Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, and still I rise. And still I rise a proud descendant of the enslaved people who are the foundational mothers and fathers of the United States of America.

They are the foundational mothers and fathers because many of them had their entire lives sacrificed so that the country can have the economic foundation that it had in the early stages of its existence.

These foundational mothers and fathers are the persons who were kidnapped, brought to this country, placed into slavery, forced into labor, centuries of labor, not compensated, no remuneration. I am a proud descendant, and I am a proud descendant because they ought to be respected.

It is time to respect the foundational mothers and fathers who laid the economic foundation upon which this Nation stands today.

I am also proud to be here today to speak about the conscience agenda.

We want to make sure that we have a slavery remembrance day, August 20. On August 20, 1619, the White Lion docked in Point Comfort, Virginia, near what we now call Norfolk, Virginia. On this White Lion were persons who were placed into slavery in this country.

August 20, 1619, a moment in time that will impact the rest of time, we will never be able to escape the fact that it happened. It was a seminal moment in time. August 20 ought to be slavery remembrance day.

We ought to also do something to acknowledge those persons whom I call the foundational mothers and fathers. I am a proud descendant of them.

In 1956, we accorded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers, to those persons who would enslave persons or maintain slavery. This Congress did it, a Congressional Gold Medal.

Well, why not have a Congressional Gold Medal for the enslaved, the foundational mothers and fathers?

This is part of the conscience agenda, a Congressional Gold Medal for the enslaved.

In this country that I love, I salute the flag; I say the Pledge of Allegiance; and I stand for the national anthem. It means something to me to be an American.

By the way, the greatness of the country won't be measured by whether I do these things. The greatness of the country will be measured by whether I would defend those who choose not to salute the flag, who choose not to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The greatness of America is in how we tolerate persons who have opinions that are not popular.

That is the greatness of America, in part. There are many other aspects of it.

The truth is, in this country that I am proud to be a part of, proud to say I am an American--the United States is my home; the origin of my descendants was far away--we revere the enslavers and revile the enslaved.

How can we possibly allow this to continue? These were human beings. They merit a Congressional Gold Medal.

If we can give a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslavers, the Confederate soldiers, then we can accord one to the enslaved people who were the foundational mothers and fathers who worked for hundreds of years to make this country the great Nation that it is.

That is all a part of the conscience agenda. Today, however, having spoken of these things briefly, I am going to focus on the third item on the conscience agenda.

The third item on the conscience agenda is removing the name of Richard Russell from the Russell Senate Office Building.

To properly address this, I have to lay a predicate. We have to talk first about beneficial bigotry.

And to properly explain beneficial bigotry, we have to address a concept. It is this notion that those who tolerate bigotry perpetuate bigotry. Those who tolerate bigotry, because of that toleration of bigotry, you are perpetuating it because you're not doing what you can to stop it.

We ought not tolerate bigotry. The Russell Senate Office Building is named after Richard Russell, a self-proclaimed white supremacist. That is what he called himself. He was a person who fought antilynching legislation. That means he did not want us to pass antilynching legislation.

He was a person who fought integration. If he had his way, there is a good likelihood I would not be standing here today. He was the person who coauthored the Southern Manifesto. Richard Russell, his name is on the Russell

Senate Office Building. He identified himself as a white supremacist.

Well, dear friends, his name ought not be there. We ought not tolerate his name being there. To tolerate his name there is to perpetuate the bigotry associated with his many exploits.

Richard Russell's name should be removed from the Russell Senate Office Building, and it should be replaced with the name that it had before it became the Russell Senate Office Building. I don't have a person's name that I would call to the attention of the Congress, I don't. There will be some debate about that.

I do believe we can let it revert to the name that it had prior to becoming the Russell Senate Office Building, and that was the Old Senate Office Building. I think it should be called the Old Senate Office Building. Let it revert back to this, then take as much time as you need to acquire an honorable name to go on the building.

The Russell Senate Office Building is currently a symbol of national shame. It is. The Senators ought to be ashamed because they have the power to remove this name from the building. They have the power to do it, the Senate. The same Senate that voted on removing names from military bases can remove this name from the Russell Senate Office Building.

The toleration of bigotry is the perpetuation of it. Allowing this name to stay there is the toleration of bigotry, especially when you have the power to remove it. We ought to use that awesome power that the Senate has to do not the right thing but the righteous things. It would be a righteous thing to remove this name from the building.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk about beneficial bigotry, this is a part of my predicate. When you benefit from bigotry, if you believe it benefits you in some way, you tolerate it.

I, by the way, have not been afforded that luxury. If I say something that is bigoted or if I am near bigotry, I have to apologize. I have apologized, by the way, for things that I found to be unacceptable. I have. I have to. I am not allowed the luxury of having the benefits that beneficial bigotry can afford people.

There are many who fight bigotry until it benefits them. They don't have to apologize. They can let a building be called the Russell Senate Office Building, fight bigotry everywhere but in the building wherein they happen to have offices. They fight it everywhere but here, the Russell Senate Office Building, with this name.

Let me give you some examples of what beneficial bigotry allows. Beneficial bigotry will allow a country to name a town after a bigot. Beneficial bigotry. Beneficial bigotry allows some people the luxury of associating with bigots and justifying it. That is what beneficial bigotry accords some people.

We ought not allow the benefits of bigotry to allow us to tolerate bigotry, such that we perpetuate bigotry. That is what is happening with the Russell Senate Office Building.

My friends, I live today to live to see the day that this name will come off of this building. I don't know when it will happen--it will. But I do know how the system works, and it is beneficial to know how it works.

The system functions such that when some people demand things of others who have the power to make the change, they will not make that change because of the simple fact that the demand was made, and they don't want it to appear as though they had to succumb to the demand that was made. I am demanding. I am demanding. I am not begging. I am, in a sense, pleading. I am demanding that the name come off.

You see, when you do this and when you are bold enough and you have the courage enough to demand that the righteous thing be done, there are some people who are not going to do the righteous thing simply because they can't let it be said that they have caved in, as it were-- to borrow the parlance of many persons--that they caved in to a demand to do the righteous thing. They can't accept that.

What they will do is they will try to find a way to do this, to remove the name, and proclaim victory because it was done for some other reason, not because of the demand, but for some other reason. I am okay with that. Just remove the name. Find a clever way to do it.

Usually they will find some person that they find favor with to become the person that actually caused it to happen. History is replete with examples of where persons of African ancestry have not been properly credited for what they have done in history. I can think of some examples that are in my book that I will share with you at a later time.

The point is this: We cannot allow persons to simply decide that because they have the power, and they get to set the agenda that they won't do it. There is nothing preventing the Senate from changing this name, removing it, saving will. Just the will. Remove the name of the bigot from the building. There is nothing preventing it except for will.

My prayer to the Senate is that the Senate would do the righteous thing. Don't tolerate bigotry. You don't have to. Your offices are in the building. Your offices are in the building, in the Russell Senate Office Building, a symbol of national shame. You ought to be ashamed that it is there--your office.

What is wrong with us?

I know how the system works. I am a part of it, I ought to. There is some positive news related to Richard Russell, and the positive news is that one of my colleagues of whom I am proud to associate with, as it relates to this, the Honorable Bonnie Watson Coleman is proposing legislation that would take Richard Russell's name off of a bill--off of legislation. I came to this floor some time ago, and I brought up the fact that his name is on more than a building, his name is on legislation. There is a lunch program that his name is on.

Mrs. Watson Coleman has legislation that would rename the National School Lunch Program Act. It is going to remove his name and substitute it with another name. I compliment you, my dear friend, Mrs. Watson Coleman. I compliment you for doing this.

This is the honorable thing to do. I appreciate it. I am going to appreciate it. I am going to, if allowed, be her co-lead on this legislation.

I made a commitment, and I want the world to know that I try my best to honor my commitments. I made a commitment, and the Record of the Congress will reflect that on April 28, 2023, Volume 169, Number 72 of the Daily Edition, there is a topic styled ``The Conscious Agenda.'' It is part of the Congressional Record.

I stood right here in this very spot, and I made a commitment. About halfway through my message, you will find the commitment where I am speaking of legislation that bears the name of Richard Russell--the same person whose name is on the building.

I said: ``It is the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Program.'' That is what I am talking about. I indicate that this legislation bears his name. Here are my exact words: ``His name shouldn't be on a school lunch program.'' I go on to say: ``I am filing legislation''--and I said--``this is the update''--because the last time when I spoke on this topic it was an update--I say, ``this is the update.''

``I am filing legislation--this is the update--to have Richard Russell's name removed from all legislation that happens to bear it currently--all legislation--and to never have his name listed again.'' And I go on to say: ``He is a symbol of national shame. His name should be removed.''

I still stand by that. So while I am going to support and co-lead and am proud to know that Mrs. Watson Coleman is filing her legislation, I will file my legislation to keep my commitment that I have made to people who chronicle the things that I do. I want them to know that I am following through. I will be filing my legislation, notwithstanding the fact that I will support, proudly, Mrs. Watson Coleman's legislation.

Friends, we live in a country that accords us free speech. This is a priceless possession to have, free speech. There are so many places in the world where one cannot stand as I am standing today before the world, literally, and say the things that I have said. This is one of the reasons why I love my country because of the free speech.

Here is a question that we have to ask ourselves: If we have free speech and free speech can be the methodology by which we can bring about change, and if we are tolerant of bigotry, is that free speech really being used to

the benefit of the people who actually accorded us or afforded us the free speech, the people who are the Framers of the Constitution?

I have great respect for them. The Framers who thought this thing was so important that they put it in the Constitution.

I am standing here to take advantage of and use that free speech. That free speech allows me to stand here and tell you that beneficial bigotry is going to become the shame of many persons in this country.

I have here invitations. These are all invitations. I won't turn them toward the camera because I really don't want to today expose the names of the persons who sent me these invitations.

Here is one that is for a luncheon that took place in the month of May. I won't give the date because I am not interested in identifying the organization. They are inviting me to an event taking place in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Obviously, if you know me, you know that I didn't go.

I am a one-person protest. I refuse to go into the Russell Senate Office Building except to protest. I am not going into that building unless I am to protest, and I will go in for that purpose.

However, my friends, whose names I shall not reveal, sent me this request and I wrote them a letter in response. I will come back to the letter in just a moment.

I have other friends having an event in the month of May at the Russell Senate Office Building. I didn't attend. I sent them a letter. I will come back to the letter in just a moment.

I received another offer to attend the Russell Senate Office Building and be a part of an event. I did not attend. I sent them a letter.

Now, all of these are just for the month of May, and while not calling names, some of the people who sent me these invitations are people who fight bigotry vehemently, who stand against bigotry in all its forms. They do, but they have events in the Russell Senate Office Building.

How can you have events in the Russell Senate Office Building and say that you are antithetical to bigotry, that you are going to fight bigotry?

There are some places that if I went into, I would have to apologize because those places are associated with bigotry, but not my friends over in the Senate, in and out on a daily basis. I have friends inviting me to come to events there, be a part of programs. The Russell Senate Office Building is a benefit to them. You cannot allow beneficial bigotry, my friends, to cause you to tolerate bigotry.

