[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6170-6177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PARTICIPATE IN REENACTMENT OF SELMA-TO-MONTGOMERY 
                           CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, with me on the House floor I have a number 
of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, 
who experienced a marvelous journey to Selma, Alabama, a few weeks ago 
to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the great march led by Dr. King 
and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) to end racism and bigotry 
across this country.
  We had nearly 20 Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle 
that traveled to Selma and Birmingham and Montgomery. What I would like 
to do is ask all of my colleagues who are here to take various stations 
and we

[[Page 6171]]

could have a conversation on the floor without the formal proceeding of 
yielding to other Members.
  Madam Speaker, I guess I should first recognize my good friend and 
brother, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), elected the same year 
as I, who helped lead us on that march, as we did last year as well, 
giving so many of us the experience of walking in the shoes of those 
that had gone before. It was an experience that I have to say I will 
never forget.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Upton) my friend, my brother, and my colleague, for 
being the co-leader of this delegation traveling from Washington to 
Birmingham where we had an opportunity to visit the Civil Rights 
Museum, the Sixteenth Street Church that was bombed on September 15th, 
1963, where the four little girls were killed, and to visit the park 
where they used the dogs and the fire hoses against little children.
  We then traveled, as the gentleman suggested, on to Montgomery and 
then to Selma. During that entire trip in the State of Alabama, we were 
in the district of the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard) and we 
should take the moment to thank him for his hospitality and thank all 
of our colleagues.
  This trip was sponsored by Faith and Politics, a group that comes 
together here in Washington where we have been meeting for some time 
discussing the whole question of race, having a dialogue on race. We 
have been doing it here, in our districts, in our offices, in our 
homes. We did it on this trip and we are going to continue to do it.
  So I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Upton) for bringing us together tonight. Maybe the gentleman from 
Alabama would have something to say, since we were in his district in 
Alabama.
  Mr. HILLIARD. Madam Speaker, let me first of all thank all of my 
colleagues for coming to Alabama. I am very happy that we got a chance 
to participate in the reenactment of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. I 
hope, and I am certain that it did bring feelings different from what 
they would have felt elsewhere unless they had been with John Lewis and 
others on the actual march.
  We still march for equality in this country, and the participation of 
my colleagues in that march brought forth the idea that there are still 
things that are imperfect about this country. But the fact that all of 
my colleagues came and all participated let me know, and hopefully let 
America know, that all of my colleagues are on the job, that they are 
trying to make this country a better place, and realize that we still 
have got a distance to go.
  So we were very happy to have our fellow Members of Congress in the 
State of Alabama, have them participate in the reenactment of something 
that meant so much to this country and something that had our 
colleagues of 3 decades ago to look at themselves and reexamine the 
state of discrimination in this country and make changes. Because we 
were there, I hope we will reexamine how things are, and any changes 
that are necessary, we will make them.
  Mr. LaHOOD. Madam Speaker, it was obviously a real treat for me to 
participate. I think of all of the activities, actually being in Selma 
and being with John Lewis and the reenactment of the crossing of the 
Edmund Pettis Bridge is something that I will never forget. I think 
that was for me the highlight of the trip.
  Then also I think recognizing that we serve in the House with so many 
different personalities and different people. And even though I have 
known John Lewis for a period of time, I guess I did not really 
recognize the kind of hero that he is to so many people in the movement 
in really striving for better race relations and improving civil 
rights. To have the opportunity to be with him that weekend and to have 
him really walk us through what happened during that period I think 
sensitizes all of us to the importance of those events in terms of 
really standing on the shoulders of people who were there and 
sensitizing us to the importance of better race relations and what 
happened there in terms of the movement.
  Then having the opportunity to hear from Mrs. Martin Luther King, who 
joined us on that Sunday morning, and hearing from her was just an 
extraordinary experience.
  Madam Speaker, I have taken the occasion to actually go back to my 
own district earlier this week. As a matter of fact, a few days ago I 
met with the African-American leaders in my own community, the head of 
the NAACP, the head of a couple of other African-American 
organizations. I talked to them about our experience and talked to them 
about what we can do as leaders in our community in Peoria to improve 
race relations.
  So I am really trying to build on the experience that we had, that 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) provided to us, and that all of 
the folks at Faith and Politics provided.
  I think I want to conclude by saying a special thanks to Doug Tanner 
for really helping to organize these activities. Doug is here in the 
Chamber with us tonight and has done just an extraordinary job of 
helping to organize all of us around people like the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and 
others to make this happen.
  Madam Speaker, it is something I will never forget. I hope to build 
on it in my own community, and I hope we can build it as Members here 
in the House. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership and 
for the ability of all of us to join him and share the experience that 
he shared with us. And a special thanks to Doug Tanner for all that he 
does to sort of enlighten all of us and give us an experience that I 
know many of us will never forget.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, this was a great trip in that all of us 
here, 20 or so that went down on both sides of the aisle, I thought 
became much stronger friends as we renewed our commitment to end racism 
and bigotry and discrimination. And as much as we thought we knew each 
other on the trip, we always learn something new.
  I have been in a little prayer group with the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Filner), and it was only until we got on the bus and my 
wife and I were sitting in front of Bob and his wife and we sort of 
talked about our experiences that I thought when I was in the mid-'60s 
when this event really happened, I did not know about it. I was in 
fourth grade. I did not see that on the news. I did not watch the news 
when I was in the fourth grade.
  It came out in the description, as I was listening to the gentleman 
from California, and he was talking about a variety of different events 
and seeing different things unfold, that I learned that he had been a 
student in college and had seen some of the events and actually took it 
upon himself to come down and become, in essence, one of the Freedom 
Riders on one of those buses.
  I know that it was a marvelous experience for him. He actually spent 
some time in prison because of it. And this was his first trip back to 
Alabama since then. I would love to hear a little bit of the 
gentleman's thoughts firsthand tonight.
  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan, and I 
thank all of us for being able to put this together. I wish those who 
were viewing this from their offices and from around the country could 
see that we are a bipartisan group standing on both sides of the aisle.
  Mr. UPTON. We like having the gentleman from California on this side 
of the aisle. We will keep working on it.
  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, seeing the world from the right is a very 
different perspective. But it is clear that we all see this as not only 
a bonding experience for all of us, but to come together around the 
issues of fighting discrimination and ending racism is something that 
bonds us all together. There is no aisle when it comes to these issues.
  And like all of the other Members who were on this incredible weekend 
pilgrimage, we thank especially John Lewis for leading us in a 
religious experience. We were with, I think we all

