A resolution authorizing a plaque commemorating the role of enslaved African Americans in the construction of the Capitol.

Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak on an issue I have certainly followed for many years now in the Senate and one I am proud to have brought to some conclusion along the way, particularly last evening.

Many people look at history and see that when the Capitol was first built in the late 1700s to early 1800s, enslaved African Americans worked in all facets of its construction--carpentry, masonry, carting, rafting, roofing, plastering, glazing, painting, and sawing. But for almost 200 years, the story of these slave laborers was not told and was basically unknown, I would imagine to almost everyone who visited and worked in the Capitol every day.

In July of 2000, I sponsored a resolution to establish a special task force to recommend an appropriate recognition for the slave laborers who worked on the construction of this great building--the U.S. Capitol--our symbol of freedom in this country. My cosponsor on this effort was then Senator Spencer Abraham from Michigan, and so the resolution became known as the Abraham-Lincoln resolution back then.

The bicameral, bipartisan Slave Labor Task Force brought together historians and interested officials to work on this issue. One of those was Curtis Sykes, an educator and native of North Little Rock, AR, and an original member of Arkansas' Black History Advisory Committee. Mr. Sykes passed away before our work was complete, but he made so many important contributions to the task force before his

passing. He was then ably succeeded by Ms. Sarah Jean Davidson, founder and president of the Association for the Preservation of North Little Rock, Arkansas African American History.

I am so very grateful to these two individuals who have offered their insight and their expertise and their input to make sure that what we did here was done in a very special way in great recognition.

In 2007, the task force presented the congressional leadership with recommendations on how to best recognize the contribution of these enslaved workers. The recommendations were developed with the invaluable assistance of a working group that included the historians and curators of the Senate, House, and Office of the Architect of the Capitol, representatives from the AOC Project Management Division, and representatives from the Capitol Visitor Center.

Since then, we have been working so very hard to see that these recommendations are all realized. We have developed a history of slave laborers in the construction of the Capitol and put it online. We have ensured that the story of these slave laborers was incorporated into the CVC orientation video and Capitol tour guide training. We have seen the publication of a book on Black Americans in Congress, and we have seen the reception area of the CVC named Emancipation Hall.

On Monday, I, along with my good friend and colleague Senator Chambliss, introduced a resolution to bring another recommendation to fruition. This resolution, which was approved by the Senate last night, authorizes a plaque to be placed in the Capitol, a plaque that identifies a very special feature of the Capitol. The original exterior wall of the Capitol was constructed between 1793 and 1807. The stones for that wall were mined by slave laborers in a sandstone quarry in Aquia Creek in Stafford County, VA.

Quarrying stone was among the most difficult and backbreaking tasks in the building business. First, the land had to be cleared, then the top of the stone chipped away to reach the parts that had not been damaged by frost or vegetation. Then the stone would be further chipped to create a small cavity, just large enough for one man to work in. The men would work in these small cavities to cut grooves and hammer in iron wedges to split the stone to free it from the larger block. To make matters worse, the quarries were located on an isolated, snake- infested island that swarmed with mosquitoes in the blazing summer and froze under snow in winter.

Much of the original Capitol no longer stands, due to the fires of war and renovations to create more space. The original East exterior wall still exists, however, and is now part of the East Front Corridor. It is one of the few places where that original slave-quarried sandstone is still in evidence. The plaque would be placed near that wall, and would bear an inscription identifying the wall as having been built of sandstone quarried by enslaved African Americans who were an important part, a vital part of the labor force that built our great U.S. Capitol.

Thanks to my Slave Labor Task Force colleague Congressman John Lewis, there will be a similar plaque on the House side of the East Front Corridor. These locations are important for another reason. They are on the route that visitors take to the Senate and House galleries. Mr. Sykes, as I mentioned earlier, the Arkansas historian with whom I worked, focused on the need to ensure that as many citizens as possible be made aware of this contribution of enslaved African Americans in the building of this great building, our Capitol. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Sykes. To me, education is at the heart of this effort. It would do no good to have a plaque that was hidden in a corner where no one would see it. It would do no good if we told the story of enslaved African Americans building the Capitol and no one heard it.