When you do this, you perpetuate bigotry. I told you I sent a letter to my friends explaining my position. I am just going to read some excerpts from the letter, and the reference is, invitation to luncheon, leaving out the rest of it, and it is in the Russell Senate Office Building.

I am going to say ``friend'' so as not to identify the persons, Dear friend: ``Thank you for your invitation to the luncheon,'' without getting into the details. ``I am compelled to decline your invitation as I am boycotting the Russell Senate Office Building wherein the luncheon will take place.''

Yes. The ``yes'' is not here. That is just a part of me expressing myself because I feel good about what I did. Yes.

I write: ``Richard Russell was an unapologetic bigot and a white supremacist who claimed that America was `a White man's country.' '' Check the records if you don't believe me. It is all there. We are talking about the same Richard Russell that the building is named after, ``a White man's country.''

He goes on to say: `` `We are going to keep it that way.' '' It is `` `a White man's country . . . and we are going to keep it that way,' '' meaning, we are going to keep it a White man's country.

I know this is uncomfortable for many people to hear. We would rather have Al Green simply tolerate bigotry and perpetuate bigotry. That is what we would like to do when it is beneficial bigotry and it benefits other folk.

Let me go on, if I may. ``He not only successfully filibustered antilynching bills, but also voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act''--Richard Russell--that is my commentary--``calling it''--these are his words--`` `shortsighted and disastrous.' ''

The man whose name is on a building paid for by taxpayer dollars, many of whom are people of color, indicated that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was ``shortsighted and disastrous.''

Richard Russell, a beneficial bigot, whose name is on the Russell Senate Office Building.

Permit me to read on. These are my words: ``Furthermore, he coauthored the `Southern Manifesto' in opposition to racial integration.''

I won't read it in its entirety. I am going to go to the next to the last line in the letter.

I indicate: ``For these and other compelling reasons, I will not enter the Russell Senate Office Building (except to protest) until the name of the bigot is removed from the building.''

I know there are people who are saying, Who let him say that? How could you let Al Green come to the floor of the House of Representatives and say these things? Here is how: Free speech. Here is how: Speaking truth.

This is how it happens. I am here to do what we say we will do but many times do not. I am here to speak truth to power.

Yes, there are consequences, but at some point in life you ought to decide that you are not going to tolerate beneficial bigotry, especially when you are not allowed to tolerate it and to see others tolerate it while demanding that you not tolerate it, that is also hypocritical, I indicate, until his name is removed from the building, upon which I still stand.

Now, I would go on record saying this, just as I went on record saying that I would file the bill to remove his name from legislation, and I will. I have my bill prepared, and I am going to sign on to Congresswoman Watson Coleman's bill, but now my commitment is this: I am going to send a letter now to all of my friends in the human rights/ civil rights movement, because many of the folk who wrote me these letters that I have, many of these people are in the human rights/civil rights movement.

I am going to send them all a letter, do not invite me to attend meetings in the Russell Senate Office Building. Be so kind as to not insult me. I am not a perfect victim. I am not the victim who is going to tolerate the bigotry and witness your toleration of it because it is beneficial, so don't send me a letter, don't invite me. I am not coming.

They can continue to tolerate the beneficial bigotry that they enjoy by being in the Russell Senate Office Building, but know this: There will come a time when this name will be removed. There will. It will come down. The universe is constructed, such as Dr. King put it, the arc, ``the moral arc is long, but it bends toward justice.''

This will be the just thing to do, to remove Richard Russell from the Senate Office Building.

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

Madam Speaker, I just want to say that people don't know the relationships that people have. They don't know. We can respect people that we don't agree with. That is the greatness of America, respecting people that we have antithetical views with, but we can respect them. If we work with them long enough, we will find common ground. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, due to my attention being required in the matter of life-or-death circumstances of a constituent, I was unable to attend the vote series today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 213 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 214.

personal explanation

And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. I rise today as a proud descendant of the enslaved people who are the foundational mothers and fathers of our country. They are the persons who laid the economic foundation that we all reside upon today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give an update on the conscience agenda. I rise to give an update because we have had something new that we have to add to the agenda.

Previously, we had announced that the agenda would consist of expanding a Slavery Remembrance Day. August 20 of 1619 is a day that will live in infamy. It was a seminal moment in time for this country because it was on that day that persons upon a ship, the White Lion, docked at a place called Point Comfort, near what we now call Norfolk, Virginia.

On that ship were persons of African ancestry, the first 20 Africans. There may be some debate as to the number, but approximately 20 is what is recorded in most places, it seems. The first 20 Africans were traded for goods. They became the first enslaved people in this country.

August 20 of 1619, a day that was a seminal moment then and a seminal moment now because of the impact it has had on our country. Slavery should be remembered.

We have a Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I completely, absolutely, and totally support it. I was at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony just recently where we commemorated those persons who were victims of the holocaust. We have a 9/11 remembrance day. We have a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. We must have a Slavery Remembrance Day.

I am proud to let the world know that this House of Representatives did pass a resolution commemorating slavery remembrance. It did not make it through the Senate, but the House did pass it.

I am also honored to say that our President, the Honorable Joe Biden, recognized Slavery Remembrance Day with a press release. Last year, in Houston, Texas, we had an official Slavery Remembrance Day Commemoration Breakfast. At that breakfast, we had over a thousand people in attendance. We will have another such breakfast on August 20 of this year. Slavery Remembrance Day is a part of the conscience agenda.

We also have on the conscience agenda the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved Americans of African ancestry.

Why? Because in this country, we have reviled the enslaved and revered the enslavers. In this country, we have named military bases and schools after enslavers. We have not done such things, to any great degree that I am aware of, for the enslaved persons. We

revered the enslavers and reviled the enslaved.

There is something a little bit more sinister associated with this. It is the notion that there seems to be an expectation that the descendants of the enslaved behave as perfect victims.

Behave as perfect victims. Allow your ancestors to be dishonored, allow them to be disrespected. Be the perfect victim. Allow schools that you send your children to, to be named after enslavers. Allow military bases that your young people will go to and serve, when serving in the military--do this and don't complain. Don't complain; it is okay. After all, they were the enslaved.

But we will salute, revere, give great honor, and lionize those who were the enslavers. Something sinister about that, expecting the descendants to appreciate the revering of the enslavers while reviling the enslaved. Something sinister about it. It boggles the mind.

I refuse to be a perfect victim. I am not going to honor the enslavers, and I think that we should honor the enslaved. This is why we are asking this Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved. They are the people who helped construct this very facility that we are in. They are the people who, with their humble hands, helped to erect the White House and build it. They are the people who built roads and bridges, planted the crops, harvested the crops, and fed the Nation. Many of them were born into slavery. Babies were enslaved in this country, lived as children in slavery, and died as slaves for hundreds of years.

People expect the Al Greens of the world to be perfect victims, just accept it. I refuse to be a perfect victim. This is why I am asking for a Congressional Gold Medal for the enslaved persons who are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

There is another reason for asking. We, in 1956, awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslavers. The Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. No such thing for the people who built the country, whose lives were sacrificed so that we could have this economic power that we have today.

By the way, I love my country. I sing the National Anthem. I stand and I say the Pledge of Allegiance. I am not a person who, with some great degree of disdain, disrespects the flag. I don't do it.

But I will say this: The greatness of America will not be measured by whether I salute the flag or sing the National Anthem. The greatness of America is measured by whether I will stand up for the rights of those who choose not to salute the flag, who choose not to sing the National Anthem. I do; I stand up for them.

I would want you to know that if we can, as we did in 1956, give a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslavers, surely we can accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved. Just as we have done it for those who would have kept them in bondage, we can do it for those persons whose lives were sacrificed such that we would have this facility, such that we would have the economic engine that we have today. So we ask for the Congressional Gold Medal.

We have also noted that Richard Russell, a self-proclaimed white supremacist--Richard Russell's name is on the Russell Senate Office Building, a self-proclaimed white supremacist. He fought antilynching legislation that we just passed in the last Congress.

He was self-proclaimed, fought integration, and was one of the authors of the Southern Manifesto. Richard Russell's name is on the Russell Senate Office Building. That is the Richard Russell. His name ought not be there.

These are the enslaved persons who were brought here, a depiction of them, in 1619.

The Richard Russell Office Building is a symbol of national shame. The Senate has been in the process of, along with this House, taking the names of Confederate soldiers off of military bases. But that same Senate will not remove the name of Richard Russell from a building that it resides in, the Richard Russell Office Building, a symbol of national shame.

I do not enter the Richard Russell Office Building. I have enough respect for myself. I am not a perfect victim. I am a one-person protest. It is better to stand alone on some questions than not stand at all. I don't have any problem with standing alone when it comes to this facility.

Richard Russell has a rotunda in this facility devoted to him, with a statue of Richard Russell. Richard Russell, the self-proclaimed white supremacist, the same who fought integration, the same Richard Russell who coauthored the Southern Manifesto, a building named after a racist, bigot, self-proclaimed white supremacist.

His name needs to come off of that building and it should revert to the name that it had before his name was placed on it, which was the Old Senate Office Building. If we would like to name it something more, we can. The Senate is participating in the shaming of the Nation by allowing this name to stay on this building.

The Senate but only has to have the will to remove the name. The same will that it had when it decided that we would take the names of Confederate soldiers off of military bases. If the Senate can take the names of Confederate soldiers off of military bases, surely it can acquire the will to remove Richard Russell's name from a building that the Senate has control over. It is a symbol of national shame.

Now to the update. Not only is Richard Russell's name on the Senate Office Building, but his name is also on legislation. I am not the perfect victim. His name is on legislation. I have a piece of legislation in my hand that bears the name of Richard Russell. I will not single this piece of legislation out because there are other pieces.

The substance of the legislation, I have no quarrel with. I do take issue with having legislation named after a person, in honor of a person, who is a self-proclaimed white supremacist, and in honor of a person who fought anti-lynching legislation. It is the same person who coauthored the Southern Manifesto. I refuse to allow it. I will not participate in it. His name should be removed from the Russell Senate Office Building.

This piece of legislation, as I have indicated, bears his name. It is the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Program. His name shouldn't be on a school lunch program. It shouldn't. I can think of some other names that would be removed immediately, if not sooner, if they were on a school lunch program. I can. His name should be removed.

I am filing legislation--this is the update--to have Richard Russell's name removed from all legislation that happens to bear it currently--all legislation--and to never have his name listed again. He is a symbol of national shame. His name should be removed. I refuse to be the perfect victim. The expectation that I don't respect myself enough to stand up for myself.

What is so ironic about this, and it really breaks my heart, is to know that there are people who know this. They know this. There are people of color, African ancestry, and they know this. They still frequent the Richard Russell Office Building, a symbol of national shame.

At some point, my dear friends, we have to cease to be the perfect victim and allow others to expect, and ourselves to participate, in the shaming of our ancestors, and the treatment that African Americans have received in this country by a Richard Russell, having a building named in his honor. We have to remove his name.

