[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mrs. CARNAHAN. Mr. President, every February our nation pauses to 
recognize the tremendous contributions of African-Americans to the 
history of our nation. In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro 
History Week because he saw that most of the contributions African-
Americans had made to American culture and industry were being ignored 
by historians.
  We have come a long way since 1926. More and more of our history 
books acknowledge the contributions of African-Americans. Our schools 
have made it part of their curriculum. Libraries and museums create 
exhibits. Television executives highlight the contributions of African-
American actors and screenwriters and our celebration of Black history 
has been expanded to an entire month. But we still have a long way to 
go.
  We need Black History Month because people may not be aware of 
African-Americans who have added to the richness and greatness of our 
country. It is appropriate that as we stand in our nation's Capitol, 
which was built by the back-breaking labor of free and slave African-
Americans, we talk about the contributions African-Americans have made 
to this country's history, and to its future.
  Any Missourian can name George Washington Carver's most famous 
invention, peanut butter, but few realize the role Carver played in the 
agricultural revolution that went on in the South in the early 1900s--
Carver's work to wean the South from its single-crop cultivation of 
cotton. His development of commercial uses for alternate crops like 
peanuts and sweet potatoes helped modernize Southern agriculture, 
paving the way for a better life for the entire South.
  Scott Joplin led a revolution of a different kind. While living in 
Sedalia, Missouri he created a blend of classical and folk music that 
took America by storm. Ragtime, as his style came to be called, has 
become America's unique contribution to classical music and a prelude 
to jazz.
  In literature, Missourians are proud of the heritage of Langston 
Hughes of Joplin, MO. A poet of international renown, Hughes' poetry 
helped to create the Harlem Renaissance, the artistic and cultural 
awakening among African-Americans in the 1920's and early 1930's. His 
first two books of poetry daringly fused jazz and blues with 
traditional verse. Also an advocate for children, Hughes wrote over a 
dozen still popular children's books on jazz, Africa and the West 
Indies.
  Another Missourian became famous not only as an inventor but also as 
the most outstanding jockey of his time. Tom Bass, of Mexico, MO, 
trained some of the finest race and show horses of his day. At the peak 
of his career he rode in the Inauguration of President Grover Cleveland 
and gave a command performance before Queen Victoria. In addition to 
being a famous jockey, he invented the ``Bass bit'' which is still used 
today.
  Missouri has borne some notable civil rights leaders as well. Perhaps 
the most prominent of them is Roy Wilkins, who served as executive 
director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People from 1955-1977. Appointed during the most turbulent era in the 
civil rights movement, Wilkins kept the NAACP on the path of 
nonviolence and rejected racism in all forms. His leadership and 
devotion to the principle of nonviolence earned him the reputation of a 
senior statesman in the civil rights movement.
  All of these great Missourians, and others history may have 
forgotten, struggled against bigotry and violence, but all showed--
through their natural talents--that racism was not just wrong, but un-
American. So it is fitting that we take this month to learn more about 
the history of African-Americans in this country, to ensure that these 
Americans are recognized, and to celebrate their contributions to our 
great nation.

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