Madam Speaker, let me thank our illustrious leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose visionary leadership is going to carry us into the 117th Congress. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty acts…
Madam Speaker, let me thank our illustrious leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose visionary leadership is going to carry us into the 117th Congress.
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty acts legislatively on her history. She is from Ohio, one of the major stops of the Underground Railroad. In fact, Cincinnati, Ohio, has one of the most monumental monuments, if you will, to that freedom train, that courage, of Harriet Tubman. I might say that our chairwoman's actions are in resemblance to Harriet Tubman. We are grateful for her vision.
We will tomorrow, at the Congressional Black Caucus, unveil the talent of tens upon tens of members of the Congressional Black Caucus and lay out our legacy, Our Power, Our Message. I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership.
It is as well my honor to be able to co-chair this with, if I might with a degree of familiarity, a brother from the Bronx. I am delighted that a working man's and woman's representative has come to be able to shine, a man who is a product of public housing, public schools, and public hospitals, and who had a dream of lifting up his community and building back a better Bronx.
I am delighted that at 25, against all odds, he became the youngest elected official in New York City and the first openly LGBTQ elected official from the Bronx. He doesn't know that his reputation preceded him as a dynamic get-her-done person.
I will repeat his motto before I begin my remarks, and that is Ritchie Torres' remarks and life motto is as follows: ``My motto is life is simple. If you do nothing, nothing will change.''
Wow, what a piercing message for all of us, Republicans and Democrats, to do something good.
His motto is: ``If you do nothing, nothing will change. We can build a better Bronx, and we will do it together.''
I am delighted to coanchor with Mr. Ritchie Torres for the 117th Congress.
General Leave
Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
Madam Speaker, I am particularly delighted to begin my remarks, as I continue to weave in and out tonight, and then, with my remarks, will yield to Mr. Torres as well.
This is a moment in history. Tonight, we will explore honoring our 50-year legacy, Our Power, Our Message.
As I was flying up today, I was very happy to find on the movie list on an airplane ``Good Trouble,'' the movie about John Lewis, with so many Members telling their story. I think I will just simply say: Good trouble.
Tonight, we hope to exemplify good trouble as we honor the 50-year legacy of the Congressional Black Caucus and emphasize Our Power, Our Message. We want to be in good trouble.
I am honored in the 117th Congress to chair the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee and serve as a senior member on the Judiciary Committee, where, in addition to the powers of Congressional Black Caucus, we will seek to have justice rain down like righteous waters.
We will do that, however, with the 55 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I think our numbers are higher than that, and they are all on different committees. Amazing. They will pierce the seams of equality and justice in the 117th Congress. So we will have our past, but we will have our future.
Let me briefly talk about where we were 400 years ago. Ships sailed from the west coast of Africa and in the process began one of mankind's most inhumane practices, human bondage and slavery. Approximately 4 million Africans and their descendents were enslaved in the United States and colonies, that became the United States, from 1619 to 1865.
The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 to 1865, and certainly American slavery is our original sin. But tonight you will hear woven throughout the remarks of so many of my colleagues, how out of these ashes of enslaved Africans, out of the toll of death from those held in bondage, out of the heroes that fought in the Civil War, who rose up out of the south and the north and came and bled for this Nation, out of that death toll of American fighters who happen to be present and former slaves and suffered indignities, and continue until the end of the 1800s and into Jim Crow-ism, you will find the overcomers.
You will find those who have climbed and clawed their way to leadership. Of course, there will be those who say there is no need for an apology, which is part of H.R. 40, no need for a commission to pierce into these ongoing disparities because you have overcome. In fact, this caucus was founded by overcomers, an array of talented men and women who themselves are the cornerstone of democracy and legitimacy.
Who would ever forget the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to run for the Presidency, an African-American woman, Black woman, and a woman to run for the Presidency, never to be daunted, never to be rejected, never to be denied?
Or William L. Clay, Sr., who chaired the Education and Labor Committee, the first Black man, or the second, to do so.
George W. Collins, a pioneer and powerhouse out of Chicago, Illinois.
John Conyers, the dean of the United States Congress, and the first Member of Congress to hire Rosa Parks, and a Member of Congress--I think it is his distinction alone--to have Dr. Martin Luther King endorse him.
Ron Dellums, he was a man that was told: You sit in the chair with Pat Schroeder, in the Armed Services Committee. We are not interested in you being here in the first place. And Ron Dellums rose to be chair of the Armed Services Committee.