This agenda also includes some other things. That was the update. Let's go ahead and refresh memories now.

We have another item on the agenda, and that is enacting the Securities and Exchange Atonement Act.

Friends, I had the honor, the singular honor, of serving as the chairperson of the Oversight Subcommittee on the full Financial Services Committee. I did so under the leadership of the Honorable Maxine Waters. Under her leadership, we found that there are banks in this country--the big banks, the major banks--these banks, through their predecessor institutions, these banks literally made loans so that masters, as they were called, could buy slaves--enslaved people. They would buy them.

If the master did not make the payments, defaulted, the bank repossessed the people and treated them as chattels. I refuse to be the perfect victim. This behavior necessitates atonement.

We need to do what this legislation will call for, and that is--let's do the research, let's find out which of these banks benefited from this institution of slavery because they made a profit when they made these loans. They need to atone. That is what this legislation is all about.

We also found out that the major insurance companies insured human beings as chattels. When the master's chattel, the human being that was enslaved, had some death that was one that would require the master to be compensated, the master received payment for the death of an enslaved person. This has to change. There has to be some atonement for this. That is what this Securities and Exchange Atonement Act is all about.

The last thing on the agenda currently is the establishing of the department of reconciliation. To get all of these things done requires reconciliation. Reconciliation is bigger than the institution of slavery.

There are others who necessitate reconciliation, as well. An example would be the indigenous population, the persons who were here when the Europeans arrived. The indigenous population, those persons who suffered what we call the trail of tears. Literally, they were uprooted from their homes and forced to move across the country, simply because others wanted their land. They just took it and forced them to move. Many died along the way. We need to reconcile for this.

There were the persons who were placed in these camps when we were at war with Japan. They lost their homes and property. We need to reconcile. There is reconciliation that must be had and this department would help us do this.

Right now we have a Department of Labor to deal with labor issues. We have a Secretary of Labor. The Secretary of Labor reports directly to the President. We have the Department of Commerce to deal with issues associated with commerce. The Secretary of Commerce reports to the President.

We need a department of reconciliation with a secretary of reconciliation and undersecretaries of reconciliation to deal with all these various areas that need to be reconciled, and that person should report directly to the President.

Reconciliation is not going to occur over one Presidency. It is not going to occur in a few years. It may take decades, but we will have the department to get it done. Just as we are going to keep a Department of Commerce, we should have and maintain and keep, if you will, a department of reconciliation. It is absolutely necessary for us to do this. If we should do so, we can also deal with some other issues that require reconciliation.

This is the way a great nation should respond. A nation that requires liberty and justice for all. That is what is in our Pledge of Allegiance. A nation founded on the notion that all persons are created equal, who are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is what this Nation was founded on.

We have to live up to the promise and the pledge. We have to live up to the words in the Declaration of Independence. We have a duty and a responsibility to posterity to correct the injustices that were perpetrated. I have a duty and a responsibility to myself to decline to be the perfect victim.

Mr. Speaker, I rise and I stand in this, the well of the House, not the perfect victim, but as a proud descendent of the enslaved people who helped construct this very facility. I do so knowing that there will be resistance to what I do, but I do so knowing that that resistance cannot withstand the bending of the arc of the moral universe toward justice for the enslaved people who are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a descendent of these enslaved people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).

Mr. Speaker, I compliment the gentleman for recognizing a staffer. This is what I would expect from him, to be quite honest. He has demonstrated in his years in Congress a desire to see that all people are treated fairly. He has not only demonstrated a desire, but he has actually demonstrated it by way of a voting record that evidences the will to see that it is done.

Mr. Speaker, I compliment the gentleman and it is what I would expect from him.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. I also thank my friend for helping us to shepherd it through the House in the last Congress. We didn't get it through the Senate, but it got through the House because of his hands, and I appreciate it.

Mr. Speaker, before I yield the floor, following the example of my colleague, I would like to commend an employee, actually an intern, who has worked in our office and has been of great service to us. Because this is an intern, I won't give the full name, but her first name is quite similar to my name. My name is Alexander. Most people know me as Al. Hers is Alex.

Alex is with us today. She is a person who, quite frankly, has matured beyond her years and has rendered a great service to our country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Alex very much for her service to our country, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, with a departure from my message that I fully intended to give, one that I believe to be exceedingly important.

I rise today to deviate from my message because of circumstances that occurred in the course of events here at the House of Representatives.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we had a Holocaust remembrance take place. It is a memorial, if you will, a very special occasion that requires solemnity and commemoration; a commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust.

We were fortunate enough to have this opportunity to hear from victims of the Holocaust; survivors, if you will.

If you are a survivor, and a relative was lost, in my world, that makes you a victim too. Maybe all wouldn't agree with me.

This event took place in the Capitol Visitor Center, right in the area where the Statue of Freedom is. An appropriate place for it, I might add.

It was an event that I had been looking forward to because I had not attended this event in the years that have passed since I have been in Congress. I was looking forward to this for a multiplicity of reasons.

I was there at the event. The event started with the usual things that events will start with; music, bringing in persons who are to be recognized and commemorated.

The persons who are the survivors came in, a good many of them. The number I could not count because I came in as they were moving in, as well.

There were Members of Congress present. I wasn't the only one. We were there. As the ceremony proceeded, we had a vote, and I had to leave.

I am the grandson of a preacher. I was taught that there are some things that you don't do under certain circumstances.

In my church, you could not move when we arrived at a special portion of

the proceedings. When my grandfather was giving his message, there was no movement. So this is something that is a part of my DNA, to remain where you are.

I had to make a decision. There was a vote on, and it was something of importance. All votes are important, by the way, all are, but this was something of importance to a good many of my constituents.

I had to make a decision. Would I stay and honor the tradition that my grandfather instilled in me, or would I leave, walk out of the ceremony as it was taking place?

I want to apologize to the persons who were hosting this event. I want to apologize to the survivors who were present because I did walk out, and I did come, and I did cast my vote.

I would hope that ceremonies such as this would be recognized by us, we, the Members of this great body, the House of Representatives.

I would hope that they would be recognized to the extent that we could organize our much needed, much appreciated by our constituents, those votes that we cast.

I just believe that there is a way to have a Holocaust remembrance ceremony and not have votes at the very same time. I believe we can do it.

I went back to the ceremony after my first vote. I want to explain why I think it is so important to do this because as I sat there and we went through the ceremony, we had one speaker to give us a recitation about the Holocaust itself.

The thing that stands out in my mind were the words silence being at the root cause of Nazi Germany being able to proceed.

Silence when people knew, knew what was going on, intelligence was accorded to various countries, we knew, but the silence. Nobody stood up. The silence.

Sometimes silence can be perceived as consent. The silence. I will forever remember the words silence being at the root.

Here is what silence did. I made a note. I often take notes. The SS St. Louis was a ship with some 900 Jewish refugees; 900.

They left Europe. They were fleeing Germany. They were headed to Cuba, assuming that 900 people, some 900, could find a place of safety.

Women, children; this was not an army. These were people who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Cuba would not accept them; turned away. This is what silence does.

When you know something is wrong, and you will sit, stand, continue with your daily lives knowing that an atrocity is taking place, and not only are you silent, but those that you could extend the hand of friendship, you reject. Some 900 people.

They didn't stop there. The SS St. Louis, I am ashamed and embarrassed to say, took them to our coast. Rejected by us.

Silence can lead to unspeakable atrocities. Silence when one can speak up and should speak up, when one can make a difference, can cause great harm to manifest itself, but it also does this.

When you know and you are silent, and you have people who are reaching out and begging for help and you reject them, that in and of itself--that in and of itself is a means by which your silence and your failure to extend the hand of friendship becomes a part of the perpetuation of a problem, and this was more than a problem.

They didn't stop here. They went on to Canada. Rejected. Now, these were innocent people, fleeing Nazi Germany, rejected by Cuba, turned away at the United States, not allowed to proceed to Canada, back across the ocean where hundreds died.

This is what the Holocaust perpetrated upon humanity; a sense that if you just keep your mouth shut and stay in your place, things will go away eventually.

I am not sure that is what people were thinking, but the optics would connote that this was possible. This was possibly what their thoughts were.

So I sat there. By the way, I confess. I and persons next to me and behind me we were all sobbing as we listened to what was happening; their story.

All of us, tears welling in our eyes, rolling down our faces, and then, of course, we had another vote. I came back to cast my vote because I represent people who expect me to be here to vote, so I came back to cast my vote.

I don't have a perfect voting record. I have missed votes. I came back to cast my vote, and I went back. When I went back, we were shown pictures that were in the hands of Holocaust survivors, these persons who were there today to share their stories.

I have pictures. They had in each of our seats pictures of people. These are some of the people that were given to us in some way associated with the Holocaust.

Here is a baby. I assume that is his mother and father. The names are given here, but they don't indicate exactly who they are here. There is another young man. It looks like a family.

Along with the pictures that were given to us, this survivor had pictures of relatives, and they told their stories. In one photograph, one person said: ``This is a picture of my mother and my father.'' Please forgive me if I don't get it entirely correct. I was there, but it was tough just being there. Mother, father, and she said: ``My brother was in the stroller.''

I am standing over here and each one told us how the family or some family member was taken away, how they suffered the ultimate horror of the Holocaust.

I cannot tell you how moved I was because some things are inexplicable. There are no words. Someone would ask: Well, Al Green, are you a Jew? No, I am not. But I am a human being. I am a human being.

The suffering of any one of us is suffering that every one of us ought to abhor. We ought not allow suffering to take place and not want to do something about it. We cannot be silent in the face of suffering.

This is why I came to this floor just a few days ago to speak on the subject of young people, at least one of whom was killed under circumstances that make no sense. It makes no sense for a person to be killed who pulls into a driveway of another person's home or property. That makes no sense.

It makes no sense for a person to ring a doorbell and be shot, miraculously surviving, but shot, not once but twice, ringing a doorbell at the wrong address in the wrong driveway.

It makes no sense for cheerleaders, the innocence of youth, to simply get in the wrong car and someone ends up in the emergency room at the hospital. It makes no sense.

Who among us can say that you have never made such a mistake?

There may be some, but a good many of us have. When we made that mistake, we were able to walk away. I did. I have done similar things. I was able to walk away. These people were shot. One is no longer with us. Ringing a doorbell, getting shot; pulling up into the wrong driveway, mistakenly getting into the wrong vehicle, and shot.

I ask this question quite regularly: What is wrong with us? What is wrong with us?

We should be in mourning. The country should be in mourning, just for these folks. The unfortunate circumstance is, we know that it will happen again and again and again.

As a result of our knowing, because we have seen the past and we have already prognosticated that what has happened would likely happen, so we believe it will happen later, and we now have normalized this kind of behavior, literally.

It has become something that is anticipated. When we watch the news now, we are waiting for the next edition.

What is wrong with us?

We didn't learn the lessons of Nazi Germany and what silence does when wrong is being perpetrated? We saw what can happen when wrong is perpetrated and lives are lost senselessly and needlessly.

