Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 194 appropriately reminds us of the horrors of slavery. Slavery was a stain on our original Constitution. It took the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans who died in the Civil War to erase that stain and to pave the way for passage of the Civil War amendments to our Constitution. We must never forget that.

This resolution exhorts us not to repeat the mistakes of the past. I would like to address two of those mistakes in some of this time.

One of the clauses of this resolution notes that after emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism and lynching.

It is worth noting in that regard that the government's campaign against the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction Era included the use of military commissions approved by Congress to try those vicious terrorists of the day. Klan terrorists disguised in plain clothes embarked on a campaign of terror that included lynchings, assassinations and even the disemboweling of their innocent victims.

The experience, Mr. Speaker, of that period, presaged the dangers of extending habeas corpus litigation rights to enemy terrorists today. The campaign to defeat the Klan collapsed during the Reconstruction Era when Klansmen asserted habeas litigation rights in Federal court against their captors.

As one historian has written, the result of the required legal release of the Klan was that Klansmen not only escaped punishment, they turned the law on their erstwhile prosecutors with a series of suits and harassments that drove some of them from the State as fugitives. No sooner had Colonel George W. Kirk, the local commander, brought his prisoners to Raleigh, then two of them sued him for false arrest. He was released on bond and returned to his command, while other similar suits accumulated against him. In effect, he became a refugee from process servers and sheriffs, protected by his own soldiers.

I fear the Supreme Court has repeated that mistake today by granting terrorists habeas litigation rights to challenge their detentions in Federal Court. Resolutions like the one we consider now help to remind the Nation of the mistakes of the past so they will not be repeated in the future.

This resolution also expresses a commitment to rectifying the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow. Those misdeeds, of course, were premised in the notion that people should be treated differently on account of their race.

One the most significant civil rights developments out of the 2006 elections was passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, an amendment to the Michigan State Constitution that passed by a wide margin, 58 percent to 42 percent. The Civil Rights Initiative in relevant part reads simply, and I have heard Ward Connerly make this statement in person and it booms from his voice and it reaches my heart, Mr. Speaker. It says, ``The State shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.'' Similar efforts are underway in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. This resolution reminds us all that American government should operate on a color-blind basis.

As I read through this resolution, I pick out some pieces that don't fit my sense of history. I would add that the Civil War is often taught to being fought over slavery. The people on the south side of the Mason Dixon Line would say it was fought over States' rights. I would say among those States' rights was the argument that the Southern States could declare their policy with regard to slavery.

Slavery has put a scar upon the United States that was a component of history as it arrived here, and it has been a component of most of the history within the continents. It has not, as it says here, imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life. Subsequent to the Civil War and the emancipation, there were many areas in the North that were integrated, socially, economically, with a heart to do so, and I think they deserve some credit here as well, Mr. Speaker.

The vestiges of Jim Crow law today, I hope we learn what they are. The one I can think of is the Davis-Bacon wage scale. That is a vestige of Jim Crow. I can't think of the others.

I do appreciate the language that says, ``However long the journey, our destiny is set: Liberty and justice for all,'' and I mean that sincerely. And as this resolution apologizes to African Americans, I would correct that and say that there are many African Americans in this country who are immigrants from other countries, and they do very well here in America. They haven't felt the same sense as those who are descended from slaves that lived in this country. So I would say this resolution more speaks to the descendants of slaves and those being in this country exclusively African Americans.

I would add that there are some missing components altogether. I brought this book because I think it puts some more perspective on this as well, Mr. Speaker. This is a book written by Robert Davis, ``Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters.'' He is a professor, I believe, at Ohio State University.

I have read this carefully. It grips my soul like this subject grips my soul. It tells the story of 1.25 million Christian slaves hijacked on the seas of the Mediterranean who were subjected to slavery and forced to build the edifices along the Barbary Coast and the northern coast of Africa. They don't have descendants because they were worked to death and dumped overboard from the corsairs, those who pulled on the oars instead of built the edifices. Some of the women were pushed into being concubines. But, for the most part, this is very instructive. It says many of us are descended of relatives of slaves, but there are no descendants from these slaves because they didn't survive. That is 1.25 million.