And how much of an overcomer they are: Charles Diggs, the leading man on Africa.
Augustus Hawkins, the leading man on the empowerment of working families.
Again, Ralph Metcalfe, one of the early pioneers of elected Black Members of Congress, again, out of Chicago.
Parren Mitchell, the father of affirmative action.
Robert C. Nix, a pioneer out of Pennsylvania.
Charles B. Rangel, who worked his way up from the streets of Harlem to the U.S. Attorney's Office to then be chair of the Ways and Means Committee.
Lou Stokes, a major force on the Appropriations Committee and healthcare in America.
And, of course, delegate Walter E. Fauntroy, who I met in South Carolina with a commitment to defeat a segregationist who chaired the District of Columbia Committee.
Overcomers, but each of them will say that this definition of who we are should not be on the few, it should be on the many. That means that, we, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus, stand here today to be able to call as our mandate, our challenge, our power, our message, is to be able to lift the opportunities of all African Americans and Black people, and people of color, as we work to ensure that anyone who is denied equality has us, we, the collective body politics, as their champion. That is what tonight is about.
You will hear a number of descriptions of many persons, and you will hear the words of many of us from different parts of the country.
Madam Speaker, I am delighted to kick-off this series of CBC Special Order Hours for the 117th Congress with my colleague Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) who will serve as co-Anchor.
Tonight, we will explore Honoring our 50 Year legacy Our Power, Our Message.
As chair of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and a senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and a member of the House Budget Committee, I clearly understand the importance of history and why we should take time to appreciate the path that has led us to this moment.
Four hundred years ago, ships set sail from the west coast of Africa and, in the process, began one of mankind's most inhumane practices: human bondage and slavery.
For two centuries, human beings--full of hopes and fears, dreams and concerns, ambition, and anguish--were transported onto ships like chattel, and the lives of many were forever changed.
The reverberations from this horrific series of acts--a transatlantic slave trade that touched the shores of a colony that came to be known as America, and later a democratic republic known as the United States of America--are unknown and worthy of exploration.
Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 1619 to 1865.
The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 1865.
American Slavery is our country's Original Sin and its existence at the birth of our nation is a permanent scar on our country's founding documents, and on the venerated authors of those documents, and it is a legacy that continued well into the last century.
The framework for our country and the document to which we all take an oath describes African Americans as three-fifths a person.
The infamous Dred Scott decision of the United States Supreme Court, issued just a few decades later, described slaves as private property, unworthy of citizenship.
And, a civil war that produced the largest death toll of American fighters in any conflict in our history could not prevent the indignities of Jim Crow, the fire hose at lunch counters, and the systemic and institutional discrimination that would follow for a century after the end of the Civil War.
The mythology built around the Civil War has obscured our discussions of the impact of chattel slavery and made it difficult to have a national dialogue on how to fully account for its place in American history and public policy.
While it is nearly impossible to determine how the lives touched by slavery could have flourished in the absence of bondage, we have certain datum that permits us to examine how a subset of Americans-- African Americans--have been affected by the callousness of involuntary servitude.
We know that in almost every segment of society--education, healthcare, jobs, and wealth--the inequities that persist in America are more acutely and disproportionately felt in Black America.
This historic discrimination continues: African-Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 black people incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current white unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.
These conditions gave rise to a strong believe by Congressman Charlie Diggs that black members of Congress needed a way to make a difference by working together.
The idea for an organization of black elected Members of Congress came from Representative Charles Diggs (D-Mich.) who created the Democracy Select Committee (DSC) in an effort to bring black members of Congress together.
Diggs noticed that he and other African American members of Congress often felt isolated because there were very few of them in Congress, and he wanted to create a forum where they could discuss common political challenges and interests.
Diggs believed that ``The sooner we get organized for group action, the more effective we can become.''
The DSC was an informal group that held irregular meetings and had no independent staff or budget, but that changed a few years later.
As a result of court-ordered redistricting, one of several victories of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act joined by the force of the Civil Rights Movement, the number of African-American Members of Congress rose from nine to 13, the largest number since the end of the Civil War brought reconstruction that paved the way for voting rights for former slaves.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was established in 1971 by the following 13 founding members:
1. Rep. Shirley A. Chisholm (D-N.Y.);
2. Rep. William L. Clay, Sr. (D-Mo.);
3. Rep. George W. Collins (D-Ill.);
4. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.);
5. Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Calif.);
6. Rep. Charles C. Diggs, Jr. (D-Mich.);
7. Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Calif.);
8. Rep. Ralph H. Metcalfe (D-Ill.);
9. Rep. Parren J. Mitchell (D-Md.);
10. Rep. Robert N.C. Nix, Sr. (D-Pa.);
11. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.);
12. Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio); and
13. Del. Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.).
Few recall that before these storied luminaries were elected to Congress, there were other African American Members of Congress immediately following the end of the Civil War who also served in this august body.