[[Page 6172]]

know, an authentic American hero, someone who really changed American 
history, changed the course of history through his own personal 
witness, his willingness to stand up for righteousness and for the 
truth and against racism; who was beaten down, was imprisoned, and yet 
got up and is here in Congress to lead us into a new understanding.
  Madam Speaker, we thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), all 
of us, for reliving those experiences.
  The changes that I saw, and I had not been in Alabama for 30 years, 
were incredible political changes, social changes. It reminded us of 
the progress that we made, but it also reminded us I think of the ways 
we have got to go.
  We were in Selma, and a small town takes a long time to change. We 
saw how changes had to be made there. But what struck me as someone who 
had been there 30 years ago was the incredible courage that was 
evidenced, the tremendous courage evidenced by the young people and the 
older people at that time. I got to go back to college after a summer 
in jail. People had to stay there and take the hardship and the 
challenge and the threats of death.
  Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FILNER. I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina.
  Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, I did not interrupt the gentleman except 
for the single purpose of pointing out what he was about to point out 
himself. The gentleman very correctly recognized John Lewis as a great 
American hero. However, the gentleman from California was humble in not 
pointing out the fact, explicitly I think, that he himself was pretty 
heroic, a Freedom Rider, 3 months, 6 months in prison in Mississippi. 
For those of us who grew up in the South, that is a stirring 
testimonial.
  We are proud and I could see when we were down there that he was, I 
hope, pleased to see that some of the things that he fought for have 
come to fruition. A long way to go still, but the world is a much 
greater place because of the sacrifices that he and John Lewis made.
  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South Carolina 
(Mr. Spratt) for his remarks.

                              {time}  2045

  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, one of the individuals that we had wished 
had been with us for the full time but was with us for certainly a good 
part of it was the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Dickey). All of us here 
participated in many discussions and conferences, not only with the 
White House but with other folks, not only in this town but across the 
country. The gentleman from Arkansas has been a special help on this, 
and his heart is big, and we appreciate that.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Dickey).
  Mr. DICKEY. Madam Speaker, the thing that I wanted to point out has a 
lot to do with the age of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) at 
the time and my age at the time. He was in the fourth grade. I was 17 
years of age when in Arkansas we had the tragedy of Little Rock 
Central, or the Little Rock High School crisis.
  I know that I was going to college during that time and had to pass 
back and forward through Little Rock exactly during that time. I had a 
profound lesson that I learned on this trip because of my insensitivity 
back then. I just started playing it through. I watched as everything 
happened there and how many brave and heroic young people were leading 
the attack against bigotry and against hatred, and I thought about my 
own self.
  I was not but about three, two years younger than the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis), and there he was. He cared enough to sacrifice. I 
thought about this as we were going from church to church and where 
they had their meetings in preparation for the walks, how they never 
did know, they did not know enough about the society or about the 
opposition to know whether they were going to survive or not.
  They were not interested whether or not they would be successful. 
They were only interested in proposing and pushing the issue of 
fairness and civil rights. I thought that was a significant, a 
significant message that I learned.
  I also sat across the street on the bus and looked at the spot that 
Rosa Parks got on the bus, the very point. We were told that she was 
not a part of any organized effort. She had just reached the point 
where she had said enough is enough; I am not going to put up with it 
anymore. Look what happened. She was not a young person at the time, 
but she was brave. She was brave because she did not count what the 
consequences might be.
  I mean death was at near hand for all of these people, and that is 
just hard to understand. I mean here in the United States, it was like 
battle lines were drawn, and people stepped out and they were beaten 
like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) was beaten as he finished 
crossing the bridge.
  I think what it all amounts to and what I learned from it is that 
these people sacrificed so much so that a person like myself, who was 
possibly calloused by being from a privileged family, could feel better 
about ourselves.
  I want to thank you for what you did, all of you who sacrificed then, 
and particularly I want to thank my colleagues for including me in this 
trip because it did me a lot more good than I ever imagined.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, one of our great Members that accompanied 
us was the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton). I would be 
happy to hear some of her comments.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Madam Speaker, for me it was an opportunity to 
reconnect and to be revived. I think sometimes we live through an 
experience and do not know all the details, but we think we know them.
  For me to go back and actually see the places for the first time, as 
a person who was active in civil rights, not in Alabama but my own 
little local area, to understand how profound those individuals had to 
be, how courageous they had to be, and how significant their 
involvement meant in terms of progress, and how the gentleman from 
Arkansas (Mr. Dickey) said that Rosa Parks was an average person who 
did an extraordinary thing, and how that extraordinary thing on the 
part of ordinary people meant just a difference in the Americans' 
response.
  I think the other thing that was good for me, and I want to thank the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Upton) as well, is bringing those of us who are more experienced in the 
civil rights group together and those who never have been involved.
  Those of us who think of ourselves as experienced sometimes get a 
little calloused. We kind of forget the significance of the battles 
that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) did or others did or Rosa 
Parks did. We kind of need to be revived. So for me it was a revival 
and a motivation.
  The thought I had going back home at the 'hood was not so much I need 
to do it with my white citizens as well, but I needed to do it for my 
children who are now adults. I needed to do it with my friends, in fact 
for them to really have an appreciation of what a profound history 
there is.
  My colleagues are right. It was indeed a spiritual awakening. It is a 
sense that all those kids who were attacked, you know, there is a 
prophetic history of the divine intervention. There is a whole theory 
called God of history; and that there is intervention of how the divine 
uses ordinary people to move people in authority in such a way that 
could not be moved by people in authority. So in some ways, we need to 
understand what that means, that ordinary people can make a difference.
  I thank my colleagues for including me, and I hope that, if I do not 
go back the next time, that many of our colleagues will have the 
experience. But we ought to just share with people the opportunity of 
having this kind of revival and motivation and appreciation for a sense 
of history.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) was 
an active member with our group going down, and again, for me, was one 
of the first times I actually had a chance to have lengthy and decent 
conversations with a naval representative

