[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10939]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TODAY'S AFRICAN AMERICAN PARENTS

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there have been a number of 
points that I would just like to bring really to the attention of my 
colleagues and to indicate that I hope we can do better. That's my 
message: I hope we can do better.
  I hope we can do better than having two Presidential candidates in 
the Republican Party sign a pledge that would suggest that children of 
slaves were much better off than the children of African American 
parents today. We know that we have a high number of single parents 
throughout the United States raising children. But just read the slave 
narratives and the biography of Frederick Douglass to know that there 
were no marriages among slaves--it was not allowed--and that children 
were torn away from their parents. And husbands or wives or those who 
had given birth or created children were torn away from each other. 
Slavery was a destructive part of this country, and never compare it 
with the life that we have today.
  I would also suggest that if we are negotiating the debt ceiling, we 
should not have leaders in the room that make the statement that we'll 
have no resolution because President Barack Obama is President. I'm 
insulted, offended, and it is not becoming as adults.

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