    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
    [February 8, 2005]
    [Pages 186-189]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Celebration of National African American History Month
    February 8, 2005

        Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House, the people's house.
    Laura and I are pleased you're here so we can
    celebrate together the 79th celebration of African American History
    Month. We're here today because of the dedication and persistence of a
    man named Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
        In the 1920s, Dr. Woodson argued that if African Americans were to
    take their rightful place in society, young Americans of all races
    needed to learn about the black contribution to our history and culture.
    So in 1926, he launched the first black history week. Today, a movement
    that began in black churches and schoolrooms is observed all across
    America, including the White House. Welcome.
        The civil rights pioneers of Dr. Woodson's era also had another
    dream, a national museum to celebrate the history and achievements of
    African Americans. On December 16, 2003, I was proud to sign legislation
    that will create the National Museum of African American History and
    Culture within the Smithsonian Institution. Laura
    and I are pleased to welcome to the White House so many who were
    instrumental in the passage of that legislation and those who will help
    us make the museum a reality.
        I welcome Members of the Congress. Senator Chris Dodd, thank you for coming. Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback, and Barack
    Obama, welcome. Congressman Mel Watt, the chairman of the
    Congressional Black Caucus, is with us. Thank you for coming, Mr.
    Chairman. Eleanor Holmes Norton,
    Delegate from the District of Columbia; Jack Kingston from the State of Georgia--welcome, Congressman, thank
    you for coming. And finally,

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    Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick. Now,
    I've got a report for you: Today I was with her son, the mayor of
    Detroit, who looked mighty special.
    [Laughter] Welcome.
        It's such an honor to be with Dr. Dorothy Height. You look great. Thanks for coming, Dorothy.
        Members of the Council of the National Museum of African American
    History and Culture, thank you for serving. Today is the first day in
    which folks are able to contribute to the building of the museum.
    Laura and I want to be one of your first
    contributors, and so I--you know where to find me. [Laughter]
        I'm honored that members of the original Tuskegee Airmen have joined
    us. We're proud of your service. I told the members of the Tuskegee
    Airmen how important the example they set for those who wear our uniform
    today, and it is a shining example. And you've just got to know that
    you've made a huge difference in the lives of a lot of people.
        I also want to welcome Mary Moore, or ``Rosie
    the Riveter.'' Thank you for coming. We're proud you're here.
    Frederick Douglas IV and his wife,
    B.J., are with us. Thank you for coming. And
    Cicely Tyson--the ever-beautiful Cicely Tyson.
        As we celebrate this month, we must remember a great actor, Ossie
    Davis, who passed away on Friday. Laura and I and many in this room were honored to salute
    Ossie and his remarkable wife, Ruby Dee, at the
    Kennedy Center Honors last December. The entire Davis family are in our
    prayers. May God comfort them in their sorrow.
        I appreciate so very much the chance to have gone to Goree Island in
    Senegal. Laura and I traveled there during my
    Presidency. It was an amazing experience for us. It was gut-wrenching to
    see the cramped cells where Africans were held right before they began
    their journey to America in chains. We stood in the ``door of no
    return.'' I'll never forget that feeling. It's a door through which so
    many innocent men, women, and children passed through. They would be
    loaded as cargo on to ships for the long voyage across the Atlantic to a
    future of slavery and servitude.
        You know, it reminded me, standing in that door--as I think back to
    standing in that door, it reminds me how important the museum is going
    to be, because young Americans study this shameful period in history in
    their schools, and they read their textbooks, but most young Americans
    will never go to Goree Island or get the same sense that we felt.
        And so when the National Museum of American History and Culture
    opens--and it will open--visitors will be able to have a much more vivid
    sense of what slavery meant for real men and real women. It is important
    to know--and this museum is going to be a really important museum,
    because it's important that our children know that there was a time in
    their Nation's history when one in every seven human beings was the
    property of another. They need to know how families were separated,
    denied even the comfort of suffering together. It's an important lesson
    of a shameful period that the young must never forget.
        And they need to know that bigotry and discrimination did not end
    with slavery, that within the lifetimes of their own parents and
    grandparents, Americans were still barred by law from hotels and
    restaurants, made to drink from separate water fountains, forced to sit
    in the back of a bus, all because of the color of their skin. We need to
    teach them about the heroes of the civil rights movement, who by their
    courage and dignity forced America to confront the central defect of our
    founding.
        And we all need to learn more about the men and women whose
    determination and persistent eloquence forced Americans of all races to
    examine our hearts, revise our Constitution and laws, and make America
    into the Nation it was always supposed to be.