Now, I am not comparing what happened here to what happened in Nazi Germany. It is totally different, but the silence isn't. The silence is not. The fact that this House, the place where we can make a difference, officially, we have done nothing to make that difference. Silence.

I refuse to be silent. I refuse to be silent when these kinds of atrocities are taking place in this country. Yes, one of them was Black, but this is not about his color; it is about his life. Yes,

there were females, but it is not about their sex; it is about their lives. There was one that was just eviscerated, all of their future gone.

Who knows what she would have done had she had the opportunity?

I won't be silent. I refuse to let the world believe that I, in any way, would stand for allowing the kind of lethality that we have across the length and breadth of this country to be there without some degree of regulations.

What is wrong with us?

Do we believe that this level of lethality is going to somehow cure itself?

That seems to be the argument. The answer to people who shouldn't have guns, who are doing these ugly things, the answer is, let's everybody get a gun. That is not the answer.

For fear that someone did not clearly understand what I just said, I will say it again: It is not the answer. More guns will not solve the problem of these people who have been hurt and some died. That is not the solution.

Allowing the NRA to bring legislation forth, among others, which would grant the gun manufacturers immunity from prosecution, civil prosecution, can't be.

The gun manufacturers can with impunity place this lethality in the public domain. Immune. The Congress of the United States of America granted immunity to the purveyors of this lethality.

What is wrong with us?

To say now that we are moving toward a world where you can buy a gun, all you need is money. That is where we are headed.

If you can afford it, you will be able to buy it. That is where many would have us go. I am not one of them, obviously. They don't want a background check. As long as you got the money, you got a deal. There is no desire to get some sense of who this person is that will walk away with the lethality that can take a person's life in a second, instantly.

Now, I am not saying that the persons who had those guns in all these other circumstances, I don't know how they acquired them, so this is not about them, specifically. It is about us and this House, and where are we going and why are we silent and why are we allowing this to happen, to be able to purchase lethality without a background check and to be able to purchase lethality that belongs in some distant war-- hopefully, never one here, hopefully never one any place. Never.

I am antithetical to war. But this level of lethality for people who engage in mortal combat, we would allow this to be among the people without any kind of background check?

What is wrong with us?

I assure you--and I need not do so--but when I spoke on this initially on the floor a couple of days ago now, I believe it was, I said: ``It can happen to your child or you.'' It really can. None of us are safe.

Yes, you can pack, you can carry your weapon, but you are not safe.

If you think having a bigger weapon is going to cause you to be safe, you are just wrong because that means that this level of lethality is out there and in the hands of people without background checks, without red flag laws to signal that somebody shouldn't have something with this level of death and destruction associated with it. These are instrumentalities that produce deadly force.

I will not be silent. I am not silent because I just realized that it doesn't end with one person. The siloing of this in our minds is a mistake. There is connectivity, so I won't be silent.

I am always going to speak up. I am always going to speak out. I do so not because I am Black, and a Black person was shot. I do so not because I have Jewish friends and I am not Jewish.

I do so because it is humanity that we have to protect, and we ought to live up to our Pledge of Allegiance: liberty and justice for all.

There was no liberty and justice for all for those folks who were in that driveway; for those cheerleaders who were there when one of them got into the wrong car. No liberty and justice for all for that young man who rang the doorbell at the wrong house.

Liberty and justice for all. That is our promise in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I want us to live up to our promise and let us not be silent on the great issues of our time. Let's not schedule events that merit the degree of solemnity and commemoration that Holocaust Remembrance Day so richly deserves. Let's not schedule votes when these events are taking place.

Let's not do that. Someone would say, well, you know, you are going to make people angry with you for coming to the floor with this.

Friends, we all have to suffer slings and arrows when we are right. This is a righteous position, and sometimes you have to stand alone. I have found it is better to stand alone than not stand at all.

I beg that next year, when we have Holocaust Remembrance, and it will happen again next year, that we respect the solemnity and the need to commemorate those lives that were lost by at least scheduling such that there is no conflict and there are no votes.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 12 o'clock and 46 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until Monday, April 24, 2023, at 11 a.m.

Mr. Chair, and I still I rise with but 30 seconds to take a position.

It is impossible in the time allotted to give a proper recitation. I can but say this: I don't believe that this is the place for this decision to be made, regardless as to what your position is. I stand against the legislation because I don't think it ought to be before the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

And still I rise as a proud, unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated Democrat.

I rise today, Mr. Speaker, in the name of liberty and justice for all. Liberty and justice for all, not the name of liberty and justice for people of color, for people who happen to be of a different hue, but in the name of liberty and justice for all and, more specifically, in the name of liberty and justice for Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the name of liberty and justice for them because our country should be in mourning today. A life was needlessly lost, and no one of great notoriety, or a person who happens to have been a Congressperson, or a person holding some prominent position in society. They were not persons who were out in Hollywood making motion pictures; just an ordinary citizen who lost their life, and we ought to be in mourning.

We ought to be in mourning because the young man was shot for ringing a doorbell. His sin was he was ringing a doorbell. He was a person of color, yes. Apparently, according to at least one statement by an official, there is something to do here with race. But he was ringing a doorbell, and he was shot twice--once in the head.

The young woman that I speak of was White. She went into the wrong driveway, and she was shot.

Is this where we are in this country? People are going to be killed for ringing the wrong doorbell? Going to be murdered for pulling up in a driveway? Innocently, I might add.

Is this where we are?

We ought to be in mourning today. These lives matter. We ought not allow this to happen without some sort of special occasion, something that speaks to them, some sort of way of commemorating this.

We have gotten to the point now where it is just a life lost. Tomorrow there will be more. The day after that, even more.

What is wrong with us?

Can not we see where we are headed? We stand on the eve of destruction and don't know it. We are going to destroy ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, we have the power to do something about this. We cannot allow constitutional carry, meaning just get a gun and not have to take any sort of test. You don't have to prove that you are a person who can manage this level of lethality. You can buy a gun because you have the money to buy it. Then only God knows what you will do with it.

I am not contending that I know the history of these two persons. That is not it. But I am saying to you that if we don't get a handle on what we are doing with this level of lethality by placing these weapons in the hands of people willy-nilly, we are going to see more of this. It can be your child next.

Do not assume that it cannot happen to you. It can be your daughter. These were the children of somebody, and they deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I am totally, completely, and absolutely antithetical to this notion of constitutional carry, where you can just buy a gun because you have the money to buy it. We ought to have red flag laws in this country. We ought to be able to decide whether or not we are going to allow people to have lethality that can, at a moment's notice, take tens of lives.

Gun manufacturers ought to be held accountable for placing this level of

lethality within the communities. At some point, gun manufacturers are going to lose this immunity they have to being held accountable. The Congress never should have given it to them.

This is a sad day in the history of this country. Two people--it doesn't matter about their color--two people were shot because they happened to be in the wrong place in the presence of persons with lethality.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise and I rise today, again, in the name of liberty and justice for all. More specifically, liberty and justice for Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis as promised in our Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Speaker, earlier today in making a floor speech concerning these two persons who were victims of gun violence, I incorrectly indicated that both lost their lives.

Miraculously, Mr. Yarl did not lose his life for which I am grateful and for which I want to make the Record clear. I want people to know that if I make a mistake, I am going to correct my mistake in the same venue where I made it. I made a mistake, and I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to correct it.

Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I rise as a proud descendant of the enslaved people, who constructed the foundation upon which the greatness of America resides. They are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

Today, I rise, Madam Speaker, because I was accorded the preeminent privilege of speaking at the Georgetown University Law Center and I was accorded this opportunity to talk about the conscious agenda.

In so doing, we, my staff and I, did some research on Georgetown University and we discovered some things that I will share with you today.

First, I do want to thank the persons who made it possible for me to have this opportunity to speak today at Georgetown. I would like to thank Juan Thomas, the chair of the ABA Section of the Civil Rights and Social Justice Entity. This is an entity that is associated with the American Bar Association, and they were hosting this event today.

I would like to thank Dean Treanor. He is the executive vice president of Georgetown University Law Center.

I would like to thank Professor of Law Edelman. He is a person who has, quite frankly, helped to set a course of conduct that has made a difference in the lives of many people at the institution.

Today, Madam Speaker, I, having had this opportunity to visit Georgetown, would like to commend the university for what it has done and I would like to do so for things that persons ordinarily might not assume one would stand before the Congress, the country, if you will, and give such a commendation.

I am honored to do this because I think Georgetown University is the supreme, superb example of what an institution should do that has had some association with the institution of slavery.

I think that Georgetown University is a university that has set an example for the country, indeed for the United States of America itself, in terms of how we should respond to questions related to our association with the institution of slavery.

Today, I want to honor Georgetown University, founded in 1789 by John Carroll, who was later appointed Archbishop of Baltimore in 1808. I honor this institution today because it took affirmative action to correct its association with the institution of slavery.

In 1838, 272 enslaved persons worth about $3.3 million in today's dollars were sold in part to help pay off the school's debt. Obviously, this was not something that I would in any way celebrate. It is something that I find horrific.

The question then becomes: How has Georgetown University responded since this occurrence? Well, in September 2015, Georgetown University formed a working group on slavery, memory, and reconciliation to explore this history that it has associated with slavery.

In 2016, Georgetown created a department of African-American studies and set plans to establish an institute for the study of racial justice.

These two things alone are significant. The notion that a working group would be established for reconciliation, to explore it, to explore the memory, and to understand what slavery was all about as it relates to this institution, this working group has done an outstanding job.

I also have to acknowledge the fact that the African-American studies program was something that would give young people the opportunity to better understand more than what happened at Georgetown. It gives them an opportunity to understand what happened to Africans in the Americas.

Too often, this type of history is overlooked, and today, there are many who would erase this history. Significant work at the Georgetown Slavery Archive has been done.

In 2017, Georgetown offered an apology. It was not an apology without something more, not just a: ``We are sorry it happened, and please have a nice day.'' It was an apology, and they held a liturgy of remembrance, contrition, and hope. It was a sincere apology.

It was an apology that would lead to other things. The apology wasn't the end. It was the genesis of more things that would be done.

In 2017, Georgetown dedicated two campus buildings to members of the descendant community--the ``descendant community'' would be descendants of slavery--dedicated two campus buildings to members of the descendant community.

It didn't stop there. Georgetown went on, in 2018, at the request of descendant leaders, Georgetown, the Jesuits, and descendants began truth and reconciliation work with the Kellogg Foundation.

This is the kind of work that has to be done so that we can get to the truth about what happened, so that we can have the transparency necessary to understand the history associated with slavery.

It is not pleasant, but it has to be done. It has to be done because if we don't do it, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to these things being repeated.

Let's study this history. In 2019, Georgetown established a reconciliation fund that awards $400,000 annually for community-based projects within descendant communities--$400,000 annually.

Georgetown did not simply give an apology with nothing more than ``we are sorry.'' Georgetown has taken upon itself to atone for what occurred and has done so by having a truth and reconciliation committee, worked with the Kellogg Foundation, and went on to establish a reconciliation fund that awards $400,000 annually for community-based projects within descendant communities.