[[Page 6173]]

from Arkansas. It was terrific to have him on board, too.
  Mr. BERRY. Madam Speaker, all of us that participated in the trip 
came away with a new appreciation for what happened in Selma, 
Montgomery, and Birmingham. We are very appreciative of the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and certainly the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis) for making it possible for us to experience that.
  When I first came to the House, one of the first people that extended 
the hand of friendship to me was the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis). He shook my hand and he said, ``Welcome, my friend and my 
brother.'' I knew just from the way he shook your hand and the way he 
said it that he meant it.
  Until I went to Selma and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge arm-
in-arm with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I did not really 
appreciate what he meant or how important it was that he did that.
  I suspect, had I been through some of the things that the gentleman 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and some of the others that were in the nonviolent 
civil rights movement at that time, I would not even want to be in the 
same room with a guy like me. I can understand that.
  But I think it says so much that we can come together, that we did 
make this pilgrimage, and it meant an awful lot to all of us. It shows 
us, not only how far we have come, but how far we have yet to go, and 
that we must never, ever forget that we cannot go back to what that 
was.
  I just once again want to thank all of my colleagues for their 
leadership: Doug Tanner, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), and 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  What a great privilege it was to be with the other leaders of the 
movement, Bernard Lafayette, many, many others that were there. To hear 
their experiences firsthand, it gave it all just so much more meaning. 
I think the term ``keep your eye on the prize'' certainly will always 
be much more meaningful to me now, and it points out to us how petty 
and unimportant some of these things we argue about on this floor are, 
and that there are things that are more important and that that is what 
we should be about.
  But it was a tremendous experience for me. I think that anyone that 
has not done it has really missed something.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
LaTourette) who joined us and helped us in every way.
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Madam Speaker, I want to add my voice to thank Doug 
Tanner and the Faith and Politics Institute for putting this trip 
together.
  I have been, since I have been here, a strong believer in the 
importance of Members on both sides of the aisle, I would say to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner), it is strange over here on the 
left side of the aisle too for me, as it is for him on the right, but I 
think when Members of both parties go out and see each other out of 
this room, good things happen.
  So I found it to be an enriching weekend from many standpoints. But 
just to have the opportunity to talk to Members who are not of my party 
and to get to know them as people, I think helps us do our work here. I 
think that is important.
  What actually piqued my interest on this trip, I heard the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Filner) at the Hershey retreat a couple years ago 
during the nondenominational church services describe his experience. 
It is his story, and I am not going to take it from him. But basically 
there are three Members of his party that were all involved in this 
movement at the same time in the 1960s, and they had some differences 
in points of view.
  The fact that they not only came together years later to serve in the 
United States Congress but in the same political party, I think to me 
that story, I have carried that story with me since he told it, for 3 
years, to show that there are no differences that cannot be bridged 
when one begins to work towards it.
  Like the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), I knew the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). I would sit as the Speaker pro tempore, and 
would I see the gentleman from Georgia come to the well and talk every 
once in a while. A lot of times he was talking about things that I did 
not agree with, but I did not know his rich history.
  To have the chance to walk in the footsteps with a true American hero 
like John Lewis was an amazing experience for me, just a kid growing up 
in Ohio. I will not forget that.
  We have all been gone over our Easter break in our districts. I took 
what I learned that weekend, and I visited a lot of schools because I 
like to spend time with my young people in my district.
  I was able to tell them the story about what some people had to go 
through to get the right to vote and the fact that John Lewis and 
people like John Lewis were willing to risk their lives, were willing 
to risk police dogs and fire hoses and everything else that could be 
thrown at them in the 1960s just to get the right that we all take for 
granted to go in and cast a ballot in a Presidential race or a 
congressional race or a city council race.
  So I was talking with some high school seniors, and I asked them, 
because we can register to vote at 18, how many are registered that are 
18; and only half of them were. It has given me a powerful incentive 
and a powerful message to go back and talk to them now about what 
people before them had to go through to get the right to vote and that 
they should not squander that opportunity.
  I was reminded of how far we have to go, but I was mostly reminded of 
the fact that we need to do it all together, Republicans and Democrats, 
black and white, men and women, rich and poor. A lot of times 
discussion in this Chamber is about dividing rather than bringing 
together. We need to concentrate more on finding the things that unite 
us. When we do that, I think that we can move forward.
  If the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) will permit me, I have one 
quick story that I was reminded of when we were in Alabama, about one 
of our Presidents, Harry Truman. We all go door-to-door in our 
campaigns. As the story goes, he ran into a nasty homeowner one day and 
stuck out his hand and said, ``I am Harry Truman, and I would like your 
vote.'' The woman would not come from behind the door. She said, ``Mr. 
Truman, I know exactly who you are, and I would not vote for you if you 
were Saint Peter himself.'' Mr. Truman, for a Democrat, he had pretty 
quick wit. He said, ``Madam, with all due respect, if I were Saint 
Peter, I do not think you would be in my district.''
  It occurred to me when we were down in Alabama that this is one 
district, the United States is one district, and we need to figure out 
what it is that is going to pull us together more than anything else.
  So I was very thankful to spend those three days with all of my 
colleagues, and I was most appreciative to have the chance to spend 
that time with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North 
Carolina (Mr. Watt) who was a great fellow to join us with his wife as 
well on the trip as we crossed the State.