So I think that in this context, this Nation is rising above this debate, and I would like to think we have put this debate behind us. I know that Chairman Conyers knows my head and my heart on this, and I have spoken about how deeply it has affected me to walk into a church in Port Gibson, Mississippi, and look up to the balcony and see that that balcony was made for African Americans, while white people went to church downstairs on the ground floor. It is hard for me to fathom a faith that would recognize a division like that, Mr. Speaker.

I know also that Abraham Lincoln spoke to this subject matter, and perhaps I will come back to that.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As I listened to this debate, Mr. Speaker, I looked back through some documents that I made sure that I could take a look at before I came to floor, and one of them is H. Res. 1237. That is a resolution that passed here on 18 June 2008. And that date is timely, because it recognizes in the House of Representatives President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, but it recognizes especially Juneteenth, the date upon which the last slaves were freed. And that was roughly about 2 years from the time that President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And it takes me to this point that I think is an important discussion.

This is a piece of information that I gathered from a Washington historian, and I qualify it a little bit because I haven't gone back and Googled it, I haven't checked Wikipedia, but I like this story so much that I want to tell it as qualified in that fashion, from a respectable Washington historian, but this way:

When President Lincoln was considering signing the Emancipation Proclamation, he reportedly called his cabinet together. They sat around the cabinet table, and President Lincoln laid out his argument that he wanted to emancipate the slaves. And so as he made the argument, the men--it would have all been men sitting around the cabinet table then in 1863. He turned to the first cabinet member and said, ``What say you?'' The first cabinet member reportedly said, ``Mr. President, you can't free the slaves. Those who are under your control and authority and jurisdiction are already free; they are north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Those on the other side, you can't reach because they are protected by the Confederate Army.''

And Lincoln turned to the next cabinet man and said, ``What say you?'' The next cabinet member said, ``Mr. President, I would suggest that there are men fighting in Union uniforms today that aren't so enthusiastic about ending slavery. They really want to defend the North and they want to defend the colors that we have, but there are really some racists in the Army. So you are going to lose their support if you emancipate the slaves.''

And he went to the next cabinet member and the next cabinet member, and each one came up with a different argument. As it came around the table, every single cabinet member had said to President Lincoln, ``Mr. President, do not sign the Emancipation Proclamation. My advice to you is there isn't enough upside to offset the downside.'' Or, as we say today, the juice is not worth the squeeze.

President Lincoln reportedly said, ``Well, gentlemen, the aye has it,'' and signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Now whether that story is true or not, and I know there are a lot of urban legends around Lincoln, I really love that story, because that shows the character and the quality of leadership that we had in the White House at that time, and also a man who gave his life for the emancipation of the slaves. A man who believed it. A man who had such a strong conviction that when I

stand at the Lincoln Memorial and I read the words of President Lincoln's second inaugural address that say, ``Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondsmen's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said `the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' ''

Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, the central part being: If the price to be paid was until every drop of blood drawn by the bondsmen's lash be paid by another drawn with the sword, Mr. Speaker, that is the powerful vision that there was a sin on this Nation, and Abraham Lincoln understood that. And 600,000 Americans died in the conflict to free the slaves.

I brought with me, this is my great, great, five times great uncle's Bible. This is the Bible that he carried in his shirt pocket for 3 years during the Civil War. If I open it up, I can show you fly specs and verses that are written in this Bible. His sister presented to it to him on the eve of his departure for the war, and he returned with it in his shirt pocket 3 years to the day. I found his grave when I was trimming grass around the gravestones for Memorial Day. No one knew where he had been buried. This is John Richardson's Bible. My great grandfather five times great was killed in the Civil War. All of his artifacts are lost. This remains. This remains as a connection to me, to my family members who were strong and powerful and committed abolitionists, and some of them gave their lives to free the slaves.

So as I read this resolution today, Mr. Speaker, I don't see a reference of gratitude for all the blood that was given by people to end slavery. I think that needs to be part of this record as well. The horrible price that was paid to pay back in blood drawn by the sword for every drop of blood drawn by the bondsmen's lash. That is a point, too, that the next generations need to learn and need to hear.

