[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17733-17737]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  RECOGNITION FOR SLAVE LABORERS WHO WORKED ON CONSTRUCTION OF UNITED 
                             STATES CAPITOL

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 368) establishing a special task 
force to recommend an appropriate recognition for the slave laborers 
who worked on the construction of the United States Capitol.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 368

       Whereas the United States Capitol stands as a symbol of 
     democracy, equality, and freedom to the entire world;
       Whereas the year 2000 marks the 200th anniversary of the 
     opening of this historic structure for the first session of 
     Congress to be held in the new Capital City;
       Whereas slavery was not prohibited throughout the United 
     States until the ratification of the 13th amendment to the 
     Constitution in 1865;
       Whereas previous to that date, African American slave labor 
     was both legal and common in the District of Columbia and the 
     adjoining States of Maryland and Virginia;
       Whereas public records attest to the fact that African 
     American slave labor was used in the construction of the 
     United States Capitol;
       Whereas public records further attest to the fact that the 
     five-dollar-per-month payment for that African American slave 
     labor was made directly to slave owners and not to the 
     laborer; and
       Whereas African Americans made significant contributions 
     and fought bravely for freedom during the American 
     Revolutionary War: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That--
       (1) the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 
     President pro tempore of the Senate shall establish a special 
     task force to study the history and contributions of these 
     slave laborers in the construction of the United States 
     Capitol; and
       (2) such special task force shall recommend to the Speaker 
     of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 
     of the Senate an appropriate recognition for these slave 
     laborers which could be displayed in a prominent location in 
     the United States Capitol.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Thomas) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas).
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to compliment and congratulate the 
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), my friend and my conference 
chairman; and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my friend and 
colleague on the Committee on Ways and Means; one, for the way in which 
this legislation has been put together; and, two, the time in which we 
have moved.
  It has now become better known that several months ago a local 
television reporter unearthed some United States Treasury Department 
pay slips that, strange as it may seem, allows us to have a better 
understanding of what went on in the early stages of the building of 
our Capitol. One would think that we would have as complete a 
documentation as any people could have.
  And yet what we found out was that those pay slips showed that there 
were slave owners who were paid for work in the building of the United 
States Capitol. Pretty obviously, the labor was not done by the slave 
owners. In fact, it was slaves that did the work, more than 400, which 
gives us an even more appropriate reason for recognizing the importance 
of this particular building, and a continued understanding of the true 
and honest history of the United States.
  The resolution would create a task force to study the history and 
contributions of those slave laborers. There has been some concern that 
the legislation is not real specific about the way in which this task 
force would be appointed, other than, according to the resolution, to 
have the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the 
Senate make the appointments. I would hope everyone understands that 
this is not to be a political task force. It is not to be some kind of 
political endeavor to make sure one is politically correct.
  The reason we wanted to have the task force was to reach out to those 
very appropriate professionals who would have knowledge and 
understanding to assist us in creating whatever the appropriate 
recognition might be, and we do not want to prejudge what will be 
presented to us, so that in a prominent location in the Capitol we can, 
one, give proper credit; two, recognize the fact that it occurred but, 
more importantly, understand better this particular building and the 
very human involvement in now yet another dimension not fully 
appreciated in the creation of our country.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  It is an appropriate and, at the same time, regrettable fact that I 
rise today in support of this resolution. It is appropriate because I 
am proud to join my colleagues in an attempt to recognize a terrible 
wrong, to shed light on a dark chapter in our Nation's history. Sad, 
because it is a shame that this resolution is even necessary. However, 
it is necessary; and I commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) 
and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), my colleagues, for their 
hard work in bringing this resolution to the floor.
  This resolution, as the chairman has pointed out, will establish a 
task force to recommend an appropriate recognition of the slave 
laborers who built the

[[Page 17734]]

United States Capitol. Not all of the workers were slaves. There were 
free men that worked by their side; but there were slaves who, as the 
chairman has pointed out, were not paid for their work; their owners 
were paid for their work. And their work helped build this Capitol.
  That sentence should shock all of our sensibilities. Yes, this temple 
of liberty was built, in part, on the backs of slave laborers.