                             {time}   2100

  Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I was seated here 
listening to the stories and thinking about what this trip meant to me. 
Let me start by just thanking the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), 
our leader, our primary leader, and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Upton), our co-leader on this trip. It was a wonderful, wonderful 
experience.
  My colleagues will probably recall that at the end of the trip when 
we were at the airport about to board the plane from Alabama, we had a 
little debriefing, a discussion, and everybody was going around talking 
about what this trip had meant. And I sat quietly and never said 
anything because I was still sorting through the emotions I was feeling 
and the significance of this trip.
  And it took me several weeks really to kind of put in perspective 
some feelings. And this is kind of where I got to at the end of that 
vexing period.

[[Page 6174]]

  I was reminded that in 1963, I got a scholarship offer to Talladega 
University in Alabama. And I came to that fork in the road. I had never 
been to Alabama. And when I looked at the scholarship offer that I had 
gotten, I decided that probably the last place in the world I wanted to 
go was Alabama in 1963.
  And I have been true to that up to this trip. I never set foot in 
Alabama. It was not a place that I ever aspired to go to to visit. I 
had these images of people being beaten and fire-hosed and dogs sicced 
on folks. All these years since 1963, those images have lingered in my 
mind, and I never have wanted to go to Alabama. And I finally got 
talked into it by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the 
wonderful people from Faith and Politics, my good friend over here.
  Now, another part of me kept saying, well, why did I not want to go 
to Alabama? I mean, North Carolina, which is where I am from, is in the 
south also. And I think I came to grips with some fears that I had 
about going to Mississippi and Alabama and Arkansas, the far southern 
States, where this movement was taking place. I think I decided that 
part of the reason that I never wanted to go there was that I was 
afraid to go there.
  I knew that there were battles to be fought in North Carolina, but I 
felt like the people in North Carolina were more progressive than the 
people in Alabama and Mississippi. And so I came away from this trip 
really with an increased amount of admiration for the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  I wrote him a letter. It took me 3 or 4 weeks to write the letter to 
him because I wanted to say exactly what I wanted that note to him to 
say. And what I wanted to say to him was that there were those of us in 
all areas of the south who were kind of around the margins of the civil 
rights movement, doing little bits and pieces of things here and there, 
and then there were those like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) 
and Fred Shuttlesworth who were right in the middle of this heated 
battle and making what very easily could have been the ultimate 
sacrifice, and was in fact for the young girls in Alabama and for other 
people who participated in those movements.
  I already loved and respected the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). 
I had read his book. I had heard about him. I had seen him on 
television. But to be there in Alabama and to walk and ride through 
that State where I now believe I was fearful of going allowed me to 
come away with an even greater appreciation for those who are on the 
firing line and making that ultimate sacrifice.
  And so, I want to say publicly and with all sincerity that I thank 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). And I thank all of those 
thousands of people, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) 
and all of those people who were not fearful, or even if they were, 
they overcame those fears and they went and they made that sacrifice, 
because it has made America what it is today and it has certainly made 
it possible for us all to stand here and share these experiences, black 
and white, Republican and Democrat, and to say to America that when it 
comes to a unity of purpose and all of us being Americans, there is no 
argument about that anymore. And in those days, there was an argument 
about it.
  We put that argument to rest, and we owe a great debt to the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for doing that.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Spratt).
  Mr. SPRATT. Madam Speaker, I shudder to follow that eloquence.
  The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) and I grew up 30 miles 
apart. He is from Charlotte, North Carolina. I am from York, South 
Carolina. Not Alabama, not Mississippi, but still the segregated south.
  I was 12 years old in 1954, about 18, 19, 20 years old when the civil 
rights movement started. And while York County was not the same as 
Neshoba, Mississippi, when the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) made 
his first stop in Rock Hill, South Carolina, 13 miles from where I live 
on the Freedom Rider bus, he was met by thugs in the bus station who 
took him on, took him down, and he received the first of I guess many 
batterings on the head, bloodied up badly.
  But here is the profound point about it and the reason this 
pilgrimage we made is so important to understanding ourselves as a 
people and understanding what this movement is about. A police officer, 
as I recall the story, had been standing on the sidelines watching the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) take the beating, and at some point 
he sort of interceded and asked him, do you want to prefer charges, 