And then with the balance of this discussion, Mr. Speaker, I just would emphasize that this Nation threw off the yoke of slavery. We rose above it because we had a strong conviction as a people, we had a strong religious faith that rejected slavery as a sin against this Nation. We can be proud of the price that was paid to free the slaves. And it was a struggle of 100 years to pass the Civil Rights Act that lifted another level. And here we are today at a point where I look forward to the time when we can say we are fully integrated and there is no vestige of slavery and no vestige of racism, and an understanding that we are all God's children created in his image. And because he has blessed us with enough distinctions that we can tell each other apart, it is no reason for us to discriminate for or against anyone, as Ward Connerly says and as the Civil Rights Initiative in Michigan says so.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. I thank the gentlemen for their cooperation along with this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is with pride that I introduced this resolution with 120 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, and it is with pride that I serve as a Member of this institution and this building that was built with slave labor and for which the new Visitors Gallery will be known as Emancipation Hall. It was the gentleman from this side of the aisle, the party of Lincoln, Representative Zach Wamp from my State, and this side of the aisle, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., who eloquently spoke to a subcommittee of which I am a member urging the remembrance and recognition of the work of the slaves who helped construct this magnificent Capitol Building and have the entryway named Emancipation Hall.

This country had an institution of slavery for 246 years and followed it with Jim Crow laws that denied people equal opportunities under the law. There was segregation in the South and other places in this country at least through the year 1965 when civil rights laws were passed.

There were separate water fountains for people marked ``white'' and ``colored''; there were separate restaurants; there were separate hotels; there were job opportunities that were not available to African Americans; there were

theaters that were segregated. It is hard to imagine today in 2008 that such a society existed and was sanctioned by law, that the laws of this Nation provided for segregation and enforced fugitive slave laws.

In fact, the history of slavery goes not just through the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to our Constitution, but, as so eloquently written just yesterday in the Baltimore Sun in an editorial by Mr. Leonard Pitts, Jr., that slavery existed up until about World War II, but it was a form of slavery where people were bought and sold for debts. It was slavery by another name.

In a book called ``Slavery by Another Name'' by Douglas Blackman, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, he talked about a convict leasing system in the South where poor black men were routinely snatched up and tried on false, petty or nonexistent charges by compliant courts, assessed some fine they could not afford, and then put into the servitude of an individual who bought them. This system continued up until World War II.

The fact is slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth and the greatest government ever conceived by man. But when we conceived this government and we said all men were created equal, we didn't in fact make all men equal, nor did we make women equal.

We have worked to form a more perfect Union, and part of forming a more perfect Union is laws, and part of it is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and we apologize, as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong, and we begin a dialogue that hopefully will lead us to a better understanding of where we are in America today and why certain conditions exist.

In 1997, President Clinton talked to the Nation about the problem that this country had with race, and he wanted a national dialogue. He considered an apology for slavery. I happened to run into President Clinton at that time at the Amtrak station here in Washington and discussed with him having an apology for Jim Crow as well as slavery. I encompassed that in a letter dated July 2, 1997, that as a State senator from Tennessee I wrote to President Clinton.

In that letter, I urged him to have a slavery apology and a Jim Crow apology, and to mark it on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, an event that tragically took place in April of 1968 in my city, and that the appropriate time for President Clinton to have that apology would be on that 30th anniversary.

In going through my papers as I was elected to Congress, I found this letter and I thought about it and I said to myself, ``You are a Member of Congress. You don't need to wait on a response from the President of the United States, which, my friend, the President's office failed to make a response. I can take action myself.'' So I introduced the resolution in February of 2007, with 120 sponsors joining me as time went on. It is important on this day that we admit our error, that we apologize.

I have been in this body and voted with the rest of the body on a unanimous voice vote to encourage, this past year, the Japanese government to apologize for its use of Chinese women as comfort women during the war, and not a voice was raised questioning that resolution which passed unanimously on us calling on a foreign country to apologize for its use of comfort women.

Twenty years ago, this Congress passed a bill apologizing for the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. In fact, subsequent to the consideration of this resolution, the distinguished lady from California (Ms. Matsui) has a resolution recognizing and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the passage of that bill.