                              {time}  1930

  That is a tragedy, and was a denial of the statement we made to all 
the world that we believed that all men were created equal and endowed 
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
  Notwithstanding the fact that we published that to the world, we 
continued slavery in America. Yes, we used slaves in part to build this 
Capitol. Those workers toiled in the hot D.C. summers to build this 
monument to freedom, the people's House, the freedom they did not have. 
Yet, they did not share in the promise of America. There was 
compensation, as has been pointed out: $5 a month to the owners.
  This tragic piece of our Nation's history needs to be explored and 
exposed. We often forget the proud history of slaves in the United 
States. The government denied them their freedom, but nobody could take 
away their dignity. They fought bravely in the Revolutionary War to 
secure our Nation's freedom, yet they were not free. After that noble 
effort, they worked to build a tribute to this Nation's ideals, this 
Capitol building, but they were denied the very freedom it symbolized.
  As a recent article in the Washington Post explains, little is known 
about the slaves. We know that for a time Phillip Reid, the only slave 
that we know the last name of, served as superintendent of the project, 
but the other slaves are known only by first names jotted in dusty 
ledgers.
  I hope this task force is able to uncover more details about these 
men who did backbreaking work for a nation that denied them their 
fundamental rights. We need to know more about George, Thomas, Harry, 
and Jerry, and all the others who built this temple to democracy and 
freedom. Without knowing more about their history, Mr. Speaker, our 
collective history, our Nation's history, will be forever incomplete.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  My colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), mentioned that 
we do know for sure one of the slave's names, a fellow by the name of 
Phillip Reed. Talk about irony upon irony, he, given his professional 
capabilities, helped cast the bronze statue atop our Capitol that was 
recently refurbished, and of course we know that as the Statue of 
Freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the rest of the time be 
controlled by my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Watts), chairman of the Republican Conference.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support House Concurrent Resolution 368, 
legislation that I introduced earlier this year and that I believed to 
be long overdue in highlighting a disturbing but important fact about 
the history of this magnificent building and symbol of freedom, the 
United States Capitol.
  I want to especially thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), for joining in this effort as the bill's 
original cosponsor, and I want to thank the chairman of the committee 
on House Administration, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), 
and the ranking member, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), for 
their support of this critically important recognition of the slave 
laborers who built this extraordinary structure that houses the 
deliberations of the oldest democracy on Earth.
  Mr. Speaker, every day we are here in session our debates and 
legislative activities underscore that this is a living building that 
embodies America's greatest principles of democracy and liberty. 
However, one significant historical fact about this building is often 
forgotten. That fact is that much of the construction of this Capitol 
in the 18th and 19th centuries was done by slave labor.
  As we all know, slavery was not eliminated across the United States 
until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Before that 
date, slave labor was both legal and common throughout the South, 
including the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
  Public records attest to the historical fact that African-American 
slave labor was used in the construction of the United States Capitol, 
both here on this site and further south, in the Virginia quarries that 
provided the marble for this very building.
  It is time we recognize the contributions of these slave laborers. I 
am proud we will have the opportunity today to do so by passing this 
resolution to establish a special congressional task force which will 
study the history of this period and recommend an appropriate memorial 
to the labors of these great Americans to be displayed prominently here 
in our Nation's Capitol.
  Mr. Speaker, this year we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the 
first session of Congress to be held here in this historic building. I 
think that is a long enough time to go without a public and visible 
acknowledgment of the incongruous but important historical fact that 
the blood, sweat, and tears of African-American slave laborers built 
this House for us all.
  Let us reach back today through the thin veil of time and unshackle 
their hands so we can shake them and say, thank you, ever so belatedly, 
to these great Americans who built this great monument to freedom.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is my real honor to yield 3 minutes to the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), a distinguished civil rights 
leader, Member of Congress, humanitarian, and the cosponsor of this 
legislation. A gentleman who has been a giant in bringing the reality 
of the words that I intoned earlier that are included in our 
Declaration of Independence, and the promises incorporated in our 
Constitution, to reality for all Americans.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
California (Chairman Thomas) and the ranking member, the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), for bringing this legislation before us today.
  I want to thank my friend and my colleague, the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), for being the chief sponsor of this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, when we walk through the halls of this building, we do 
not see anything that tells the story that African-American slaves 
helped build this magnificent building: no drawings, no murals, no 
paintings, no statues, nothing. Slavery is part of our Nation's history 
of which we are not proud. However, we should not run away or hide from 
it. The history of the Capitol, like the history of our Nation, should 
be complete.
  As the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) pointed out, it was not 
until this year, 200 years after the opening of the Capitol for the 
first session of Congress, that records were uncovered which prove what 
many of us have already known or maybe some of us assumed, that 
African-American slave labor was used in the building of the United 
States Capitol.
  These men, these slaves, laid the very foundation of our democracy. 
Yet, they were denied the right to participate in our democracy. 
Indeed, generations of their offspring were denied the right to vote.
  Mr. Speaker, with this resolution, H.R. 368, we will honor the slaves 
who helped build the Capitol. We will study the history and 
contributions of the African-Americans who helped construct one of the 
greatest symbols of democracy in the world, this building, the United 
States Capitol.
  Mr. Speaker, we will have a fitting and lasting tribute to these men, 
black