which he could have done. And he said, no, I do not have anything 
against him individually. I am against the system, the oppression, the 
way it affects white people and black people, causes them to do things 
like this. I did not come down here to get this man in trouble. I came 
to lift us all out of this oppression.
  In that same city of Rock Hill, about the third or fourth series of 
sit-in strikes developed at the local McCrory's from a small, black 
Baptist college called Friendship College. It started more or less 
spontaneously, but they were following what was happening at North 
Carolina A&T and what was happening at Nashville. And they did the same 
thing in Rock Hill except they did something different.
  When they were taken to the county prison, which, believe me, the 
prison campus is not a place where anybody of any color would want to 
be, when they were taken there, they did not post bond; they took their 
toothbrushes with them and they stayed for the duration, 30 days.
  The significance of what they did was not appreciated by those of us 
who were outside onlookers. It was not appreciated by me until I read 
Taylor Branch's book. Because SNCC at that point was just about broke, 
they did not have money to send bail money up to get these young 
college students out of jail, and they developed a motto that would 
exonerate SNCC from having to come up with that money: ``Jail. No 
bail.''
  Now, my colleagues would think that that was just a bunch of hard-
headed college kids out to make a point. But the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Lewis), when I asked him about the significance of it, told me, 
no, that helped us show the world that we were not just a bunch of 
college kids out fighting for our rights, but it was something more 
profound here.
  There is a profoundness of doctrine about civil disobedience, a 
profoundness of doctrine about nonviolence that we all need to learn in 
this country today. And that is why this pilgrimage was more than just 
some symbolic journey. We all need to learn this.
  Every school child in America grows up and knows what Lexington Green 
is. He or she should also know what Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham is. 
Every school child in this country grows up and knows what Concord 
Bridge is in Massachusetts and what happened there. He or she should 
know what happened at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, too. It is a part of 
our history.
  And the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) put it far better 
than I. For 200 years just about, this country professed to be the 
greatest constitutional democracy in the world. We lived under a 
Declaration of Independence which guaranteed all men the pursuit of 
happiness, equality. But it was not true. The Supreme Court of this 
country said black people were not even people. The Constitution did 
not even count them.
  That was the kind of lie that this country lived. And these people, 
the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and so many others in these 
places, made America rise up and live out the true meaning of her 
creed. It was an enormous accomplishment. It was a second American 
Revolution. No question about it.
  Back when the Friendship Nine went to the county prison and stayed 
there, told SNCC they did not want bail, one of the early organizers of 
the movement in Nashville, Diane Nash, was in Atlanta; and she was so 
moved by what they did that she drove her car to Rock Hill and got 
picked up at McCrory's and taken to the county jail, and she

[[Page 6175]]

stayed there with them just to give them the spirit to persevere.
  She said something about the movement once when someone had made a 
paean to Dr. King, who was truly an American hero, no doubt about it. 
She said, do not make him superhuman. Do not enlarge him beyond the 
point that he is bigger than life itself. Because if you do, she said, 
you will misunderstand the meaning of the movement.
  There were all kinds of people involved in the movement. Rosa Parks 
stands for the kind of participation that made the movement work, young 
members like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), coming out of a 
small rural community in Alabama and just following their gut 
instincts. We made the movement. These people made the movement.
  And if we understand that, and that is part of what we understand 
when we go to Selma and Birmingham and Montgomery, if we understand 
that, we realize that we do not need some big Messianic figure to come 
lead us down the path to the future; it is our responsibility, all of 
our responsibilities.
  And the abiding message in this experience is, we can change this 
country for the better and it is a responsibility of each of us to do 
it.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Forbes), a very special member of the delegation who has always spoken 
against discrimination and bigotry.
  Mr. FORBES. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. And I 
thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Upton) particularly for leading this delegation. It is an 
important time for all of us, I think, in this country.
  An old adage says that ``if you do not remember history, you are 
bound to repeat it.'' This is a little bit more than just remembering 
history, though. This is really asking us to dig deep within our soul, 
as so many who led the civil rights movement, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and some of the others that have been mentioned, 
Bernard Lafayette, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. King, literally hundreds of 
people who broke with conventional wisdom and said that we should reach 
deeper into America's soul and make this a better Nation.