I think that Georgetown merits a special thank-you, and I, as a Member of Congress, intend to have a flag flown over the Capitol of the United States of America to be presented to Georgetown University for the way they have demonstrated that we can deal with the issue of slavery--demonstrated how to do this.

They have been an exemplar of how to do it and how to do it with a degree of credibility such that someone would come to the Congress of the United States of America, stand here, and pay tribute to what they have done to commemorate the lives of those who helped create the great America that we live in today.

They were the foundational mothers and fathers of this country. They were the persons who labored. They planted the grains, harvested the crops. They constructed roads and bridges.

The Capitol itself has benefited from their labor. This very facility that we are in has benefited from their labor. The Washington Monument benefited from their labor. The White House benefited from their labor. Their labor has made a difference.

I would have the country, the United States itself, follow the example of Georgetown University--follow the example. Let's have the truth and justice commission. We need it. The truth has to be told.

Let's have the study for reparations. There ought to be some compensation for centuries of unpaid labor, labor without recompense, labor without compensation. There ought to be some atonement by the Government of the United States of America.

Georgetown University is the exemplar. We should follow this example, and we should move expeditiously to correct, to the extent that it can be corrected, the injustice that was imposed upon human beings of African ancestry.

I believe that we who have the opportunity to stand in the well of the House of Representatives, who can vote on questions of war and peace, who can vote to fund various projects around this country, ought to establish a department of reconciliation. We ought

to establish a department of reconciliation such that we will have a systemic and systematic methodology by which this problem, this egregious concern, can be addressed.

It cannot be addressed in the term of any one President. It will take years, perhaps decades, to address the invidious discrimination that we have suffered in this country, but it can be done. We but have to have the will to do it.

A department of reconciliation with a secretary of reconciliation, a department of reconciliation with a secretary and under secretaries and a budget that is indexed to the Department of Defense, such that it will always be funded because we will always fund the Department of Defense.

If we do this, we can give this country and the world a sense of our wanting to atone for this 240 years of slavery that this country suffered, that people suffered, that people suffered and, in so doing, laid the foundation for America's greatness. They are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

To Georgetown University, I thank you for what you have done, and I pray that this country will follow your example--follow the example. Let's have the necessary commissions so that we can get to the truth.

Let's study the issue so that we can understand what recompense should consist of, and then let's make sure that this is all done by and through a department of reconciliation.

I will close with this. Reconciliation cannot be limited to African Americans. Some things bear repeating: Reconciliation cannot be limited to African Americans. There are others who have suffered invidious discrimination, and they, too, have to have reasonable redress for the suffering.

We have to address the Trail of Tears, how people were uprooted from their homes, forced to migrate across the country. Many died along the way. There has to be some recompense for the Trail of Tears.

We have to consider what happened to others who were a part of this country when the persons from Europe arrived, how they were treated.

All of this can be dealt with through a department of reconciliation.

The persons who came here and constructed the railroads, the persons who were placed in these camps so as to, in theory, protect the country from persons during a time of war. These camps should never have been imposed upon people.

We have to, at some point, give redress. This is what a department of reconciliation can do.

This is a great country, but the greatness of America has not been achieved until America provides a means for us to have reasonable redress for the invidious discrimination that was imposed upon people who meant us no harm, did us no harm, suffered. In their suffering, America became the great country it is because they laid the foundation for America's greatness. They are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

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

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise as a proud American--I love my country--but I also rise as a proud, liberated Democrat.

I rise, Mr. Speaker, as a person who is proud of his heritage. I am the proud descendant, Mr. Speaker, of the enslaved people whose hands helped to construct the Capitol itself. I am proud of my history, and because I am proud of my history, I think that many people would agree that the topic I will embrace today is most appropriate.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be here today to speak on a resolution that passed this House today. I thank the leadership for allowing the resolution to come to the floor. I am especially proud of the fact that when the resolution came to the floor, all who voted, voted for the resolution. There were no nays, Mr. Speaker. One hundred percent of those voting, over 400--405 to be exact--voted for this resolution. I am proud to be one of the 405 who voted ``yes'' for this resolution.

I didn't have an opportunity to speak on the resolution when it was presented on the floor of the House. I was not available at the time here in Washington, D.C., and not aware of the exact time that it was going to be heard, but I knew that there would be another opportunity for me.

Today, I take advantage of the opportunity afforded me, grateful I am to those who have afforded me the opportunity to speak on H. Con. Res. 25, authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for a ceremony as part of the commemoration of the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.

I thank those who brought this resolution to the attention of the Congress: Representatives Kustoff, Schneider, Max Miller, and Landsman. I thank all of them for bringing this resolution to the attention of the Members so that we would have an opportunity to express our desire to see this resolution come to fruition; a resolution, Mr. Speaker, that would commemorate the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust.

Mr. Speaker, in all of history there is no event comparable to the Holocaust. It is one of the greatest crimes ever committed against humanity. This is not to say that there are not other crimes against humanity that were committed. This is to say that this one is unlike any other.

I am proud of the way our country has recognized the need for remembrance of the Holocaust. I am proud because I have friends that I have spoken to who are Jewish, and my friends have explained to me some of the things that you don't read in books about the atrocities associated with the Holocaust.

When I last spoke to my friend David Mintzberg about his father and mother, who were survivors of the Holocaust, he and I both had tears well in our eyes as he presented the story to me.

He explained to me, Mr. Speaker, how his mother, Edith, was on a train, how through some quirk of fate they stopped the train, and people were told to just run, run; and they ran for their lives. They ran for their lives. It was about 2 to 3 a.m. They ran and they ran and they ran.

They didn't just run that night. They didn't just run for the next week. They didn't just run for days. They didn't just run for months. They ran for years, surviving as best as they could. It hurts my heart to go through the recounting of what was said to me, but it is important for people to understand why remembrance is important.

His father, Joseph, at 16, 17 years of age, was on a train on its way to one of

the death camps. When persons on the train were able to pry open bars so that he could slip through, he did.

He ran. He didn't run for days or weeks. He ran through the snow. He ran for years, approximately 5 years on the run, his life hanging in the balance.

The story, as told, calls me to understand more how precious the lives of people can be in times of peril when there is seemingly no way out.

Along life's way, for many of them, there were persons known as righteous gentiles. His father is said to have had an encounter with such a person.

These righteous gentiles, by the way, have been recognized for what they did to rescue persons during this time of great peril--righteous gentiles, righteous people who understood that lives were hanging in the balance.

I have been to Yad Vashem. It is my understanding that Yad Vashem has a special place for the recognition of righteous gentiles.

His father ran. His mother ran. They survived. The unfortunate thing is not all did, and many, many millions did not.

We want to remember those who did not. This is a time for remembrance. Remembrance is the honorable thing to do. It is the thing that we ought to do, as we are doing it on an annual basis, so that never again will we face the horrors of the Holocaust.

I am proud to say that if this resolution passes the Senate, then my hope and belief is that, in the visitor center, there will be the opportunity for us to have some of those survivors appear. Hopefully, if it is God's will, we may hear a story from someone who actually survived.

The history that we can record based upon those who are with us and who can share that history is fading. We need to do all that we can to capture as much of it as fast as we can.

So, I am proud. I plan to be in the visitor center. The visitor center is a place, a special place, where this kind of event should take place.

Events that commemorate the lives lost ought to take place in our visitor center. This belongs to the public.

Lives lost ought to be commemorated in such a facility because it is within a dome. There is space there, a huge space.

The dome is adjacent to it, not quite there but nearby. In that center is a replica of the statue that sits atop the dome of the Capitol. The statue is one that I have great reverence for, the Statue of Freedom. This Statue of Freedom was sculpted by Thomas Crawford, and it sits atop the Capitol dome 288 feet high, 96 feet in diameter.

The replica is there in the visitor center, a symbol of freedom, a symbol of freedom so that the world will know what we stand for in this country. We stand for freedom. We stand for liberty and justice for all.

Yes, I agree with those who would say that we still have much work to do. Yes, we do, and I plan to be a part of doing that work, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to recognize the work that has been done.

Many lives have been sacrificed so that we could be at this point in our history. I am proud of the work that has been done, but I am also proud to say that that work affords us the opportunity to be there with this replica of the Statue of Freedom, right there in the visitor center, for a day of remembrance.

I am going to invite friends, to the extent that we have space available for me to do so, to come and be a part of this.

This is a time that all Americans ought to come together. This is a time for us to acknowledge that the world has not always been kind to people; that those who are survivors ought to be respected; and that those who did not survive, their lives ought to be commemorated.

H. Con. Res. 25, I am proud to have voted for it, authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for a ceremony as part of the commemoration of the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of this House, and I thank all the Members who cast their votes and those who made it possible for the votes to be cast. I pray that the God that I worship will stand with us and never allow such an atrocity to visit us again.

I also know that the hands of people created the Holocaust, and it will take the hands of people to prevent it from ever happening again.

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

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 144.

Madam Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today as a part of this month wherein we will honor women.

This is Women's History Month, but I am going to do something that is a little unusual, and I apologize for the encroachment upon Women's History Month that I shall engage in today. It is an encroachment because I want to extend Black History Month by 1 day, and I do so because, actually, in reality, Black history should be an everyday event.

To the women of the world, my apologies--1 day of encroachment as I speak about Black history.

Of course, I rise as a proud descendant of the enslaved people who built America, made America the great country it is, the foundational mothers and fathers. Yes, there were others here who did work, but they did it for hundreds of years without remuneration, so I rise to honor them during this Black History Month.

I rise because it is necessary and proper that we put Black history in its proper perspective, that the story be truthfully told about the history of Africans in America, because it hasn't. The truth is, we say that Black history is American history, and I agree it is. The truth is, Black history is world history. It is bigger than the United States of America. It is global in scope.

Today, however, I shall focus on Black history as it relates to the United States of America. I do believe that it is important for us to give a little bit of history on Black History Month itself.

The precursor to Black History Month was Negro History Week. This was during the second week in February. It was started in 1926 by the honorable historian Carter G. Woodson in concert with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the ASALH.

Madam Speaker, this organization has endorsed this year's Black history resolution that we have. This organization is one that I am proud to associate with for guidance and instruction.

I would add that Negro History Week was founded on this week, the week that I called to your attention that relates to Black history, and coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Black History Month was first proposed by Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University in February 1969. The first celebration took place at Kent State a year later, in 1970.

This year's theme for Black history is ``Black Resistance.'' The theme explores how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression.

My original Black history resolution has passed this House four times: first, May 12, 2007, where it was agreed upon by a voice vote; again, May 6, 2008, where it received 367 yeas, no nays, 62 persons not voting; and a third time on February 24, 2009, where we had 420 yeas, no nays, and 12 not voting. The final time that it actually passed the House was on February 23, 2010, with 402 yeas, no nays, and 30 not voting.

Since then, we have not been recording votes for resolutions, generally speaking, which is why we don't get a vote on Black History Month resolutions now. I am proud to tell you that for this resolution this year, we have 104 cosponsors. And I am proud to tell you that this resolution has been approved by the organization that has been sponsoring this month for many years now associated with Carter G. Woodson.