[[Page 17735]]

men, slaves, in a permanent place here in the United States Capitol.
  I urge all of my colleagues to vote for the passage of House 
Concurrent Resolution 368.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Ose).
  Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for 
yielding time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution. It is 
interesting, the first day I was here I stood over by the painting of 
Lafayette. This room was empty, and I was there with a radio reporter 
from my town. Unbeknownst to myself, I was violating the rules of the 
House when I conversed and they were recording the tape.
  But the point of that conversation was that if one was quiet enough 
in this Chamber, one could hear the voices of the people who have come 
before us, and yes, those who built this place came before us, the 
slaves that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) talked about, those 
who have built this country that we have not to date given satisfactory 
recognition to.
  This resolution is a first step. I thank the gentleman for bringing 
it. I am grateful for the opportunity to support it.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to commend and congratulate the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) 
for their introduction to a very important piece of legislation.
  As a matter of fact, it is my hope and my understanding, as well as 
my desire, that passage of this legislation will help shed additional 
light on an extreme dark period in the history of this Nation, because 
as we look back to better understand where we came from, it helps us to 
recognize how we got to where we are, and then helps propel us into the 
future in relationship to where we need to be going.
  Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History Month, African-
American History Month, once said that while we should not 
underestimate the achievements of our Nation's greatest architects, 
builders, and industrialists, we should give credit to those slaves who 
so largely supplied the demand for labor.
  This resolution will do just that, and I would hope that as 
historians write, that in the near future we will see in the history 
books in every classroom throughout this great Nation the contributions 
of those whose sweat, whose hard labor, whose intense drive helped to 
produce not only a magnificent edifice, but helped to provide an 
opportunity for democracy to grow and flourish.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time 
to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this proposal. Americans 
understand that our black brothers and sisters in this country have 
been given a raw deal over our country's history, but most Americans do 
not know exactly what a raw deal it has been and was.
  The fact is that black Americans and their achievements quite often 
have been written out of the history books. I love to read history, and 
I have seen that in so many cases where black Americans, they pop up 
here and there, but the average American has no idea that they have 
done such tremendous things. Just like today, we are giving credit for 
people who have built this altar of liberty, this altar of freedom for 
all America to see, and there were black Americans, and to this point 
very few people knew there were black Americans.
  Let us remember that one of the first Americans to be killed during 
the American Revolution, a man killed during the Boston Massacre which 
sparked the whole American Revolution, was a black American.
  In the last 4 or 5 years I fought a fight for patent reform here in 
the United States, and I had to study the issue of inventors and people 
who actually invented great things in our country.
  Certainly every American knows about Booker T. Washington. But as I 
studied the history of our patent system and the inventors in our 
country, I was personally surprised to see how many great inventions 
were invented by black Americans, because patent rights as a property 
right, even during a time of great discrimination against our fellow 
Americans, the patent rights were actually provided to black Americans. 
They excelled in creativity, in creating new machines and new 
technologies throughout our history.