                             {time}   2115

  For me it was really, going into my fifth year in the Congress, one 
of the most profound and emotional and important undertakings that I 
have done since I have been privileged to represent the First District 
of New York.
  During the 1960s, during the height of the civil rights endeavors, I 
was in my early teens, 11, 12, 13 years of age, and like my friend from 
North Carolina, I saw what was going on in Alabama and as a youngster I 
thought, ``That's not a place that I would ever want to be.'' But still 
it was very remote to me, not unlike unfortunately the images we were 
seeing in Vietnam. It was horrible. We were outraged. Our hearts were 
broken. But it was happening somewhere far, far away, and particularly 
for young people at that time, many who were challenged to move into 
leadership roles as they grew older themselves. There was a remoteness 
to that endeavor that I am embarrassed to admit. But I was privileged 
to be part of this delegation on the 34th anniversary of what happened 
at the Edmund Pettis Bridge that really was almost the apex of the 
civil rights struggle. It allowed me as just one Member of Congress to 
dig deep within my own being and to ask, ``Are we doing enough today to 
continue to correct the wrongs?'' We are in this wonderful body and we 
are all sent here ostensibly to meet the challenges, to make America a 
better place, to correct the wrongs that we see around us.
  I am moved tonight by the bipartisan spirit that engulfed us when we 
went to Selma, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama just a couple of weeks 
ago. It reminds me that as a Member of Congress, I take those lessons 
and those reminders back with me in a very real way. I am hopeful that 
as we move forward, that this one Member of Congress, being further 
sensitized to the need to understand that yes, we have come a long way 
since even the 1960s but we have not come far enough.
  As my friend from Ohio reminded me and all of us, that the key here 
is that we do it all together, that we figure out a way to meet the 
remaining challenges in this most wonderful Nation on the face of the 
earth, where people like John Lewis and other leaders could challenge 
the conventional wisdom and say, we can be a better place. And it is 
not about condemning what we are, it is challenging us to be better as 
we move forward as a Nation. And so I first of all again want to thank 
the Faith and Politics Institute, Reverend Tanner, Fred Upton, my good 
friend John Lewis and all of the Members who were part of that 
delegation, because you really made it a very real and moving 
experience for me and allowed me to take some valuable lessons from 
that experience. I will not only return for the 35th anniversary but 
also hopefully in my daily work as long as I have this privilege to try 
to be a better Member of Congress and work to meet the other challenges 
that we face.
  In closing, I would like to also thank the gentleman from Alabama 
(Mr. Hilliard) for his hospitality, the great way in which he received 
us and opened up his heart so that we could learn a little bit more 
about the wonderful Alabama that has come. I thank him for his 
leadership on this as well.
  Mr. HILLIARD. One of the things that I think I learned from this 
experience was the lessons that we get from being with one another, not 
in this Chamber but away. I got to know some of you who I had barely 
spoken to in the four terms that I have been in this body. That gave me 
an opportunity to learn and to know of you as individuals. That was so 
gratifying to me, because I know you as persons. I do not see you as 
just another Congressperson or just as a number, not as a Republican or 
as a Democrat but as a friend. I really appreciate having that long 
weekend, spending that long weekend with you and getting to know you as 
individuals.
  I would like to take the opportunity to invite you back for another 
long weekend for the millennium march. It will be bigger, it will be 
better, we will have more participants, and hopefully we will have many 
people who, like you, will see life as it is unfolding in the United 
States, a better place for all of us because of what John Lewis and so 
many others like him did in the past. Thank you for coming and you are 
welcome back to come in March of the year 2000.
  Mr. UPTON. Just prior to the gentleman from Alabama giving his 
statement there just now, a number of us asked our friend Doug Tanner 
and some others, I know that based on our pilgrimage, there will be a 
lot of us that would like to cosponsor legislation to make that little 
park just across the river by the real start of the Edmund Pettis 
Bridge a national park, a national shrine.
  We are looking for you to lead that effort as it is in your district, 
congressional courtesy. But if you wait too much longer, you are going 
to have some other people. We are offering that up, but I know a lot of 
us here, Republicans and Democrats, would like to cosponsor that effort 
and help you see that become a reality. As people gave their remarkable 
tales here on the floor tonight and what it meant to them, for some 
reason, about a little more than a year ago, John Lewis and maybe Amo 
Houghton and a few others, Jay Dickey, Doug Tanner, sort of had me on a 
list, and we got together down in a little room in the Capitol, EF-100, 
and we talked about racism and what we could do. We can always pass the 
laws, but until something really happens at the grassroots, nothing is 
really going to happen. We talked about a number of different 
resolutions that we were offering up. I think the gentleman from 
Georgia then was in the middle of writing his book and how we could 
come together. A couple of weeks later, he asked me on the House floor 
if I might make the pilgrimage to Selma in 1998. When he gave me the 
weekend, March 6, the first weekend, I knew that I had major 
commitments back home in Michigan, that I could not do it, but somehow 
we juggled some things around and I flew