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        The theme of this year's African American History Month is the 100th
    anniversary of the ``Niagara Movement.'' Led by W.E.B. DuBois and John
    Hope and William Monroe Trotter, the Niagara Movement rejected any
    accommodation with discrimination and challenged our Nation to grant its
    African American citizens the same rights enjoyed by other Americans. In
    so doing, it helped lay a foundation for the civil rights movement that
    would change America in the decades that followed.
        Like Dr. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois placed his hopes in our youngest
    citizens, those who had not yet been taught to hate. So he directed his
    call to them. He said, ``We appeal to the young men and women of this
    Nation . . . Stand up for the right, prove yourselves worthy of your
    heritage and . . . dare to treat men as men.'' His appeal echoes across
    a century, doesn't it? It made sense then; it makes sense now. And
    serves to remind us that while slavery has been abolished and
    segregation outlawed, the struggle for justice and equality has not yet
    ended.
        At the start of this new century, we will continue to teach habits
    of respect to each generation. We will continue to enforce laws against
    racial discrimination in education and housing and public
    accommodations. We'll continue working to spread hope and opportunity to
    African Americans with no inheritance but their character, by giving
    them greater access to capital and education and the chance to own and
    build and dream for the future. In this way, African Americans can pass
    on a better life and a better nation to their children and their
    grandchildren, and that's what we want in America.
        We're making progress, but there's more work to be done. Today,
    American schools are no longer separate, but they're not yet equal. Too
    many of our children still face what I have called the soft bigotry of
    low expectations. With the No Child Left Behind Act, we've raised
    expectations. We believe every child can learn, and we expect every
    school to teach. And we measure. And guess what's happening? Test scores
    are going up. There's an achievement gap for minority children that is
    closing in America.
        Today, the minority homeownership rate in America is at an alltime
    high. That's incredibly good news. I love it when more and more people
    open the door to their house and say, ``Welcome to my home''--not just,
    ``Welcome to where I live,'' but, ``Welcome to my home.'' And we'll
    continue to expand opportunity for homeownership in America.
        We'll work to strengthen families. Children from two-parent homes
    are less likely to end up in poverty or drop out of school. It's
    important that families be strong in America. HIV/AIDS brings suffering
    and fear into so many lives, and so we need to focus on fighting this
    disease among those with the highest rates of new cases, African
    American men and women. We need to give our young people, especially
    young men in inner cities, better options than apathy or gangs and jail.
    And I want to thank Laura for taking on this
    incredibly important initiative to help young men realize a great future
    in America.
        You know, in the last half-century, the cause of liberty has made
    great strides in this country and around the world. At each stage and on
    every front, African Americans have helped to lead this advance. African
    Americans struggled peacefully for their own freedom on the streets of
    Birmingham and on the Mall here at Washington, DC. Some of you were
    probably there. They have fought for America's freedom on distant
    battlefields, and at this moment many are serving bravely in Afghanistan
    and Iraq. And we respect their courage, and we honor their sacrifice.
        They know, as we do, that success of freedom on the homefront is
    critical to its success in foreign lands. As I said in my Inaugural
    Address, we cannot carry the

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    message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.
        We've made progress, and our work is not yet done. But we can
    proceed with faith in our country and confidence in our cause. See,
    history moves toward freedom because the desire of freedom is written in
    every human heart. As W.E.B. DuBois declared nearly a century ago, ``The
    battle for humanity is not lost or losing . . . The morning breaks over
    blood-stained hills. We must not falter. We must not shrink. Above are
    the everlasting stars.''
        I want to thank you all for coming. Thank you for helping us
    celebrate this month as well as to make it clear to our fellow citizens
    we have a chance to build a fantastic museum, right here in the heart of
    Washington, DC, on the Mall, to stand proud. And I'm confident there
    will be an appropriate web page--[laughter]--for people to be able to
    tap in. Perhaps you should start, if you're interested, in going to the
    Smithsonian web page, and I suspect there may be an avenue that will
    direct you toward this important museum and cultural center, that will
    enable our fellow citizens to participate in helping to build it.
        There will be a reception at the end of the hall here. We're really
    thrilled you're here. And may God continue to bless our great country.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:19 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick of
    Detroit, MI, son of Representative Carolyn C. Kilpatrick; civil rights
    leader Dorothy I. Height; and actor Cicely Tyson. The National African
    American History Month proclamation of February 7 is listed in Appendix
    D at the end of this volume.