Please allow me to read some excerpts from this year's resolution:

``Whereas this resolution may be cited as the Original Black History Month Resolution of 2023;

``Whereas this resolution has been endorsed by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History;

``Whereas the theme for Black History Month 2023 is `Black resistance,' which chronicles how African Americans have resisted oppression in all its invidious forms including: enslavement, lynching, mob violence, police brutality, Black codes, convict leasing, Jim Crow laws, lawful segregation, and invidious discrimination;

``Whereas slavery was a brutal and inhumane system that treated human beings as property and stripped them of their inalienable human rights of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness;

``Whereas the history of Black resistance in the United States predates the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, as it historically spans centuries from colonial slavery through contemporary invidious discrimination;

``Whereas this resolution illuminates some of the momentous recondite history of Black resistance that predates the resistance movements of the 20th and 21st centuries;''

Whereas Black resistance to slavery was a constant presence

and it was persistent throughout the history of enslavement

in the United States, and it took many forms, including the

acts of rebellion, escape, some persons committed suicide,

sabotage, litigation, work slowdowns, persons with feigned

illness, misplacing or damaging tools, people would literally

do anything that they could in the form of noncompliance to

resist their being enslaved;

``Whereas there is historical evidence of as many as 250 instances of slave revolts involving 10 or more slaves during the history of American slavery;

``Whereas the Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser, rebellions were two of the most significant acts of armed resistance to slavery in the United States, inspiring other enslaved people to resist and making clear the determination of enslaved people to fight for their freedom'' was something that would be persisted with;

``Whereas Gabriel Prosser's rebellion against Virginia and the United States in 1800 was a landmark event in the history of Black resistance to slavery in the United States and, although he and his followers were hanged, his bravery and leadership continue to inspire generations of activists and advocates;

``Whereas the Stono Rebellion, the New York City Conspiracy, and the German Coast Uprising are other instances of significant slave uprisings in the United States and its predecessor colonies;

``Whereas in the fight for freedom, liberty, justice, and equality the righteous resistance of many Black freedom fighters has been depreciated, downplayed, deprecated, disparaged, denigrated, disrespected, and demonized;

Whereas one such instance of depreciation in an effort to

minimize the history of such a person is that of Claudette

Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus

months before the incident wherein Rosa Parks refused to do

the same thing, but one person was depreciated and

disrespected, the other has been noted in history as a

historic and heroic person;

``Whereas Bayard Rustin, a lifelong civil rights advocate and lead organizer of the March on Washington, was nearly written out of history merely because of his sexual orientation;

``Whereas religion was a form of resistance to slavery as it allowed the enslaved to assert their humanity, dignity, and independence;

``Whereas spiritual songs were often used as a form of resistance by building community and maintaining good spirits, as a means of healing, and even to communicate secret messages;

``Whereas the song `Steal Away' was used by Nat Turner to call people to him to discuss plans for his rebellion, and the same song was also sung by slaves who planned on escaping'' at some time that was in their immediate future;

``Whereas a song, `Get on the Gospel Train', provided courage for slaves to escape, citing room for many people, a train available to everyone, and a promise that also alluded to the fact that both Blacks and Whites provided assistance to fugitive slaves as they traveled the Underground Railroad;

``Whereas the song `Sweet Chariot' was said to be a personal favorite of Harriet Tubman's as it indicated to slaves that they would be escaping soon;

``Whereas the song `Follow the Drinking Gourd' was used to remind slaves of the clues they would need to find their way north;

``Whereas those slaves who resisted their enslavement by running away were not only recaptured, punished, and returned to their torment, but also exposed in newspaper ads, which assured enslavers that all was well;

``Whereas the following is a selection of ads on captured suspected fugitive slaves run in the Montgomery Advertiser from 1849 to 1865;''

One such ad: ``Whereas John, 23, ran away from Levi Williams, and had a $25 reward offered for John's return.''

Remember, these are newspaper ads indicating that all is well because the slaves are being captured.

``Whereas George, 20, was captured in Mobile County after he had escaped from owner, James Edward Wilson in Memphis, Tennessee;

``Whereas Hannah, arrested in Pickens County, was a 75-year-old woman who was said to belong to John Smith of Lowndes County, Mississippi;

``Whereas Frank, whose age was described only as a boy, was an at- large runaway with a $15 reward for his capture;

``Whereas Lucinda, 20, was jailed in Mobile County, Alabama, belonged to Mrs. Elizabeth Hinsley of Sumter County, Alabama, and had multiple scars on her right arm.''

Remember, these are ads indicating that all is well because Blacks who attempt to escape are being captured.

``Whereas Black resistance to slavery was confronted with harsh court decisions that stripped Blacks of their human rights;

``Whereas in the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, the Supreme Court ruled that having lived in a free State and territory did not entitle an enslaved person, Dred Scott, to his freedom;

``Whereas the Court further ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that people of African descent `are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ``citizens'' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States';

``Whereas in Dred Scott v. Sandford, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared, in the Supreme Court's infamous majority opinion, that Dred Scott, a Black slave, `had no rights a white man was bound to respect';

``Whereas the Supreme Court in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson embraced legal segregation, which advanced constitutional justification for laws that allowed for separate and supposedly equal public facilities for White and Black Americans;

``Whereas the Underground Railroad, led by figures such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, played a vital role in resistance by helping enslaved people escape to freedom;

``Whereas, during the Civil War, Black soldiers made up approximately 10 percent of the Union Army, with approximately 180,000 Black soldiers enlisting to fight for their freedom and the abolition of slavery;

``Whereas despite facing discrimination and being paid less than White soldiers, Black soldiers played a crucial role in the Union's victory in the Civil War by risking and in too many instances sacrificing their lives in the fight for the freedom of their fellow'' men and women;

``Whereas the Black soldiers' participation in the Civil War was not only significant in terms of numbers, but also in terms of the impact their participation had on the fight for racial equality and civil rights, as it challenged the notion that Black Americans were not capable of fighting for their own freedom;

``Whereas the Civil War, as well as the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, emanated from Black resistance to slavery in the United States;

``Whereas the abolition of slavery did not end White supremacy;

``Whereas the period between the end of the Civil War and the civil rights movement was marked by continued discrimination and oppression of African Americans, despite the abolition of slavery;

``Whereas the history of Black resistance in the United States has demonstrated that the fight for racial justice and equality is ongoing and multifaceted and that despite the massive strides that have been made in the name of justice, there are still many areas where progress is needed;

``Whereas Black activists in the United States have inspired many other marginalized communities around the world to fight for their rights and equality;

``Whereas the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass inspired the creation of Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month; and

``Whereas the month of February is officially celebrated as Black History Month, which dates to 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson set aside the second week in February as Negro History Week to recognize the heritage and achievement of Black Americans:

``Now, therefore, be it Resolved, this resolution may be cited as the `Original Black History Month Resolution of 2023'.

``Recognizing and Celebrating the Significance of Black History Month.

``The House of Representatives recognizes the importance of commemorating Black History Month as it acknowledges the achievements of Black Americans throughout the Nation's history and encourages the continuation of its celebration to raise the awareness of this community's accomplishments for all Americans.''

Dear friends, this month that we just had the opportunity to recognize as Black History Month, February, is a month that we ought to do more than simply talk about the history of Black people in the Americas. This history is something that honestly has been overlooked and has been underrepresented. It truly has been disrespected, and we have to talk about it. It is important.

But we have got to do more than talk about it. We, in this Congress, must do that which we can do to demonstrate that we have respect for Black history. It is one thing to talk about the wonderful things that have been done, but it is an entirely different thing to show that we respect Black history.

Yes, having the resolution presented on the floor of the Congress is one where we are demonstrating respect. That is not enough.

Black history has to be respected in the sense that the people who were a part of that history are respected. To this day, we have not shown respect for the Black people who are the foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

We have not shown respect for the hands, the humble hands, that helped construct the Capitol Building that I stand in, that helped construct the White House; the humble hands that planted the seeds, harvested the crops, and fed the Nation; the humble hands that built the roads and bridges and that laid the foundation for America's bright future that it celebrates and has to this day.

The Black people who made America the great country it is have not been properly appreciated and respected. Yes, we should have Black History Month. Yes, we will continue to show these resolutions and to appreciate what happened, but we have to respect the people.

In this country, we have shown more respect for the enslavers than the enslaved. In this country, we have shown respect for the Confederate enslavers and disrespected the enslaved.

You disrespect the enslaved when you show respect for those who enslaved them. That act in and of itself is disrespect. Every statue in every city of Confederate soldiers is a way of disrespecting the people who were enslaved. It is time to honor and respect those who were enslaved in this country.

To do that, to honor them and respect them, the least we can do is what we have done for the Confederate soldiers. In this country, in 1956, we passed a resolution in the House of Representatives to give the Confederate soldiers a Congressional Gold Medal. No such honor has been bestowed upon the foundational mothers and fathers and the enslaved people who laid the foundation for America's greatness--no such honor.

If we can accord the highest medal that the Congress can award to Confederate soldiers, surely we can appreciate and respect the enslaved persons who helped make America the great country it is today.

We ought to, this Congress ought to, Democrats and Republicans ought to vote to accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved people who helped make America great, the people who suffered one of the greatest crimes ever committed against humanity, enslaved for centuries in this country. We ought to show them some respect. We ought to accord them a Congressional Gold Medal. We must do for them what we did for the Confederate soldiers.

We should not revere the enslavers and revile the enslaved. It is time to respect the foundational mothers and fathers of this country. I intend to ask all of my colleagues by way of a piece of legislation that we filed on the last day of Black History Month with intentionality. We wanted to give the entire month for persons to become original cosponsors of this resolution.

It is a resolution that would call for a Congressional Gold Medal being presented to the foundational mothers and fathers of the country. I said resolution; it is actually a piece of legislation. It would have to pass the House and pass the Senate. I believe it can be done.

I know to some people this is unacceptable. I understand there are many people who won't find favor with what I am saying. I challenge anybody to defy the truth in what I say. Defy the truth. The truth is that we have disrespected the enslaved. The truth is we have lionized the enslavers. That has to change.

Posterity has to receive a positive message about the people who built this country. This is that positive message. This message is one that will say to posterity that we want you to know that we have respect for the enslaved people who suffered their entire lives, many of them, from birth to death--babies born into slavery, grew up in slavery, lived and died in slavery--respect for their lives, suffering, and sacrifice. They should be respected.

The truth is, we have not. I want my friends to know that this piece of legislation would allow us to present this Congressional Gold Medal. The President would sign the legislation. I believe this President will sign it. There are some who wouldn't; President Joe Biden is not one of them. I would stake my life on it. If this passes the House and the Senate, I would put my life on the notion that he will sign it. I believe he will.

My prayer is that the House and the Senate will have the courage to do not just the right thing and pass this but to do the righteous thing, to show now, some hundreds of years later, the respect that we should have shown hundreds of years before to the enslaved people who worked, lived, and died without remuneration--the enslaved people also, I might add, who were demeaned. One of the greatest insults ever was that many people called them lazy. Many of the people who were doing this, mind you, were owners of slaves.

