[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 172]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING TUSKEGEE AIRMEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, this weekend a movie opened in America that 
is really unlike any other movie. It is a significant movie because it 
is about a group of gentleman who won the Congressional Gold Medal, the 
Tuskegee Airmen. They were the first black airmen in the United States 
military history.
  It's part of black history; but beyond black history, it's American 
history. Because as I watched the movie yesterday in Memphis, in a 
largely African American crowd, I realized this was a story about 
America's progress and fulfilling its promise and about the problems 
we've had and have had to overcome.
  The Tuskegee Airmen were men that wanted to fight for their country 
in World War II, but they weren't allowed to because of segregationist 
policies that we had at the time. The military wasn't integrated, and 
they didn't think African Americans were capable of serving as pilots 
and weren't allowed to do so. They had an experimental group set up in 
Tuskegee, Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute, to train black Army 
personnel who wanted to be pilots. They succeeded, and they formed the 
Tuskegee Airmen. They had many obstacles, but they beat the odds and 
they succeeded. They rose to the challenge. They dispelled myths that 
African Americans weren't courageous enough, weren't skilled enough, 
weren't smart enough.
  On Friday, at the request of the family, I spoke at the funeral of 
Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers, Jr. Lieutenant Colonel Weathers was 
from Memphis originally and died in Tucson, Arizona, at age 90. He was 
one of the first Tuskegee Airmen. He was buried on Friday at Arlington 
National Cemetery with full military honors, family present, seven 
horses--six drawing the carriage and the riderless horse--a military 
flyover, 21-gun salute passed, an American hero being laid to rest in 
hallowed ground, sacred ground, Arlington National Cemetery.
  Lieutenant Colonel Weathers not only had to fight the Germans and 
fight for his country, he had to fight his country to be accepted and 
benefit in the basic rights that we all take for granted. To learn 
about Lieutenant Colonel Weathers and the Tuskegee Airmen is inspiring. 
And during Black History Month, we will reflect and we celebrate other 
struggles and accomplishments of many African Americans in our history, 
African Americans who came here in about 1620 as slaves and didn't get 
freedom from slavery until 1865, and then didn't get real freedom until 
Jim Crow laws were overturned in the 1960s. The vestiges of slavery and 
Jim Crow still live with us. Those who overcame those obstacles and 
broke down barriers were heroes and need to be recognized in the middle 
of month of February.
  At one time, they said African Americans couldn't play baseball, and 
Jackie Robinson showed them wrong. They said African Americans couldn't 
be quarterbacks, and Doug Williams and others showed them wrong. They 
couldn't be coaches. Bill Russell took the Celtics to championships, 
and Tony Dungy in 2007 won a Super Bowl championship. They couldn't be 
pitchers and certainly couldn't play tennis. Well, Arthur Ashe showed 
them wrong. In golf, there is nobody in the world better than Tiger 
Woods.
  And, you know, it's amazing that in this day and time, there are 
still barriers to be broken. At one time, people thought that an 
African American couldn't be President of the United States, wouldn't 
be capable of such. Well, we know that's wrong; but, unfortunately, 
there are still people in this country who think that the President 
can't be their President because of his race. Some even refer to him as 
a ``food stamp President.'' We know that code is wrong. I would ask 
anybody who thinks that way or has those thoughts to know that they are 
backwards thinking, just like the people were in the 1940s who said 
that black people couldn't participate in our military and couldn't fly 
for our country and that the Red Tails couldn't shoot down the Germans 
and protect our bombers, as they did. Those days are past.
  I would ask everybody to see the movie, remember the Tuskegee Airmen, 
realize how far our country has come, and get beyond any bigotry that 
we have in ourselves. This is a Nation of tolerance and diversity, and 
we must celebrate it. I encourage everybody to learn about black 
history and the Tuskegee Airmen, our great vehicle.

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