1. Robert Brown ELLIOTT 42nd (1871-73), 43rd (1873-75)
2. Jefferson Franklin LONG, 41st (1869-71)
3. Joseph Hayne RAINEY, 41st (1869-71), 42nd (1871-73), 43rd (1873- 75), 44th (1875-77), 45th (1877-79)
4. Hiram Rhodes REVELS, 41st (1869-1871)
5. Robert Carlos DE LARGE 42nd (1871-1873)
6. Robert Brown ELLIOTT, 42nd (1871-73), 43rd (1873-75)
7. Benjamin Sterling TURNER, 42nd (1871-1873)
8. Josiah Thomas WALLS, 42nd (1871-73), 43rd (1873-75), 44th(1875-77)
9. Richard Harvey CAIN, 43rd (1873-75), 45th (1877-79)
10. John Roy LYNCH, 43rd (1873-75), 44th (1875-77), 47th (1881-83)
11. Alonzo Jacob RANSIER, 43rd (1873-75)
12. James Thomas RAPIER, 43rd (1873-75)
13. Blanche Kelso BRUCE, 44th (1875-77), 45th (1877-79), 46th (1879- 81)
14. Jeremiah HARALSON, 44th (1875-77)
15. HYMAN, John Adams 44th (1875-77)
16. Charles Edmund NASH, 44th (1875-77)
At the end of reconstruction, many of these Black members of Congress lost their office and many others who sought elected office or attempted to vote in public elections lost their lives.
It would take nearly another hundred years until a sufficient number of Federally elected black candidates would return to Congress.
But as too many African Americans know, in some ways, the civil war has never truly ended.
On January 6, 2021, we saw the raw, savage face of the lingering confederacy attempt to put a dagger into the heart of our democracy.
On that day, every belief expressed by this preamble to the Constitution of the United States was at risk of being lost to the hands of a wellcoordinated attack hidden within the ranks of a riotous, murderous mob that invaded and laid siege to U.S. Capitol during the constitutionally required but ministerial act of counting the ballots submitted by the presidential electors of each state and declaring publicly the persons who were by their ballots elected President and Vice-President of the United States.
We all knew the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election long before January 6, 2021 because of the transparency of each state's election administration and that the Joint Meeting of Congress would simply confirm that Joe Biden had won more than a majority of the electoral votes, along with winning the national popular vote by more than 7 million votes.
The riot came immediately after then-President Trump promoted a march on the Capitol and called his supporters to `stop the steal,' `never give up, never concede,' and to `fight like hell' during a speech that day, asserting that they would not `have a country anymore' if they did not act.
During the breach, Members of Congress were voting to certify then- President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, and many participants in the attack intended to thwart this effort.
Violent participants, incited by the former President's rhetoric, injured scores of D.C. Police and U.S. Capitol Police officers--killing one, while four civilians also died.
The level of violence and passions demonstrated are out of character for a nation that is accustomed to the peaceful transfer of power, especially when the results were so clear--the President had been soundly defeated for reelection.
We did not appreciate how powerful a lie could be in the domain of social media where people can wall themselves off from alternative views and news.
A nation accustomed to the peaceful transfer of power from one presidency to another was unprepared for the enemy within; from a Chief Executive who would attempt to strike at the heart of lawful authority to destroy the union so that he could remain in office.
The underlying currents that led to the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 began with the Compromise of 1876, which ended Reconstruction.
We must have an account of the crimes committed and the exacting of justice to those whose violent acts of rebellion against the authority of the United States resulted in the deaths of six Americans and the desecration and defilement of the Citadel of Democracy.
The injury done to the nation by white supremacists on January 6, 2021, can be linked to the harm they have done to this nation for well over 100 years beginning with the end of Reconstruction.
The withdrawal of Union troops from the defeated and seditious southern states in 1877 effectively put an end to Reconstruction and ushered in the era deconstruction of any efforts to normalize equal rights under law to former slaves.
This period of American history is obscured by time and characterized by a willful ignorance by governments, media, and academia, of the scale of murder mania that gripped the South during the period before Jim Crow de jure segregation, when the lines were being drawn in the blood of black people that outlined what black people would and would never be allowed to do in American society.