[[Page 6176]]

down just for the day. I had never been to Alabama, ever. I flew down 
that Sunday morning, caught the first flight out at National Airport at 
6 a.m. or whatever, terrible storm, got down just in time to hear 
John's sermon in the church. His sermon reflected a little bit on who 
would have guessed, me, John Lewis, 33 years later, coming here to 
preach in the same church where Dr. King had preached and seeing some 
of the changes but knowing we had so far to go.
  We walked across the bridge, we took a bus ride, we had a long 
discussion about racism and bigotry and what it meant in our own lives. 
We came back. The gentleman then came back to my district. We had a 
tough scene this last summer. We had the Klan come to my district for 
the first time that I can ever remember. They were not welcome. Yet 
they had the right to come. As you and I both met with a number of 
leaders in my hometown, we discussed how we ought to deal with it. You 
went back to really sort of the roots of what you wrote about in your 
book and your life, about nonviolence, how we ought to make it a 
nonevent, and we did. And in the end, they canceled their visit the day 
that they were supposed to come, though they came a few months later, 
and they found out that there was no welcome wagon out and people for 
the most part ignored them. The reaction was perfect.
  As we thought about this trip this year, and Amo Houghton was the 
cochair last year, the Republican cochair along with Jim Nicholson, our 
Republican national chairman and the former governor of Colorado last 
year as well, I was privileged to be asked to cochair this group and 
really spend a night or two in Alabama, to have listened to the stories 
of so many Members last year when they talked about their meeting with 
Governor Wallace. I can remember Sherrod Brown and you going to visit 
him literally in, I do not know if it was a hospital or his room, but 
he was not doing so well. Of course he has passed away today. And the 
white Members were not anxious to have their picture taken with him, 
thinking about all of the efforts that Governor Wallace had done at the 
schoolhouse door and everyplace else. Yet you had forgiven him, peace 
in your heart. He knew that he had erred, he had asked for forgiveness 
and in fact he came around.
  As we read your book, John, and listen to your words, your wonderful 
words about leading the nonviolent effort, to see the courageous 
struggle that you went through and to visit the sites, whether they be 
in Montgomery or Birmingham, to see where Rosa Parks was taken off that 
bus, to look in the church where Dr. King first spoke or first became a 
minister, to see the shrine in the basement of the four wonderful, 
beautiful little girls who were killed with a bomb on a Sunday, to go 
through that wonderful museum in Birmingham, to see really, to touch 
the jail cell, to see the bombed-out bus that you and others had ridden 
at some point, to walk through that park, to see the dogs with their 
fangs out and to learn from Bernard Lafayette that in fact one of the 
German shepherds had a gold-plated tooth that the police riled up when 
he charged those kids.
  We are so thankful for the work that you did to really help change 
America for the better. The reason that this pilgrimage was so 
important was for us to know where we are going, we have got to know 
where we have been. We know where we have been now, those of us that 
were not from there, and we know that we never ever want to go back. 
Yet there is work that we have to do. As Republicans and Democrats, as 
Members in this Chamber and the other and across the country, we have 
to make sure that there is no room in our hearts for hatred, for 
bigotry or racism. It is your footsteps and it is your leadership and 
it is your grace that allowed us to see the path that you took that 
helps give us the conviction and the courage and the perseverance to 
continue that path.
  We are so appreciative of that love and of that work, John.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me thank my friend and colleague and each 
of you for all of the kind words and everything that you have said 
tonight. But you must keep in mind, I was only one participant in a 
struggle. It was a community of participants, not a leader but just one 
individual in a community of individuals participating in a movement. I 
think our trip has brought us closer together.
  I ran into Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. last Sunday at church. She 
said to me, ``John, I was so moved, I was deeply moved, I can never 
tell you how moved, to see all those Members of Congress in Selma, 
Alabama during the first weekend in March.''
  I think that is why we have to go back. I am glad our colleague, 
Congressman Earl Hilliard from Alabama, has extended an invitation for 
us to come back for the 35th anniversary of the march from Selma to 
Montgomery. We must go back. Because I think in this process, we help 
America to become a circle of brothers and sisters, what I like to 
call, really in the movement what we call a band of brothers and 
sisters, a circle of trust. We build a sense of community. We move 
toward that period and that place of laying down the burden of race. I 
think as we move into the next century, we have to be the leaders, 
saying that as a Nation and as a people, we must lay down the burden of 
race. It is too heavy a burden for us to bear. I think what we have 
displayed tonight with the help of our good friend Doug Tanner and 
Faith and Politics, that it is something that we can share, not just 
with each other but back in our districts, in our States and for the 
whole Nation. If we can build just pockets of the beloved community, 
here on Capitol Hill, here in Washington, maybe we can build it around 
America, and maybe we can bring peace to the world community.

