[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3158]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, Dr. Carter G. Woodson was the son of 
former slaves. He believed passionately that the solution to injustice 
was education. If Americans from different backgrounds could learn to 
see our similarities and appreciate our differences, he believed, we 
could end the fear that is at the heart of racial discrimination.
  So, in February 1926, Dr. Woodson proposed the first Negro History 
Week as a way to preserve African American history and promote greater 
understanding among all Americans. Over the years, as the civil rights 
movement progressed, Negro History Week evolved into what we now know 
as Black History Month.
  This month, as our nation once again pauses to reflect on the 
achievements and experiences of African Americans, we celebrate the 
birthdays of several renowned leaders, including Frederick Douglass, 
Rosa Parks, and Barbara Jordan. We also celebrate the founding 90 years 
ago of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 
one of this century's most powerful engines for social and economic 
justice.
  It is right and fitting that we acknowledge such famous people and 
important milestones. But it is also important to recall the 
contributions of other African Americans who were less well known, but 
who contributed much to their communities. Today I want to pay tribute 
to two such men from my home state of South Dakota: Oscar Micheaux and 
Ross Owens.
  Oscar Micheaux was a gifted, early filmmaker who settled in Gregory, 
South Dakota, in the early 1900s. His company, the Micheaux Film 
Corporation, was responsible for producing films that ran counter to 
Hollywood's negative portrayal of African Americans at that time.
  Ross Owens was a 1925 graduate of my alma mater, South Dakota State 
University. Not only was he inducted into SDSU's Athletic Hall of Fame, 
but his masters thesis, ``Leisure Time Activities of the American Negro 
Prior to the Civil War'', became a classic in African American history 
and physical education.
  One can only wonder what else Mr. Micheaux and Mr. Owens might have 
achieved had they been born later, after the civil rights movement 
toppled many of the barriers to equality that existed during their 
lifetimes.
  Today, thanks to the vision of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Thurgood Marshall and John Lewis, as well as countless other Americans 
whose names are less well known but whose courage was no less real, 
many of those barriers are gone. Our nation no longer tolerates legal 
discrimination. We no longer permit injustices like poll taxes, 
``separate but equal'' schools, and segregated public facilities. We 
have moved closer to that ideal on which our nation was founded: that 
all men--and women--are created equal. And we are all better for it.
  Today, as our country thrives, millions of African Americans are 
sharing the benefits of the best economy in decades. But not all 
African Americans have been given the opportunity to share in America's 
economic progress. Not all of the barriers have been torn down. There 
is still work to be done. As we prepare to enter the new century, we 
must remain committed to equal educational opportunity, and economic 
and social justice--for all Americans.
  This month, as we celebrate Black History Month, let us recall the 
words of the poet Langston Hughes, who wrote of a land ``where 
opportunity is real, life is free, and equality is in the air we 
breathe.'' And let us rededicate ourselves to finishing the task of 
establishing that land here, in the United States.

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