Before they were written into law, the `Black Codes' were shaped by a series of violent acts that occurred in communities large and small throughout the South, leading to tens of thousands of murders and attacks that maimed many because of arbitrary rules of social conduct such as a black man did not tip his hat, get off the sidewalk, spoke to a white person without first being spoken to, or other perceived slights.
The reign of terror visited upon former slaves and their communities began near the end of Reconstruction and resulted in a secret history of the United States that almost erased the gains made by former slaves during the period 1865-1876 that included over 1,500 elected offices held throughout the South.
There were former slaves elected to serve in the 41st and 42nd Congresses of the United States, most of whom were denied reelection to office once Jim Crow laws limited access to voting for former slaves.
It was unnatural for black communities to have gone silent in the body politic after the strides made by newly freed slaves in engaging in political discourse but that silence was caused by the tens of thousands of singular and mass murders and lynchings that occurred after the end of Reconstruction and continued well into the 20th Century.
The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre that killed hundreds of blacks is another example of what a mob stirred by racial amanous can do to African Americans who only crime was living a prosperous and economically independent American Dream.
African American history has a long, painful and bloody path that clearly exhibits how violent the Confederacy was, and we have fought a cold civil war for over 156 years, which today is on the verge of turning hot.
Evidence of the desperation of black people to escape the drudgery of the south is evident by the greatest self migration of people within the United States known as the Great Migration, which saw the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from about 1916 to 1970.
The push to leave family and communities in the south was motivated by a deep desire to escape the yoke of the cold civil war; and the pull to go to other parts of the nation was a chance to live free of fear, which translated into black people who were allowed to pursue the American Dream.
This is why for millions of Americans it was shameful, painful and a disgrace that the Confederate battle flag was paraded in the Capitol of the United States by Trump's motley band of disloyalists, something that hundreds of
thousands of true patriots gave the last full measure of devotion to prevent in the crucible years of the civil war from 1861 to 1865.
The lynchings, beatings, rapes, burnings, joined with roadblocks to advancements that would afford African American people basic human rights such as fair wages, food, shelter, education, economic opportunity, healthcare, due process and equal treatment under the law, were denied for much of our history.
The goals of this cold civil war were simple: it was to end or frustrate any effort by society to create a world where black people are free and have full rights as citizens of the United States.
The threat of a hot civil war comes from the majority of Americans accepting that African Americans have a place in America, and a right to pursue the American Dream.
The shift in American values and views regarding race have come very slowly with advances and setbacks until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 created space and time to reestablish voting rights for black voters that continues to be under threat.
In this latter respect, the Insurrection of January 6 sought to duplicate the Compromise of 1876 because in both cases adherents of white supremacy sought to retain and monopolize political power by disenfranchising and disempowering millions of black Americans, throughout the South in 1876 and in the urban centers of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia in 2020.
The threat of a hot civil war stems from the fear of white supremacists that a growing majority of Americans accept that African Americans have an equal right and entitlement to the blessings of liberty because they are full members of the American political community.
January 6, 2021, was not the first time that white supremacists attacked to overthrow duly elected white and black public officials. In 1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina and again in Colfax, Louisiana in 1873, the election of diverse slates of statewide candidates to public office triggered violent white mobs to attack and murder newly elected officials.
The Colfax Massacre, sometimes referred to euphemistically as the Colfax Riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish, where between 62 and 153 black men were murdered by racist white vigilantes calling themselves a militia.
Three white men also died in the confrontation, with at least one said to have been shot by his own ally.
In the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of white Democrats armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered Republican freedmen and black state militia occupying the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax.
Most of the freedmen were murdered after they surrendered; nearly 50 were killed later that night after being held prisoners for several hours.
Estimates of the number of dead have varied, ranging from 62 to 153. The exact number of black victims was difficult to determine because many bodies were thrown into the Red River or mass gravesites.
Reconstruction ended in 1877 and by 1898 the protection afforded newly freed slaves to participate as equal citizens in casting ballots in public elections that allowed for the election of black and white candidates ceased to exist.
White supremacists who ran as candidates in 1898, but lost their elections used mob violence to take the offices from the duly elected officials, sparking the Wilmington insurrection, also known as the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington Coup of 1898.
The similarities between what happened on January 6, and the events of 1898 are striking in that both featured a mass riot and insurrection carried out by white supremacists.