                              {time}  2130

  Madam Speaker, I think we got to keep it going, and this should not 
be the end, it should be just the beginning.
  Mr. LaHOOD. Madam Speaker, I just want to say I know there are a lot 
of Members who are sitting in their offices reading mail and probably 
signing mail and doing all kinds of work, and what I would say:
  The invitation has been extended to Members for next year to go to 
Selma to celebrate the 35th anniversary, and if there are Members who 
care about race relations in America, and if there are Members who care 
about improving race relations in America, and if there are Members who 
care about really improving race relations in their own State, in their 
own district, I hope they will talk to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis) or any of the rest of us about the opportunity to go to Selma 
next year and celebrate, commemorate, the 35th anniversary. It is a 
great opportunity, and it is a great learning experience.
  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Dickey).
  Mr. DICKEY. I do not want my colleagues to leave yet. But I want to 
say something. All this talk about the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis), it has got some down sides to it, and let me just tell my 
colleagues what they are.
  If we build him up so much, he might choose to come into my district 
again and campaign against me. So what I want to say, John, is you are 
invited to come into Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on all of the even-numbered 
years, but I do not want you coming back again.
  And another point: The gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry), which 
makes two Arkansans that went on this trip; there was not any other 
State, is not another State that had two people. Or North Carolina it 
is? Excuse me. I will have to say that we matched North Carolina. But 
Marion also campaigned against me in the last election. I do not know 
what it is that is about me, but I want to be serious about it in this 
sense: that what we do politically does not matter; what we do with the 
heart does. And the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and I are 
connected in the heart, and I want to thank him for that.
  And I wanted to talk to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood).
  Mr. LaHOOD. There are actually two Members from Ohio, too, just to 
make sure.

[[Page 6177]]


  Mr. DICKEY. Is that right?
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Actually there were three Members from Ohio. Sherrod 
Brown, Tom Sawyer and I can tell you what it is about you that gets 
these guys in your district.
  Mr. DICKEY. Just because the gentleman is on that side of the aisle 
does not allow him to do that.
  Mr. LaHOOD. It has something to do with being from Arkansas. I think 
that is what he was getting at.
  Mr. UPTON. We had two Members from the great State of Michigan.
  Mr. DICKEY. I just wanted you all to chime in. That is the only 
reason I brought it up.
  I want to get into an exchange with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
LaHood) about how, what he thought of Southerners during this time, and 
I will chime in as well.
  Mr. LaHOOD. We only have 1 minute left, and I am afraid that it would 
not be enough time for me to explain what I think about Southerners.
  Mr. DICKEY. I am talking about at that time. I think we got another 
hour.
  Mr. UPTON. Does the gentleman from Georgia have the next hour? Is 
that right? I think we do, so we can go a few minutes, could we not?


                             General Leave

  Mr. UPTON. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members, 
and we had many Members on the trip that were not here tonight, may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on the subject of my special order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I am by profession an educator and a 
historian, and from March 5th to March 7th, not only did I become a 
student of our nation's civil rights history, I saw history come alive 
during the pilgrimage to Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. To be led by 
civil rights leader and my distinguished colleague, Representative John 
Lewis, was an honor in itself.
  The events which took place in Alabama were pivotal in our nation's 
civil rights movement. ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail,'' the 16th 
Street Baptist Church bombing and the Bloody Sunday march were crucial 
experiences to America's collective psyche. It was Martin Luther King, 
Jr., and his devoted supporters who forced Americans to acknowledge the 
injustices committed against our fellow American citizens.
  Race relations is extremely, if not more, relevant today. The painful 
lessons learned in Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma continue to be 
experienced by minority populations all over the United States. The 
struggle for political recognition and participation continues not only 
in the African-American populations, but now in the fast-growing 
Hispanic American and Asian Pacific Islander American groups. It is 
only in the past few decades that we have seen the mobilization of 
Hispanic and Asian Pacific Islander communities, and who knows what 
racial-oriented movements will awaken at the dawn of the next 
millennium. My point is that these movements are crucial to our 
nation's maturity and diversity, they are integral to our constant 
drive to faithfully implement the democratic principles on which our 
Constitution is based.
  I took my youngest son, Raphael, to Alabama, because I felt that it 
was crucial for young generations to learn the history of the civil 
rights struggle. The American people did not achieve the Voting Rights 
Act or establish the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice 
because these were the ``right'' things to do to help achieve equality 
in the United States. Our young adults must understand that it was 
through the toil, and sometimes blood, of courageous brothers, sisters, 
mothers, fathers, students and teachers who accomplished these feats.
  The people of Guam are going through our own civil rights struggle. 
We are American citizens, yet we are unable to vote for President. The 
opportunity to determine vote for our island's future political status 
has been stymied by numerous political and administrative obstacles.
  The Pilgrimage to Alabama would not have been made possible without 
the leadership of Congressman John Lewis and Congressman Fred Upton, 
without the efforts of Congressman Earl Hilliard, and without the 
sponsorship of the Faith and Politics Institute. I take this 
opportunity to thank them for their diligent efforts in ``keeping hope 
alive.''
  I encourage my colleagues to continue to learn from the lessons 
taught in Alabama.
  Mr. UPTON. I just want to again thank the Faith in Politics Institute 
and the wonderful leadership of Doug Tanner and a terrific staff who 
really planned hours and many weeks to get this thing done the right 
way, and it was done the right way, and I know that Members will be 
anxious to go next year and to expand our circles and to do whatever we 
can to help end the scourge of racism and bigotry across this land.

                          ____________________