Now, you are a slave owner. You are working people for nothing at no cost to you, other than you have to maintain your property as you see it. You would call them lazy because they don't work hard enough.

Lazy? Free labor. Lazy? Built the Capitol, White House, roads, bridges; planted the crops; harvested the crops. Lazy? At no cost. What an insult. What an insult.

Here is the opportunity for us to show the respect that, through the window of the centuries, we should pass back to them and let them know that we appreciate them.

If we do this, America the beautiful will be a more beautiful America. If we do this, history will reward us with a better image of ourselves, in the sense that we will be shown as people who will recognize a transgression and do all that we can to correct it, even hundreds of years later.

The least we can do is show respect for the enslaved people who built America and helped to make it the great country that it is.

I am proud to be a descendant of the enslaved people who built this country, who helped to make it the place that I love and the place that I defend. I do love my country.

I will close with this. I want no one to assume that because I want justice and because I want righteousness to prevail that I don't love the country. I wear the flag. I salute the flag. I sing the national anthem--I stand for it.

I am that guy who loves his country, but my saluting the flag and singing the national anthem is almost inconsequential because, you see, the question is: Will I defend the person who does not salute the flag, who does not sing the national anthem, who won't stand for it and takes a knee? Will I defend that person?

The greatness of America lies in our ability to defend those who don't salute the flag. That is the greatness. The greatness is not in Al Green placing his hand over his heart and saying the pledge. I do it, but that is not the greatness.

The greatness is in recognizing that, in this country, you have the freedom to salute or not. I love the country. I am going to fight to defend the country.

Just as I loved my family, my mother and father loved me, and when I was wrong, there were consequences. We have to correct the wrong. We have to right the injustice.

I stand here today to say, as a proud American, I want to right the wrong, correct the injustice, and accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

Removing the Name of Richard Russell from the Senate Office Building

Allow me to speak on another topic today. This is a topic that I have spoken on previously on this floor, and it is one, I believe, that merits consideration every opportunity I can present it to people of good will.

This topic has to do with the Russell Senate Office Building, a building that I choose not to go into because I think the name should be removed from the building. I won't go into the history of it now, but I will say this: There will be a vote at some point in the Senate to remove Richard Russell's name from the Russell Senate Office Building.

There will be a vote. At some point, I will come back to this floor and will correctly state that the name of ``Richard Russell'' has been removed from the Russell Senate Office Building.

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

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 107.

Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.

I rise with a message related to the month. This is, indeed, Black History Month. But I rise with a message that goes far beyond this month, a message that carries with it a moral imperative to do certain things that are on the conscience agenda.

Today, I will first thank the leadership for allowing me to have this time,

this privilege to come to the floor and speak on these issues. I am grateful to the leadership on both sides of the aisle.

I am grateful because it is a rare privilege that one is accorded when one can stand in the well of the Congress and literally speak to the world. Each time I do it, Mr. Speaker, I ask myself, could you have ever imagined this happening to you? And the answer is always the same. Never.

So I don't take for granted this privilege that I have, and I am honored to stand here and represent the 9th Congressional District of Texas, but as a United States Congressman, I do represent everyone in the country because my votes impact the entirety of the Nation.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk about several issues that are our moral imperative. These issues will include, first, August 20 as an annual day wherein we will recognize slavery remembrance. We want to inculcate this into the fiber and fabric of our country.

Slavery Remembrance Day is important because it is unlike any other day. There are many holidays in this country, and I recognize them, I have no quarrel with them, but in this country we have certain days that are set aside for us to remember certain events, certain events that have been similar moments in time:

9/11, a similar moment in time, a day to be remembered;

Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, a similar moment in time, a day to be remembered;

The Holocaust, a similar moment in time that has impacted the rest of time, should be remembered.

All of these are remembrance days, days that we have set aside in this country to remember.

Well, August 20, 1619, the White Lion landed--docked, if you will--at Point Comfort, and the White Lion had on it 20 persons of African ancestry, 20 people who were traded. They traded cargo. They had other things that were desired by the colonists, and they traded, they exchanged these things, but they also had 20 people that were exchanged for goods that they desired.

These 20 people became the persons that we know as slaves, slaves who were among the first, if not the first, in this country. There may be some debate about some other circumstance, but generally speaking, August 20, 1619, is acknowledged as the date that slavery had its ugly face shown in our country.

August 20, 1619, 20 people, human beings treated like cattle called chattels. Treated like cattle called chattels, chattel slavery. We want to commemorate their lives and all of the millions of lives that followed, commemorate their lives, and commemorate their contributions to the success of this country.

America is a great country, but it is great because of these humble hands. There were others who contributed to the greatness, and they have been acknowledged, and many are going to be acknowledged, but the humble hands of slaves have not been properly acknowledged for what they have done to make America the great nation that it is.

These humble hands helped to construct this Capitol. They helped to raise the Statue of Freedom that is on top of the Capitol. These humble hands helped to build roads and bridges. They planted the crops. They harvested. They literally were the means by which the Nation was fed.

These persons were worked, some of them, for their entire lives without remuneration, without compensation. They were kept alive. They were given clothing; they were given food; they were given the necessities of life only such that many of them could continue to slave their lives away.

We don't recognize them for what they have done for this country. The truth is, we revile them. We revile the slaves, those who were enslaved to be more appropriate. We revile them and we revere the enslavers.

Confederate soldiers have been revered across the length and breadth of this country.

Confederate soldiers who fought to maintain slavery have been honored and celebrated and appreciated.

Confederate soldiers who took the lives of many people, many of whom were not slaves, in the Civil War.

Confederate soldiers have been honored, celebrated, and appreciated, but not so with the enslaved persons who are the foundational mothers and fathers and children of this country. They haven't been properly recognized.

I mentioned that the Confederate soldiers have been lionized by having their names placed on schools and statues around the country. There is no statue honoring Nat Turner, no statue that I know of; there may be one or two someplace that is unknown to me. Those who fought to liberate the slaves have been demonized.

I remember well what I was taught when I was in grade school, how Nat Turner was a bad man. Nat Turner was a liberator. How John Brown was crazy; he was a White man who was a liberator. We have been taught to demonize the liberators, lionize those who would maintain slavery, and literally overlook, marginalize--literally try as best as we can to reshape history as it relates to those who were enslaved.

Here is how far we have gone with this.

In 1956, this Congress, the Congress of the United States of America accorded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers. The Congress of the United States of America honored Confederate soldiers. Never has this Congress bestowed any honor on the enslaved.

It is almost impossible for people of good will to comprehend that such a thing occurred and is still occurring because we still have places around the country where Confederate soldiers are being lionized, but the slaves have not been recognized. No recognition, appreciable recognition for the slaves, the people who helped build the country, foundational mothers and fathers of the country, born into slavery.

Babies were slaves, for edification purposes.

Babies. Babies were slaves.

If you were born the child of a slave, you were a slave at birth. You lived your entire life as a slave. You died as a slave.

At some point this wrong has to be addressed. I believe that it should be addressed by according the slaves, the persons who were enslaved--they didn't place themselves in this condition--I believe that it should be addressed by according them a Congressional Gold Medal just as we accorded the Confederate soldiers who sought to maintain slavery a Congressional Gold Medal. That is not asking too much of the country.

In this Congress, we are going to give Congressional Gold Medals to people. Yes, last Congress we did. Why can't we give a Congressional Gold Medal to those who were enslaved?

Oh, because that happened centuries ago.

Because they are no longer with us.

Well, we have accorded Congressional Gold Medals posthumously. This would not be the first time.

We have done it for the code talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the soldiers who died in Afghanistan. We have done it.

The question is, do we have the decency to do for the people who helped build this country what we have done for so many others? Do we have the decency?

I believe that we can and we should do this. It would be historic but it would be meaningful to a good many people. It would say that we respect those people. We regret what happened to them but we respect them and we respect them enough to recognize their lives, not just the work, not the building of the country, but their lives that were sacrificed.

I believe it can be done. I believe it should be done. And I'm not alone in my belief. We opened the letter up and started circulating it today.

I will read the names of the persons who have similar beliefs. These are persons who are already on as original cosponsors and we will close the opportunity at the end of Black History Month. It is open now to everyone this Black History Month. This is a piece of Black history, a seminal piece of Black history.

I will tell you who agrees that a Congressional Gold Medal ought to be accorded to persons whose lives were sacrificed to make America the great country it is.

First on the list is the Honorable Maxine Waters; the Honorable Bennie Thompson, the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, the Honorable Danny Davis, the Honorable Jim McGovern.

For fear that someone may just be tuning in or starting to follow what we are doing, I am announcing the names of persons who have allowed their names to be associated with the Congressional Gold Medal legislation that we will be filing at the end of this Black History Month.

I will continue with the names:

The Honorable Brad Sherman, the Honorable Barbara Lee, the Honorable Emanuel Cleaver, the Honorable Yvette Clarke, the Honorable Hank Johnson, the Honorable Gerry Connolly, the Honorable Kweisi Mfume, the Honorable David Cicilline, the Honorable Joaquin Castro, the Honorable Mark Veasey, the Honorable Pete Aguilar, the Honorable Ted Lieu, the Honorable Adriano Espaillat, the Honorable Colin Allred, the Honorable Lizzie Fletcher, the Honorable Sylvia Garcia, the Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Honorable Ilhan Omar, the Honorable Ayanna Pressley, the Honorable Troy Carter, the Honorable Greg Casar, the Honorable Jasmine Crockett, the Honorable Bonnie Watson Coleman.

I trust that there would be more names that I would be permitted to announce at a future point in time.

Remember, historic legislation, original cosponsorship closes at the end of Black History Month, the last day. It will close at the end of this month. This legislation is designed to be brought to the attention of the House this month. So we will close it and we will file it on the last day of this month.

I believe that should we do this, and we should, if we do this, I believe that it will make a difference in the lives of all people in this country, because I think that in large part, the reason we had a person of African ancestry assaulted by other persons of African ancestry who are a part of the constabulary, police officers, is because there is little respect for Black lives. Not as much respect for Black lives.

We say all lives matter. If we say that, then we have to say Black lives matter. You can't say all lives matter and not say Black lives matter. They do.

I do not believe that if that young man had been of European ancestry, what we would call an Anglo or White, whichever you prefer-- I, quite frankly, don't like saying White--but if he had been an Anglo, a person of European ancestry, those officers wouldn't have behaved that way. They would not have disrespected his life to the extent that they disrespected that young man of African ancestry's life.

We have got to respect Black lives. If you say they matter, then you respect them.

And for further edification purposes, this is not the first time. If anybody thinks this is the last, you are mistaken. I want it to be the last. I don't want it to ever occur again, but it can and likely will because we don't respect Black lives to the same extent as many others, and we should.

This will go a long way toward our saying to the world: Black lives ought to be respected. I believe that Black lives when properly respected will not be abused as was the case with that young man.

