Islands history month, a time to honor the extraordinary story of a 
people whose courage, resilience, and sacrifice have shaped not only 
our beautiful islands but this great Nation itself.
  One hundred and eight years ago, on March 31, 1917, the islands of 
St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John were transferred from Denmark to 
the United States in the costliest per-acre land purchase in American 
history. The 25 million in gold bullion paid for our islands was 
shipped to Copenhagen from the United States. No provisions were made 
for the people who lived there. No vote was taken by the Virgin 
Islanders themselves.
  Many great nations and conquerors have tried to keep us voiceless and 
marginalized. Yet, good, strong, blessed people can never be kept down. 
We have always found a way, from our beginning until today.
  Virgin Islanders have always been revolutionary. From the very first 
recorded history of our islands, the people of Ay-Ay, present-day St. 
Croix, met Columbus with the first armed resistance in the so-called 
New World.
  In the 1700s the Akwamu people of St. John took and held their 
freedom for almost a year, forcing colonial powers to bring an armada 
to break their hold. In 1848, we became one of only two places in the 
Western Hemisphere to gain freedom through the direct and violent 
overthrow of enslavement.
  Our islands gave this Nation Alexander Hamilton, who learned his 
genius for finance in the merchant house of St. Croix, from the African 
counting systems, Dutch ledgers, and others. We have given the United 
States Abraham Markoe, the designer of the 13 stripes in the American 
flag. Denmark Vesey gave up his freedom in pursuit of liberation in 
South Carolina. We have also given the United States Edward Wilmot 
Blyden, our son, the father of Pan-Africanism; Camille Pissarro, the 
founder of Impressionism; and William Leidesdorff, the early pioneer 
and founder of present-day San Francisco.
  In the mid-1900s, Virgin Islanders came to Washington and petitioned 
to be included in the draft, asking to send our sons to defend a 
country that would not yet defend us. We have given America generals, 
diplomats, statesmen, scientists, artists, and athletes.
  We have sacrificed in military service at three times the national 
average, fighting for a commander-in-chief we do not elect.
  I am a limited voting Delegate. I serve on committees. I fight for my 
constituents. I show up every single day. However, when the final vote 
is called on legislation that will directly affect my people, the 
people of the Virgin Islands, I cannot cast that vote. We are full 
Americans in responsibility but partial Americans in right. That must 
change.
  Our territory has faced enormous challenges. Hurricanes Irma and 
Maria devastated our infrastructure, tested the will of our people. We 
still rebuild.
  We are fighting for SSI expansion so that elderly and disabled Virgin 
Islanders receive the same Federal safety net their fellow Americans on 
the mainland receive. We are fighting for inclusion of territories in 
Federal programs that every other American takes for granted. We are 
fighting, as we have always fought, for the full promise of an American 
Dream to extend to our shores.
  We have tools now that our ancestors did not: Federal investments in 
our ports, our energy grid, our schools, community project funding, and 
a growing network of advocates. But tools are only as powerful as the 
hands that wield them.
  As we observe Virgin Islands History Month, I want to speak directly 
to every Virgin Islander. We are the descendants of people who refuse 
to accept their circumstances as permanent. We are the heirs of a 
revolutionary tradition that predates this Republic, and we have the 
power to reimagine and rebuild a Virgin Islands that our ancestors 
would recognize as worthy of everything they endured.
  That means engaging fully in our Democracy at every level. It means 
electing leaders who will fight for territorial equity. It means our 
young people pursuing education and eventually

[[Page H2344]]

returning home to lead. It means our businesses innovating, our farmers 
growing, artists creating, community organizations building, and it 
means a local government managing systems that work for all and not 
just benefit a few. It means demanding loudly, persistently with 
history behind us and without cowering for fear that this Nation treat 
the people of the territories as full and equal American citizens we 
are.
  Mr. Speaker, let us celebrate in our actions Virgin Islands History 
Month.

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