                              {time}  1945

  Not many people know that. Not many people know of the great many 
American heroes, not only during the Civil War, but other conflicts.
  But today we have the opportunity to congratulate those Americans 
who, again, not many of us heard of before, but did a great service to 
their country and to the cause of freedom in building this great 
edifice. So I support the legislation and thank the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) very much for letting me participate in this 
debate.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), the very distinguished 
Representative in which this Capitol is located. I am sure the irony is 
not lost on her that there are residents of this capital of freedom 
that do not have full voting participation in this Capitol.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I very much thank the gentleman from 
Maryland for yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate enormously the work of the gentleman from 
California (Chairman Thomas) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Hoyer), ranking member, in working together to bring this matter 
forward. I am enormously grateful, of course, to the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my 
long-time friend and colleague from the civil rights movement, for 
their leadership in bringing forward the bill that brings us to the 
floor today.
  I want to recognize the work of a local reporter for Channel 4 News 
here, Edward Hotaling, who brought this matter to public attention and 
was responsible for our bringing it, therefore, today to public light, 
for what we are doing this evening is opening the eyes of America to an 
important discovery for most in American history.
  We know the cliche because we have said it over and over, the slaves 
helped build America. But there are seldom any specifics to that. What 
slaves? What part of America? It turns out that the oldest and most 
treasured parts of America, the most hallowed places are what we are 
talking about; the White House, yes, and this very place where we meet.
  What is true here is probably true for every historic public building 
south of the Mason-Dixon line. We celebrate the slaves who built the 
Capitol and the White House, but the same could be said throughout the 
American South and much of the American North if the building is old 
enough.
  It is a matter of public record that slaves and free blacks built 
these two buildings. But it is also true that much of the District of 
Columbia was built by slaves and free blacks.
  My own great grandfather, Richard Holmes, was one such slave. Richard 
Holmes walked away from slavery in Virginia, got hired before the Civil 
War to work in the streets of the District of Columbia, got discovered 
by his white owner who was refused ownership when my great grandfather 
did not answer to his name when he was discovered and the white foreman 
refused to allow his return to the owner who had discovered him. I have 
no information that Richard Holmes worked on the White House or the 
Capitol, but we do have information that has been lost to history that 
many black men and free blacks did, in fact, work on these and other 
places in the District of Columbia. We know them by their works.
  We also know that slaves did every job imaginable, including the most

[[Page 17736]]