What they did to him is unthinkable. I would say unforgivable but my religious teachings don't allow me to say that. I would say it but we forgive according to my religiosity. We forgive. But I assure you, it is the kind of thing you never forget. I have memory for a reason, to remember so that I can shape the future.

Black lives do matter, and I would like to think that we can pass this first thing on our list on this conscience agenda, the inculcating of August 20 annually as Slavery Remembrance Day.

I will move on to the next item on the list. All of these items are important. Some would say that some items are more important than the others but they are all important.

By the way, there are many more things that will be added to this list. This is not exhaustive of the things that are a moral imperative for this conscience agenda.

I have talked about the August 20 as Slavery Remembrance Day and I talked about awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved. The third item that I have listed is removing the name of Richard Russell from the Russell Senate Office Building.

Richard Russell was a self-proclaimed white supremacist. I don't go in the Russell Senate Office Building. I think I respect myself enough not to go in the Russell Senate Office Building. Others do what they may.

And I assure you, if that office building had on it a name associated with the Third Reich, lots of other people wouldn't go in too.

We would take that name off of that building. What Richard Russell did to people of color is not only sinful, it is so shameful as to not reward him with placing his name on a building paid for with tax dollars, maintained with tax dollars, knowing that people of color of necessity have to go in and out of the building.

Do you have no respect for us? Do you not care how we feel about things? Is it just another thing that we will get around to when we feel like it?

When things are harmful to us, our psyche, our well-being, can we not say when they should cease to exist? Do you have to always set the timetable for the people who suffer?

What is wrong with the Senate? The United States Senate can change this. Take his name off.

Richard Russell fought antilynching legislation. Richard Russell was the father of the Southern Manifesto. The man called himself a white supremacist.

What is wrong with us? Why do we disrespect Black people to this extent?

The Senate ought to immediately take it up, but it won't. This is Black History Month. It would be a great time to do it, but it won't.

There are people hiding behind, ``Well, who do we name it after? Who do we honor? What name do you put on it?'' I am not asking you to put Nat Turner's name on it. I am not asking you to put John Brown's name on it. I am not asking you to put Dr. King's name on it, Rosa Parks' name on it, Harriet Tubman's.

I am not asking you to put any name on it other than the name it had before it became the Russell Senate Office Building. That name was the Old Senate Office Building. Revert to the name it had, and then take all the time you desire, my dear brothers and sisters. Take as much time as God allows, ad infinitum. Go beyond the end of time if you so desire.

Richard Russell's name won't be there ad infinitum. It won't be there beyond the end of time. We will have done more than the right thing.

You can do the right thing. That would be a part of it, but we will do more than the right thing if we take his name off.

We will have done the righteous thing, the righteous thing. His name ought not be there. Richard Russell, notorious bigot, notorious white supremacist, his name ought not be on that building.

At some point in time, at some point along this infinite continuum that we call time, we all are going to have to account for our time.

Those of you who had it within your power to change these things, you are going to have to account for your time. At some point on the infinite continuum, you will account for it.

You will account for holding in your hands the ability to make righteous change and deciding that you will do it when you get good and ready and when it benefits you.

You ought to be concerned about the people adversely impacted and how it would benefit them as opposed to how it would benefit you.

The minister talked about the Good Samaritan today. The Good Samaritan didn't ask the question, ``What will happen to me if I cross over and help this person who has been beset upon by thieves?'' That wasn't the question. The Good Samaritan wanted to know, ``What will happen to him if I don't do it?''

Senate of the United States of America, ask what will happen to the many people who have to suffer knowing that there is a racist name on a Senate office building that is paid for with their tax dollars.

If the tables were turned, and he insulted European Anglos to the same extent that he has insulted Black people, his name wouldn't be there. They would have removed it long ago.

It is time for the name to come off the building. Let it revert to the Old Senate Office Building.

The fourth thing on the agenda: Enacting the Securities and Exchange Atonement Act.

Friends, our research has shown that financial institutions engaged in the slave trade--banks. Many of the big banks now had predecessor institutions, banks that literally, actually, made loans to people and allowed those loans to be secured with enslaved people, enslaved people treated like cattle, called chattels, like a piece of property, like you secure a loan now with a piece of property. They secured the loans with enslaved people and made money doing it.

Insurance companies' predecessor institutions literally insured enslaved people just as you would insure cattle, a horse, a cow. They insured them and made money.

They need to atone. They need to atone. Atonement has not been defined in the sense of ``do a specific thing.'' One institution has made an effort, but there has to be atonement. There has to be some sort of atonement for that.

I assure you, if the tables were turned, if Anglos had been treated in the numbers and the same way, in a similar fashion to the way people of color were treated, Anglos would be demanding atonement.

I assure you. It is not even debatable. You would. You would. By the way, I would be there with you. I would stand with you because it would be the righteous thing to do.

I would stand with you if the tables were turned on any of these issues because it would be the righteous thing to do.

I plan to proceed with this legislation. We will be filing it in this Congress.

Finally: Establishing the department of reconciliation. We have not reconciled in this country.

By the way, I am of the opinion that there are many people who just don't care. They don't care. But there are many others who do, who do.

Those who care, people of good will, they know that we need to do more to reconcile. We need to cover this moral imperative.

We have a Department of Education with Under Secretaries of Education; a Department of Labor, Under Secretaries of Labor; a Department of Commerce.

Why, then, can we not have a department, a department of reconciliation; a department of reconciliation with a secretary of reconciliation and under secretaries, structured such that it will deal with the moral imperatives; a department of reconciliation such that at the end of the day, when one President leaves office and another comes in, the work of the department continues, just as the Department of Labor continues, the Department of Commerce continues? One President coming and leaving does not change the work of any of these departments.

It is not going to be easy to complete the moral imperative, the conscience agenda. It is not going to be easy, but it is something that we must do.

We are not going to change history. Those who desire to no longer teach what actually happened to people in this country--there are people in Texas now who would have slavery become ``involuntary relocation.'' That is true, ``involuntary relocation.''

Kidnapping? Involuntary relocation. Murder, rape? Involuntary relocation. Separating families at the auction block? Involuntary relocation.

No, you are not going to change history. You are not. There are people who want to, under some specious theory that the people who want to teach history are somehow wanting to harm the country by telling the truth.

Now, we are a country that believes in truth. We preach truth in this country. Somewhere it is written, ``You shall know truth, and the truth will set you free.''

There is a certain amount of freedom associated with actualizing, realizing, the truth. We have to know the truth. You are not going to be able to hide it. But there are people who would say that by teaching truth, we are going to harm the country.

What about the people who suffered and still suffer as a result of the truth not being told? People have to know what happened.

Black History Month is not nearly enough time to explain what happened. We pick out certain things that happened, certain meaningful moments in time, but that is not Black history.

Black history is more than the civil rights movement. It really is. It is more than the history of Africans in the Americas.

Yes, Black history is American history, but it is also world history. It is world history. Just as the history of others who are global, they have a global history, too.

I remember, in my history book, there was an indication that the reason the nations or countries in Africa were not mentioned in world history was because they made little contribution to history. I had to grow up with that--little contribution to history.

Friends--I say ``friends,'' and I am very sincere when I say it. I consider people friends who may not consider me a friend.

Friends, or as Dr. King might say it, brothers and sisters, we must reconcile. We will not reconcile without some structured department, something that has no end in sight. The end would be when reconciliation is ultimately achieved.

We need this department of reconciliation. The country needs it. It will benefit us all. It will make the country a better place.

Not everybody wants it. Not everybody wants to see the change in the status quo.

I know this is a very difficult thing for many people to embrace, and I am very much aware of what Voltaire called to our attention, and it impacts many people. He reminded us that it is dangerous to be right in affairs where established men are wrong. It is dangerous to be right. Many people, they understand that, and because they understand that, they avoid this.

This is a righteous agenda. There is nothing on here that cannot be done and should not be done. Everything on here is a part of the righteous agenda.

Nothing wrong with inculcating August 20 as Slavery Remembrance Day because of what happened to the slaves, just as we have a 9/11 remembrance, just as we have a Pearl Harbor remembrance, a Holocaust remembrance--by the way, all recognized by the Congress. That would be the House and Senate, Congress as the House and Senate, not just the House, all recognized.

I do confess this, and I should have mentioned it earlier, but it is never too late to speak truth. The President of the United States has acknowledged August 20, has acknowledged Slavery Remembrance Day, the Honorable Joe Biden.

The House passed this resolution, by the way. Many Members are not aware of it. We did pass a resolution honoring August 20. I don't know what the Senate will do, but I am at a point where I just believe we need to go on and commemorate the day. Just commemorate the day.

Nobody gets paid. I am not asking does anybody get paid. Nobody should be paid. This is a day of commemoration, not celebration. No celebrations. I don't want the stores to give discounts, Slavery Remembrance Day discounts. That is not what this is about. This is sacred. This is not secular.

This, August 20, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with it. The President has acknowledged it.

If I just may say so, the President, in his efforts to acknowledge that Black lives matter, and do so in a very positive way, the President appointed an African-American female to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, something that could have been done by many others but never achieved. He did it.

Now, if anybody thinks I am going to forget that the President did something as significant as that--see, it may not be important to other people, but to me it is probably one of the most important things that he has done. I will be eternally grateful, and there are a lot of other people who will be equally as grateful.

So, there is nothing wrong with this August 20 as Slavery Remembrance Day. Nothing wrong with according, giving, a Congressional Gold Medal to the enslaved people who built the country, laid the foundation for the economic success of the country. Nothing wrong with that.

If we can do it for the Confederate soldiers, surely we can do it for the enslaved people born into slavery, lived as slaves, many of them, and died as slaves.

Nothing wrong with removing the name of a self-proclaimed white supremacist from a building paid for with tax dollars.

Nothing wrong with saying that these companies, mega companies, nothing wrong with saying that these mega companies which profited enormously from the slave trade--nothing wrong with saying they should atone.

Good Christians understand atonement. People of good will understand atonement. All religions address atonement in some way. Nothing wrong with atonement.

Wanting to reconcile? Having a department of reconciliation, how does that hurt a country wherein we see circumstances necessitating reconciliation, our moral imperative?

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honor, it is a privilege, to have this freedom of speech. Freedom of speech may be the hallmark of our democracy. We don't have to agree. That is what freedom of speech is all about, freedom to say and not be persecuted for having said.

I am grateful to have this opportunity to speak without fear of persecution. I could be wrong, but I am not afraid. I am not afraid, and I am grateful.

I love my country. I try to conclude by saying this. I love my country. I salute the flag. Yes, I say the Pledge of Allegiance. I sing the national anthem. I stand when I sing it. I place my hand on my heart when I sing it. I place my hand on my heart when I say the Pledge of Allegiance. But I also defend those who choose not to.

That is the greatness of America. The greatness of America is not in my standing and saluting and singing. The greatness is in allowing those who choose not to. That is the greatness of the country, that we can accept those who would not do what others do, those who would say, ``Look, I am not an automaton. I am not going to march in lockstep. I choose to take a different path.''

I defend their right to do so. I do so because I love my country.

God bless you, Mr. Speaker. God bless the United States of America.

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