The mass riot carried out by white supremacists on January 6, 2021, sought to overturn an election where black voters played a significant role in electing Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President of the United States.
Furthermore, to add injury to their racist sensibilities, the preceding day, January 5, 2021, the state of Georgia elected its first African American and Jewish U.S. Senators during a special election.
Today, we see the potential for the 1898 level of violence against the entire Congress, which has become the most diverse deliberative body in our nation's history.
Since the attack, the FBI has identified more than 400 individuals out of an estimated 800 who illegally entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021. As of January 27, 2021, the FBI's Washington Field Office has confirmed that more than 150 criminal cases against those individuals have been filed.
Although some reporting initially contradicted Justice Department officials' public statements regarding aggressive efforts to charge all those involved in the criminal activity, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin reaffirmed the Department's commitment on January 26, 2021, stating ``[r]egardless of the level of criminal conduct, we're not selectively targeting or just trying to charge the most significant crime . . . [i]f a crime was committed we are charging you, whether you were outside or inside the Capitol.''
The long and blood history of white supremacy requires an approach that holds individuals accountable for their actions as a means of ending the lure of the mob as a tool of violence against targets of interest.
Reports that cite that over a hundred current or former members of the military were involved in the riot at the Capitol are shocking to some.
Unfortunately, this aspect of white supremacist violence was evident by violence committed by Proud Boys and Boogaloo adherents made clear their objectives.
My efforts to focus the attention of the military on this link was evident in an amendment I offered to the NDAA for FY2021 that was adopted.
This Jackson Lee Amendment included in the House version of the NOAA directed the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress the extent, if any, of the threat to national security posed by domestic terrorist groups and organizations motivated by a belief system of white supremacy, such as the Boogaloo and Proud Boys extremists is reflected in the Conference bill.
The NDAA conference identified that the FBI is under statutory obligation, established by Section 5602 of the NDAA FY 2020 (Public Law 116-92), to complete a report that would better characterize the domestic terrorist threat by requiring the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), to produce a set of comprehensive reports over 5 years.
The report is to include: a strategic intelligence threat internal to the United States; metrics on the number and type of incidents, coupled with resulting investigations, arrests, prosecutions and analytic products, copies of the execution of domestic terrorism investigations; detailed explanations of how the FBI, DHS and NCTC prioritize the domestic terrorism threats and incident; and descriptions regarding the type and regularity of training provided by the FBI, DHS, or NCTC to other Federal, State and local law enforcement.
The conferees noted that the report has not been delivered to the appropriate committees, and they urged the FBI Director to deliver the report without delay.
The Jackson Lee Amendment to the NDAA FY 2021 sought the same information that is required under the NDAA FY 2020 because of the threat posed by accelerationists and militia extremists who comprise a range of violent anti-government actors, movements and organizations, some of which branch out of decades-old ideologies and others of which are relatively new has led to violent engagement of law enforcement.
My concern is that in the aftermath of a historic national election, the activity of violence influencers like Boogaloo Boys or Proud Boys will increase and lead to attacks becoming more frequent.
In 2018, we saw too many instances of violent extremists searching for opportunities to sow violence and disrupt democratic processes.
Boogaloo and Proud Boys are targeting constitutionally protected activity for cooption or to provide cover for attacks.
honoring our 50-year legacy: our power, our message
List of Unfinished Business in the 117th Congress:
The work of the 117th Congress is just begun, but the list of unfinished business is long:
Ending the COVID-19 by Ending Healthcare Disparities;
Passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act;
Criminal Justice Reform;
Funding to complete the restoration of a safe drinking water system for Flint, Michigan;
Enactment of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act;
Immigration Reform.
The United States is a work in progress, as stated in the preamble to the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States.
African Americans have fought in every war this nation has faced knowing that they were not afforded the same rights and freedoms of white Americans.
We comprise thirteen percent of the population of the United States, and yet experience a higher rate of incarceration, health disparities, more vulnerable to economic slowdowns, and even more likely to get COVID-19 and have much worse health outcomes.
Disparities tell the story of living while black in America.
Disparities in maternity mortality, in the care we receive from doctors when we are in pain caused by Sickle Cell anemia, or present with serious symptoms like Ebola as was the case with Thomas Eric Duncan who went to a Dallas Area hospital for treatment.
Disparities in the spread of COVID-19 are killing Black people at a much higher rate than our percentage of the population in states reporting demographic data.
Since that time, we have seen a pandemic sweep the country, taking more than 500,000 souls in its wake and devastating the African American community.