highly skilled jobs. We know their owners were compensated. We know 
that neither they nor their descendants were.
  Let me lay to rest whether anybody feels any confusion about whether 
to be proud or ashamed that our most revered structures were built by 
slave labor. Let us not be like the Soviets who revise or deny history. 
Let us, with this bill, put those questions for these purposes aside, 
put these emotions aside because on one question there can be no 
disagreement.
  We often have recognized what the slaves achieved and the tributes 
over and over again to these great buildings, and to the 25 million 
visitors who come every year to the District of Columbia to see this 
building among others. It is time finally to recognize the men who 
helped achieve the place where we work, the place that we love.
  I thank my colleagues very much for all they have done on this bill.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I do not have any more speakers 
on my side, so I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Conyers), one of the most distinguished leaders in our 
House, one of the senior Members of the House and an American who 
perhaps was most responsible for ensuring that this Nation recognized 
the contribution of one of its greatest citizens of the world, Martin 
Luther King, Jr.
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Hoyer) and the gentlemen who have participated in bringing this measure 
forward.
  I was very moved by the remarks of the gentlewoman from the District 
of Columbia (Ms. Norton). This plays right into the book recently 
written by Randall Robinson called The Debt in which he, touring the 
Capitol with his wife, found this tremendous sculpture about everybody 
that had contributed, but there were no depictions of slaves and their 
contribution.
  So all of the dialogue tonight has been very, very important in 
beginning to recognize and bring forward, as scholars are, as forums 
are going on in our universities, in which we are bringing up the 
records of the slaves, of their travels across the waters, the 
insurance records, and a lot of other factual materials.
  So it seems to me that we are moving inextricably into the question 
of how we recognize and study the question of reparations as may affect 
them. I could not imagine this conversation just going on tonight 
without us examining what we do in the preparation of a commission to 
study the history of slaves and their descendants in terms of their 
contributions and where we might fit into the picture presently.
  So I see this as a tapestry, a very important part of it. I see the 
hate crimes bill shortly being very important in which we take the 
subject of the lynching, the hate crimes started back in the 1920s when 
the civil rights movement, the NAACP began the great rush to federalize 
the lynching of African Americans. Then, after Dr. King's assassination 
in 1968, we got the first hate crimes bill; and we have another pending 
in this body now.
  So much of our legislation is moving together. This resolution giving 
recognition to the contribution of people of color, both free and 
enslaved, is a very important step forward. I commend all who have 
contributed toward it.
  I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for yielding me this 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). The gentleman from Oklahoma 
(Mr. Watts) has reserved the balance of his time and has the right to 
close.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no additional requests for time. But I know that, 
on both sides of the aisle, if they were on the floor, all Members 
would want to rise in support of this resolution. Every Member would 
want to recognize the importance of the principle involved in the 
adoption of this resolution, the recognition of those who have been 
ignored, forgotten, hidden, in part, perhaps, because of the shame that 
a society shared for on the one hand saying it believed in freedom and 
on the other hand enslaving a people because of the color of their 
skin.
  This resolution is important in my opinion, Mr. Speaker, not only to 
recognize those who participated and labored and who helped build this 
Capitol, but it is also important, it seems to me, because it reminds 
us of the contradictions between our principles and our performance.
  It heightens our awareness, Mr. Speaker, of the gulf that sometimes 
exists between our promises and our practice. I introduced, Mr. 
Speaker, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers). I remember standing 
with him on the front of this Capitol and supporting him in his 
leadership of the necessity to recognize the contributions made by 
Martin Luther King, Jr. who, in 1963, stood just some thousands of 
yards from where we stand right now and reminded the Nation in a 
compelling address that we ought to live out the dream and make reality 
the promises that we had made.
  Our Nation responded. This Congress responded. We passed legislation 
to try to make reality the promises of the 13th Amendment passed 100 
years before. Whether it was in employment or housing or public 
accommodations, we said that America was not a land in which we ought 
to discriminate against individuals based upon such arbitrary 
distinction as color of skin or national origin or religion.
  In fact, we are still arguing today about artificial distinctions we 
make between human beings and whether they ought to be discriminated 
against, not on what they do to us or laws that they break, but on what 
they may be that is different from us.
  Mr. Speaker, that is why this resolution is important, not only as 
the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) and the gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Lewis) have so eloquently pointed out, to recognize the 
contribution of the individuals who helped build this Capitol and, as 
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) has pointed 
out, built so many others, including the White House, Monticello, and 
Mount Vernon. I can go on in listing the dwellings that we know are 
dwellings in which democracy saw its genesis and its growth.
  This resolution is significant because it also teaches us to be aware 
daily of the necessity of applying our principles in practice.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, this bill recognizes the long-ignored 
role of African American slaves in building the United States Capitol. 
Again, in closing, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I 
thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas), the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), ranking member, I thank them for their 
efforts on behalf of this resolution.
  Again, this year we celebrate the bicentennial of the United States 
Government's arrival here in Washington. Proper recognition for these 
laborers is long past due.

                              {time}  2000

  We often, as Members of Congress, get to drive into the grounds or 
drive onto these grounds; and at night especially driving onto these 
grounds we see our Nation's dome, the Nation's Capitol and remind 
ourselves that this building that we stand in today is recognized as 
the symbol of freedom for all the world. This resolution today again 
recognizes the contribution that slave labor played in building the 
symbol of freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind us that, on the Senate side, the Senate version 
of this bill is sponsored by Senator Abraham from Michigan and Senator 
Lincoln from Arkansas. So, on the Senate side, this bill will be known 
as the Abraham/Lincoln bill. Very fitting.
  Again, thanks to my colleagues for this bipartisan support that we 
have seen in bringing this effort forward and making it happen here 
this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Thomas).

[[Page 17737]]


  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to respond in part to my friend and 
colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), in terms of his 
supposition that perhaps it was out of shame.
  I think I will just tell the gentleman that it was far more 
fundamental than that, and it was that common physical labor is not a 
high achievement and that we never, even to this day, recognize the 
fact that without it we would not have what we have today.
  The thing I like most about this, given the discussion, the 
participants, and the reflection on history, is that one of the 
fundamentals of democracy is in the inherent belief that an individual 
is worth something simply because they are alive and that what we are 
doing here is celebrating the obvious acknowledgment of our shared 
humanity in the best way we can in reaching back and telling those 
people, thank you, thank you very much for that basic physical labor 
that produced the opportunity, as Mr. Davis so eloquently indicated, 
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Holmes) indicated, 
we forget about.
  So it is in the shared humanity of our recognition that I think we 
can all share and appreciate.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 
368.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the concurrent resolution was 
agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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