This Congress did the right thing in apologizing for the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II and in encouraging the Japanese government to apologize for the use of comfort women. But the fact that this government has not apologized to its own citizens, African Americans, for the institution of slavery and for the Jim Crow laws that followed, and accepted that fact and encouraged changes in our dialogue and understanding and the actions of this country to rectify that, is certainly a mistake, and today we rectify that mistake.

This is a symbolic resolution, but hopefully it will begin a dialogue where people will open their hearts and their minds to the problems that face this country from racism that exists in this country on both sides and which must end if we are to go forward as the country that we were created to be and which we are destined to be.

So it is with great honor that I speak on this resolution and urge the Members of this body to pass this historic resolution, recognize our errors, but also recognize the greatness of this country; because only a great country can recognize and admit its mistakes, and then travel forth to create indeed a more perfect union that works to bring people of all races, religions, and creeds together in unity as Americans, part of the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the time, and I urge my colleagues to vote unanimously to pass this resolution today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 194, a resolution that apologizes for the enslavement and segregation of African-Americans.

This is a significant moment in our nation's history when the nearly 20-year fight to consider federal legislation that apologizes for slavery has at last become a reality. Indeed, it is fitting that we consider legislation of this content and caliber at this time. A global trend has emerged within the 21st Century in which governments have apologized for slavery and discriminatory laws and promised to work toward a better future.

Within the past year, states that were once members of the former Confederacy and were a cesspool for racist and bigoted laws and practices did something that no state had done before: they apologized for the enslavement of black people in this country. More than 240 years after the abolition of slavery and more than four decades after the abolition of Jim Crow, it is time for the federal government to do the same.

In 1988, Congress apologized to Japanese-Americans for holding them in concentration camps during World War II. Congress expressed regret for its policies on Hawaii a century after the native Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown. And just five years ago, the Senate apologized for not enacting anti-lynching legislation that would have saved the lives of thousands of black people across the South.

America's greatness is exemplified in part by our ability to evolve. Under federal and state laws and customs, African Americans were denied their fundamental rights from 1619 until 1965. Today, we show our growth by officially acknowledging the wrongful actions and policies that were targeted toward African-Americans during slavery and Jim Crow.

Sadly, there are some who continue to oppose Congress apologizing for slavery and segregation. They see apologizing as a futile action that is too little too late. Others contend that an official apology would do more harm that good and would conjure painful images from the past that would fuel resentment. These assertions miss the point.

Failure to pass this resolution that acknowledges the wrongness of slavery and segregation would send the dangerous message that America is unwilling to come to terms with one of the first and last great atrocities that it placed on its citizens through the rule of law. Slavery and racial segregation were permitted through federal law and our government must express the appropriate and long-overdue remorse for its tolerance of this injustice.

As we all know, Mr. Speaker, words matter. ``All men are created equal,'' is perhaps one of the most famous phrases in American history. In our nation's infancy, this statement encompassed the principles of a country that promised to protect the freedom and well-being of its new citizens. Yet it was written when hundreds of thousands of black men, women and children were enslaved and counted as only \3/5\ of a person under the Constitution. Nevertheless, President Abraham Lincoln later used this phrase to argue that the institution of slavery contradicted our nation's most fundamental values. This statement proved that America had the potential and duty to become a fairer and more equal nation.

The legal abolishment of slavery did not translate into the end of racial inequality. Equally, the legal abolishment of Jim Crow has not translated into the elimination of disparities. The reality is that although the men, women and children who were enslaved in this country are long gone, the wealth, culture, and even the congressional buildings that they helped construct remain.

Indeed, in the years following Jim Crow, blacks have undoubtedly taken advantage of increased opportunities and have achieved in every imaginable sector. 246 years after emancipation and 43 years after the abolishment of legal segregation, the United States has made serious improvements in drafting and implementing policies that encourage equality. However, it would be wrong to conclude that these successes negate the fact that 346 years of oppression have contributed to the economic and health disparities that continue to affect much of the black community.