According to the latest estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Black people get COVID-19 at a rate nearly one and a half times higher than that of white people, are hospitalized at a rate nearly four times higher, and are three times as likely to die from the disease.
Interestingly, a recent peer-reviewed study from Harvard Medical School suggests that reparations for African Americans could have cut COVID-19 transmission and infection rates both among Blacks and the population at large.
Their analysis, based on Louisiana data, determined that if reparations payments had been made before the COVID-19 pandemic, narrowing the wealth gap, COVID-19 transmission rates in the state's overall population could have been reduced by anywhere from 31 percent to 68 percent.
I include in the Record an article detailing the results of a Harvard Study that found that reparations for slavery could have reduced COVID- 19 infections and deaths in US from between 31-68 percent.
There are disparities in every aspect of African American life and death.
Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people incarcerated in America increased from roughly 500,000 to over 2.2 million.
Today, the United States makes up about 5 percent of the world's population and has 21 percent of the world's prisoners.
1 in every 37 adults in the United States, or 2.7 percent of the adult population, is under some form of correctional supervision.
In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34 percent of the total 6.8 million correctional population.
African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites.
The imprisonment rate for African American women is twice that of white women.
Nationwide, African American children represent 32 percent of children who are arrested,
42 percent of children who are detained, and 52 percent of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court.
Though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately 32 percent of the US population, they comprised 56 percent of all incarcerated people in 2015.
In African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40 percent.
We will have special orders throughout this Congress that can delve more deeply in the aspect of live in America through discussions on
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres).
Madam Speaker, let me thank the gentleman very much for his powerful words and his very prominent focus on the idea that you are from the Bronx, but the spirit of the Bronx cannot be taken from you, and that your commitment and your assessment of this country will be defined in your way, not in the way of white supremacists, domestic terrorists, or insurrectionists.
Madam Speaker, I think more than ever he has captured an important moment by saying he has hope, and that is what the Congressional Black Caucus represents for the millions of Americans that we represent. He is right, our constituency is multicultural, they come from many different perspectives, they are Black, they are African American--as they may be desired to be called--they are Latinx, they are Hispanic, they are Anglo, they are White, they are Southeast Asian, they are Asian Pacific, they are LGBTQ, and they are varied. That is what we are here today to stand for.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jones), a distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee, among other committees, and a scholar in his own right, a lawyer, and someone who has been able to be trained in the ways of the law, but whose heart is vested in the ways of justice. I am delighted to yield to my colleague for his time on the floor in this wonderful momentous occasion.
Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Jones so very much for that powerful statement. A powerful statement, obviously, a lawyer's lawyer to bring to our attention the great leadership of Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall, from a lawyer whom we know will continue to promote justice now as a legislator.
Madam Speaker, I want to take a moment to just put in the Record really the historical description of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Since its establishment in 1971, the Congressional Black Caucus has been committed to using the full constitutional power, statutory authority, and financial resources of the Federal Government to ensure that Black Americans and other marginalized communities in the United States have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
As part of this commitment, the CBC has fought in the past 50 years to empower citizens and address their legislative concerns by nursing a policy agenda that is inclusive, pragmatic, effective, and resonates with the American people.
Just for a moment, I would like to comment on the dangerous interrelatedness of race and the insurrectionist day of January 6.
We are on the floor because we have a unique history. We are a multiranged people and a multicultural people. We are individuals whose heritage is intertwined with other backgrounds. We are African Americans. We are Caribbean Americans. And in terms of African Americans, we are Caribbean Blacks, if you will. We come from all over the world, but we come to America and we are described by a singular history.
And if we have come with a singular history, I think it is important to intertwine what happened on January 6. Shockingly, Madam Speaker, those who came to object--so they say--to the duly qualified and legitimate election of President Joe Biden and, of course, Vice President Harris, they, of course, came allegedly with that proposition. But, at the same time, I am stunned by the words of a police officer by the name of Mr. Harry Dunn--courageous and brave with so many others--who indicated: The rioters called me the n-word dozens of times.
So here we are 50 years celebrating the Congressional Black Caucus. Here we are defenders of democracy. Many of our Members are former members of the United States military, having gone into battle, or our family members have. Many fell in as early a war as World War I, World War II, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and other wars in between. We shed our blood for this country.
And the so-called people who came and said they just wanted some democracy, they believed that their candidate won, but they took enough time to call the sons and daughters of enslaved Africans, who wear the uniform defending democracy, the n-word.