A critical part of recognizing the work of the slaves is to make their story visible and accessible, so that future generations know and understand the sacrifices that have been made for the many blessings that we enjoy today, that those blessings that are capsulized in the very building in which we all work, that the freedoms and the rights that we enjoy, are capsulized in a building that had tremendous input from enslaved African Americans.

I was recently in the new CVC and I hope, for those Members who have not been, they will go visit and certainly for those of our constituents who visit this great Capitol of the Nation, that they get a chance to visit the Visitors Center. I watched the faces of dozens of schoolchildren as their mouths opened up, dropped in awe at the sight of this vast and beautiful Emancipation Hall. Their eyes popped open wide as they looked through the skylight and saw this gorgeous view of the dome of the Capitol that represents who they are and the great Nation to which they belong.

They were so excited about being there, and that excitement opened their minds to the lessons that would be taught to them, there in that visitors center--like the Statue of Freedom that was designed by an Italian and sent over here and yet could not be reconstructed until the ingenuity and the dedicated focus of, yes, an enslaved African American by the name of Philip Reid could figure out how to unhook the model that the Italians had sent us, cast it, and put it piece by piece back together. No one else could figure it out.

As you walk into Emancipation Hall and you see this huge statue, the caste of the Statue of Freedom, what an unbelievable feeling it gives, not just to schoolchildren, but to any American who walks in there. How important for them to know of the ingenuity, the hard work, the labor that went into this incredible building.

Through this effort I wanted to make sure that everyone who visits the Capitol leaves knowing the story of the people who helped to build it, a true symbol of freedom, at a time when they themselves were not free.

I want to close, first, by saying again a very special thanks to my friend and colleague Senator Chambliss from Georgia who has worked with us on this resolution--we were so excited and pleased to see it pass last night--as well as the chairman of the Rules Committee, Senator Schumer, and the distinguished ranking member of the committee, Senator Bennett, for also sponsoring the legislation with Senator Chambliss and myself. They were all so good to work with on this resolution. I appreciate their efforts and emphasis on something I believe is very important, not just for the Capitol but for our entire Nation.

I also want to publicly thank and recognize my good friend and former colleague Congressman John Lewis for his leadership on this project. He is an extraordinary human being. I have been grateful for the opportunity to work with him on this very important issue.

I never will forget, when I arrived in the House of Representatives as a young single woman in 1993, Congressman Lewis invited a small group of us freshmen--it was the largest freshman class since the 1940s, I believe--anyway, he invited us to come view some of his footage and film from days during the 1960s, and all of what he endured before that. It was amazing--the freedom ride, all of what he had experienced. It was a tremendous opportunity for me to get to know him better. I am grateful, again, for his extraordinary leadership.

I hope everyone, as I said, will take the opportunity to go to the CVC if they have not already and take a look and hopefully burn in each of our hearts how important it is to remember every day when we come to this unbelievable building what it stands for; hopefully relighting and rekindling our ability to unite, to work together for the great things this wonderful Nation stands for. I appreciate so much everyone working together to make this possibility a reality. I am very excited.

I thank my colleagues for their attention. I yield the floor to my good friend and colleague from Georgia.

Mr. President, I rise to speak in favor of S. Res. 53 which commemorates the role of slaves in constructing the U.S. Capitol. What a great historical revelation and statement my colleague from Arkansas has made. This is one of those moments when the Senate has an opportunity to shine, because we have a chance to look back at historical facts that may

not have been pretty, as we look back on it, but are a part of our history. I want to tell her how much I appreciate her leadership on this--not just this particular resolution, but on this overall issue. She has been a true champion. Her leadership in her caucus has meant an awful lot to a number of people, particularly those of us who come from the South.