On this historic day, we must recommit ourselves to bringing about an end to these disparities and injustices. And in passing this resolution, the House will send a message to the American people and others that the most powerful nation in the world is willing to look honestly at some of the most shameful parts of its history, accept responsibility, and apologize for its actions. Together, we will continue to lay the necessary foundation to build a stronger future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 194, a resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans. I thank Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Conyers, and Congressman Cohen for their efforts to bring this resolution to the floor and affording the House of Representatives the opportunity to apologize for America's Original Sin.

Mr. Speaker, slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as millions of Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals during the 246 years between 1619 and 1865. The Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and stripped of their names, heritage, and dignity. Enslaved families were torn apart at the whim of their owners and sold as chattel.

Mr. Speaker, slavery was officially abolished with the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 and for the next 12 years African-Americans made fleeting political, social, and economic gains during Reconstruction, nearly all of which vanished under the system of de jure racial segregation known as `Jim Crow,' which thrived in certain parts of the Nation for nearly the next hundred years.

Under the system of de jure segregation, African Americans could not vote, could not give evidence in court against a white person, were prohibited from marrying outside of their race, could not enter certain professions, could not serve on juries, and enjoyed few, if any, rights that whites were bound to respect. That is what the Supreme Court had decreed 27 years before in the Dred Scott decision in 1850.

Mr. Speaker, the end of Reconstruction in 1877 ushered in a period of oppression and terror for African Americans. The withdrawal of the Federal Government's protection, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the proliferation of the ``Black Codes,'' and the Supreme Court's infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson combined to ensure that African Americans would treated as second-class citizens forced to lead separate and unequal lives for four more generations.

Mr. Speaker, it is difficult for many today to understand just how oppressive it was for African Americans to live under the regime of Jim Crow. For those who couldn't understand why African Americans were so impatient to overcome segregation, Dr. King explained why ``we can't wait'' in his Letter from Birmingham Jail:

``[W]hen you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging

signs reading ``white'' and ``colored''; when your first name

becomes ``nigger,'' your middle name becomes ``boy'' (however

old you are) and your last name becomes ``John,'' and your

wife and mother are never given the respected title ``Mrs.'';

when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact

that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance,

never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with

inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever

fighting a degenerating sense of ``nobodiness'' then you will

understand why we find it difficult to wait.''

America has made great strides in overcoming its Original Sin thanks to the modern Civil Rights Movement, which ushered in the Second American Revolution led by giants like Thurgood Marshall and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

But we still have some distance to go before we will have fully perfected our Union. Even today there remain the badges and vestiges of slavery. African-Americans continue to suffer the consequences of the damage they suffered, both tangible and intangible, to human dignity, including the loss of life, the deprivations of liberty, the long-term loss of income, and denial of opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, just because we can never fully repay the debt owed to those enslaved and their descendants does not mean that we cannot acknowledge this tragic period in our nation's history and try to atone for it. That is the least we can do.

The resolution before us is an excellent start and I strongly support it.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 194) apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 194, which is bipartisan legislation apologizing for the enslavement and the continued racial segregation of African Americans. For numerous Congresses past, similar resolutions have been introduced, but none have made it to the floor for consideration by the full House. So I salute my colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee, a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Honorable Steve Cohen, for his leadership and indefatigable energy in bringing us to this point in support of this resolution which he has created.

While much progress has been made since the civil rights era, the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow is still at the root of many critical issues facing the African American community today; educational opportunities, health care access, business capital, they are still victimized by crime, and many other socioeconomic considerations.

Our friend the former President, Bill Clinton, expressed his regrets over the Nation's role in the slave trade. The current President, George W. Bush, described it as ``one of the greatest crimes of history.'' A number of States, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey, have made moving apologies in their own ways. Now, with an official United States Government apology before us, this measure will take us another step forward toward the national healing, atonement and continued progress that must be made along these lines.

The discussion of race is a sensitive, difficult issue even today in our society. And, of course, the apology is not the end of the story, but it does reaffirm our national commitment to understanding and addressing, in the words of the resolution, how to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.

So I am proud to join the many Members on both sides of the aisle that have helped us bring this suspension forward today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I yield such time as he may consume to the author of the measure before us, the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.