They took time to carry a fake flag, calling it the Confederate flag when it is a symbol in the 1960s of the harshness and brutality of segregation and the Klan. They took time to bring that flag to the United States Congress, in the midst of the highest number of elected persons of color, persons who are descendants in many different ways of enslaved Africans.
But here I wanted to mention Mr. Dunn's name. There were many others who were beaten that day. I honor them, and we will honor them as time goes. This night, tonight, we mention this gentleman who said most powerfully--Harry Dunn recalled the sickening events of January 6--when he says that the level of racist abuse he suffered caused him to break down in tears, but he was not broken. His quote was: ``Y'all failed.''
That is my message today. All of the brutality that we may have experienced, which I will talk about in a moment, all of it failed. That is why we are here today fighting in the Education and Labor Committee; fighting in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee; fighting in the Ways and Means Committee; fighting in the Energy and Commerce Committee; the Judiciary; the Interior; the Armed Services Committee; the Oversight and Reform Committee; and the Budget Committee, where you will see our presence.
We are fighting for America, but we are the conscience that drives the reality that there are more people to be concerned about than those of us in this Chamber. That there are mothers and father who work every day, who don't see the fruit of their labor. There are children who clamor for education, but it is not there.
There are soldiers who need to have the line of hierarchy and the route to promotion and elevation, who don't get it. There are businesspersons who have brilliant ideas, but can't access the capital. There are incarcerated persons who are not guilty, but are still incarcerated.
There are doors of college institutions closed. There are people who want to do better with a new house, but still, in the 21st century, are redlined. And there are many who want to go places and cannot go, who are African American.
No, we are not complaining. We are trying to explain how much has been done by people who have had this kind of history. It is important to take note of that.
Madam Speaker, may I have the time remaining?
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres), if he will carry forth.
Madam Speaker, my coanchor has very powerfully captured the many heroes in our community, historical heroes as well, and heroes who pushed against the edge, walked right up to the line, never failed to be courageous, never failed to work on behalf of people who were voiceless and powerless.
Harriet Tubman was that woman. She was General Moses, and she told slaves that it was not going to be their task to stop along the railroad, they were going to get to their destination--and I guess she was a little harsh--dead or alive.
That is the push of the Congressional Black Caucus. We are not violent people, so I won't say dead or alive. But we are consistently engaged in pushing the envelope, pushing the margins, and pushing the conscience of this Congress led certainly over a huge number of years by the late John Robert Lewis and John Conyers, who headed the Judiciary Committee and fought against every civil rights injustice.
So many leaders. As I indicated, Shirley Chisholm, who ran for the Presidency. And Barbara Jordan, who sat on the impeachment committee as a young Member and said, We, the People. She denied any right of anyone to undermine the Constitution.
Her voice was strong and powerful. I am glad to call her my mentor and my predecessor.
And so I just want to give these words. I want to capture some words here on that insurrection.
Everyone knew the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election long before January 6, 2021. We also knew that the States had gone to a lot of traversing, even they were sued, and they still came back as each State leader said, no fraud: This is the outcome.
Because of the transparency of each State's election administration and that of the joint meeting of Congress, it would simply confirm that Joe Biden had won more than a majority of the electoral votes along with winning the national popular vote by more than seven million votes.
We all know that this was a historic election; more votes than we had ever counted, I believe, in the history of the United States. There was such a sense of exhilaration because democracy was alive. There were so many young people that voted. So many people of the potpourri of America, all backgrounds.
We felt so good about voting together, many of us voting the same way for the same candidate, as evidenced by his victory. States that we had lost 4 years ago, enthusiastically voting for change, for goodness, for a spirit of unity. We knew something was on the horizon.
But isn't it interesting that after that election, for months, people had been told a complete lie, which allowed them to stay in places that we did not know and conspire to come and attack this place, this holy place, this place of democracy, this place that has, Madam Speaker, above you, In God We Trust.
They attacked this place and the riot came immediately after then- President Trump promoted a march on the Capitol and called his supporters to stop the steal; never give up; never concede, and to fight like hell, during a speech that day, asserting that they would not have a country anymore if they did not act.
I read these into our message of our power hour message, 50 years of the Congressional Black Caucus, because I think history will tell. Reading the annals of the Congressional Record, you will see that members of the Congressional Black Caucus, when they were tiny, until we have expanded, have consistently gone to the floor on questions of justice and expanding opportunity and ensuring that justice is a respecter of color or age or region. We fight for justice no matter what the color of your skin, what your background is.