She mentioned my good friend John Lewis, my colleague, the dean of our delegation. What a great American John Lewis is. I have the opportunity every year at the Martin Luther King birthday celebration to take the podium with John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church and to recollect and reminisce about some of those times that may not have been pleasant but, again, they are part of our history. John Lewis certainly lived that history and the great story of his contribution to America--his having gone through what he went through--is why we all have such admiration for him.

It is one of the great, sad ironies of American history that the very foundation of this building in which we have debated essential questions of liberty and even decided who was free and who was not, was laid by those who wore shackles. We do not know that much about them. In the scant records that were kept, only a few first names survive next to those of their owners, and the sums paid for their backbreaking work. But we do know this. They toiled in the hot Sun and the cold wind in the quarries of Virginia and Maryland to unearth the stone upon which rests this temple of liberty.

From 1793 to 1826, as many as 800 slaves at any one time painted, roofed, sawed, glazed, and perfected a building that represented a freedom that was never to be theirs and, in an irony of ironies, as the Civil War tore this country asunder over the very issue of human liberty, a slave laborer named Philip Reid cast the Statue of Freedom that now crowns this very building.

Uncredited and unsung, slaves carved and polished the three-story- high marble columns that grace Statuary Hall, a soaring backdrop where so many of us earlier this week debated and discussed the first congressional speech of this Nation's first Black President. How far we have come in this period of history in our country.

We can never pay these laborers their due but we can, even belatedly, recognize their significant contributions.

This resolution authorizes a plaque to be placed near the original East Front wall of the Capitol, one of the few places their handiwork is still visible, to acknowledge the role and contributions enslaved African-American laborers played in the evolution of this building and, by extension, this democracy.

Again, I thank my colleague from Arkansas and commend her once again for her leadership. She and I have worked on so many issues in a strong and bipartisan way. Without her leadership we would not be here now.

I thank all my colleagues for their unanimous approval of this resolution.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of Senator Lincoln's legislation to recognize the role of enslaved African Americans in the construction of the Capitol. Every day, America's lawmakers walk the marble halls of the U.S. Capitol, but we seldom reflect upon the struggles of those who constructed this esteemed building. America was founded on the idea that all of its people should be free, yet throughout our history, we have struggled against the influence of racism and ignorance. We cannot brush over the impact of slavery on the history of our Nation. By acknowledging the role of enslaved African Americans in the construction of the U.S. Capitol, we are one step closer to healing the racial wounds that remain in our society.

Throughout America, children's textbooks are filled with information about the Founders of our Republic, but they mention little or nothing about the enslaved African Americans who helped build the Capitol. Many facts about the lives of these people are lost in history, but documents from the time help us put together a partial picture of what their lives were like. The enslaved African Americans who constructed this building were rented by the Government from their owners. Between 1795 and 1801, more than 380 payments were made to slave owners for the use of their slaves in the construction of the Capitol. Slaves performed a variety of tasks, including mining, stone and timber sawing, bricklaying, and carpentry. They mined the stone used in constructing the section of the Capitol where this plaque will be displayed in the Aquia Creek sandstone quarry in Stafford County, VA, and the Montgomery County marble quarry in Maryland.

Our Nation has made tremendous progress since the days when a slave was valued as three-fifths of a person, but though the days of slave auctions and forced servitude are behind us, our work is not finished. To date, only six African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate. America's first two African American Senators, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, served the State of Mississippi in the 1870s. It was not until 1967, nearly a century later, that America's third African American Senator, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, came to Washington. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois made history in 1993 when she became the first and only African American woman to serve in the Senate. In 2005, Barack Obama, also of Illinois, became the fifth African American to serve in the Senate, followed by Roland Burris.

President Obama's inauguration this year stands as one of the greatest achievements in the history of civil rights in this country. Many doubted that the United States would ever elect an African American President, but I am certain that while President Obama is the first African American to win the Presidency, he will not be the last.

Recognizing the role of enslaved African Americans in the building of the U.S. Capitol is important to coming to terms with our past and overcoming the tragic history of slavery in our Nation. This plaque stands as a reminder of how far we have come since the days of slavery and how far we still need to go.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Rules Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 53 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, and that any statements be printed in the Record.