We are purists as it relates to justice. We love the Constitution, because--even though we were three-fifths of a person, we were not a human being when it was finalized--it was a document that grew and continues to breathe rights, from the First Amendment to the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, to the right for women to vote, to the amendments that deal with a right to a trial by jury, to the Fifth Amendment, due process, and the protection of your property. These are all breathing documents and words, breathing amendments that have allowed a people who were in bondage to scrap their way out of the devastation of hatred. We use this Constitution.
But shamefully, that fight has to continue. And on January 6, that fight, that scab was torn off again. That rug was burning again. Those who came to say that they were fighting for Trump and fighting to overturn the election, but more importantly, they are fighting because the election was theirs, they called a Black officer the N word more times than he can remember, caused him to break down, among others. And he had the courage to say, all that they tried to do failed.
Let me just show these depictions of our journey. I will start with this one. This year, 2021, is the 100th anniversary--I hate to even use that term--of the Tulsa riot. Allegedly, a young Black man in an elevator was alleged to have touched a White woman. I think when he finally got out of the elevator it was alleged rape, or it was rape, a typical story, over and over again.
That is why we have such pain for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Pamela Turner, Sandra Bland, Jacob Blake, and Elijah McClain in Colorado, and names beyond, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, the mothers who have become friends, Michael Brown, that is why we have such pain.
And I guess my constituent--the family that has become America's family, along with all the other mothers and fathers--George Floyd grew up in Houston, Texas, in the Cuney Homes, public housing. His mother was the queen of public housing, took in children, fed children. They felt like they were at home in the Floyd family.
Big George is what he was called. Big man. Took his brothers and sisters under his wing. George Floyd played basketball--my recollection is--in China with Yao Ming when they were young players, not pros. We never know who someone is.
So this is the 100th anniversary of probably some of the likes of those names that I called. Life cut down.
And this depiction is Captured Negroes on way to Convention Hall during the Tulsa race riot. They were captured. There was no justice. 300 Negroes, Black Americans were buried in an unmarked grave, as we are told. This is how it was. This is how it was. This is how it was.
The Congressional Black Caucus will be commemorating that this year. And I will introduce legislation with Senator Warren, on the Tulsa race riots next week.
4,000, 4,000-plus Blacks were hung. And as you can see, there were smiling faces in the crowd. It was entertainment. Come to the town square.
No, this is not a depiction of some dastardly person who did violent acts and raided through the community. This could have been someone walking along a dark road. It could have been the three boys in Mississippi during the civil rights movement; they were just driving, trying to get to their destination.
These folks could have been walking. We had one woman who had a dispute with a storekeeper. She was a businesswoman. She was ultimately hung; never came back home. The family was looking for where she might be.
It looks like another celebratory occasion, hanging. We will hear more of this when we proceed to discuss our commission to study and develop reparation proposals.
But let me--before I yield to my good friend and co-anchor, I just want you to see this one. This gentleman's name was--I am going to call him Mr. Gordon. He is a slave--was a slave, deceased. And clearly, those are markings of a very bad beating. But that is not the end of his story.
This gentleman came out of slavery and fought in the Civil War on behalf of the Union. This is what we did. We always rise to the occasion.
You will hear more about our story. But I wanted to make sure that we just got a sense of how we have been overcomers. But even with being overcomers, we know there is more to do.
Madam Speaker, I am very delighted to be able to yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Williams), and she is, in her own right, a leader, a new member of this body, has civil rights in her blood, she is a mother, and she is here ready to fight for our children's education and she will succeed.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her words and certainly her powerful words on the importance of our Vice President, the Honorable Vice President Harris. We are grateful for her.
It is my pleasure to yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres), my co-anchor.
Madam Speaker, we are humbled by the gentleman's words. We are humbled by this moment in history.
I will conclude my remarks by building on Congressman Torres', that we are humbled, but we are honored, but we are ready to work.
I will leave you with these words from our colleague and others. John Lewis said we are in a very difficult time in our country. I am afraid we may wake up one day in America, and our democracy is gone. But he went on to say that when you see something that is not right, say something, do something, get into good trouble.
One of our ancient fathers, Frederick Douglass, said that there is no power without struggle.
Tonight, we have laid the landscape of genius, contributions, sacrifice, brilliance, and the commitment to civil rights that is the Congressional Black Caucus. Our message, our power, Our Power, Our Message. We will continue to work. We will not yield, not give in, not give out, and not give up.
Madam Speaker, let me thank my colleagues for joining the CBC Special Order tonight, and I thank the Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
