[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 143 (Monday, September 9, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H7551-H7557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1945
400TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST ENSLAVED AFRICANS BROUGHT TO AMERICA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Lee) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
General Leave
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I would like to ask unanimous
consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and
extend their remarks and include extraneous material on my Special
Order for tonight.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from California?
There was no objection.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I am honored tonight to share
and conduct the Special Order sponsored by the Congressional Black
Caucus, and I want to thank Chairwoman Karen Bass for her tremendous
leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus and for holding this
Special Order tonight in our effort to raise to the public and this
body's attention the observance of 400 years since the first enslaved
Africans were brought to the shores of America, which began 250 years
of one of the most horrific crimes committed against humanity: the
government-sanctioned institution of slavery.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Chairwoman
Bass) for her statement, and I want to say to her that I really commend
her tonight for her leadership and, really, for keeping Africa as
central in our foreign policy, because we are all reminded, through her
leadership, that Africa does matter.
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus,
along with my fellow CBC colleagues, I am pleased to join Congresswoman
Barbara Lee, Congressman Bobby Scott, and Congresswoman Alma Adams for
this CBC Special Order hour. Tonight, my colleagues and I will take the
time to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved
Africans arriving in the United States.
The transatlantic slave trade was the largest coerced migration of
human beings in the history of the world. An estimated 10 to 12 million
enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean between
the 16th and 19th centuries.
The brutality, murder, rape, disease, and starvation were so high
that some historians assess that around 15 to 25 percent of the
enslaved Africans died aboard slave ships.
Slavery in the United States officially lasted from 1619 to 1865, or
246 years. Enslaved Africans worked 10 or more hours a day, in
dangerous conditions, and also worked 18-hour days in peak cotton-
picking and sugar harvest season.
The average lifespan of enslaved Africans who labored on sugar and
rice plantations was only 7 years. Violence on the plantations was
always a danger and threat to the lives of enslaved human beings.
Wealth from the enslaved Africans and their labor established global
capitalism and set the economic foundation for Europe, the Caribbean,
and the Americas.
According to the National Museum of African American History and
Culture, by 1860, 4 million enslaved people produced well over 60
percent of the Nation's wealth, and the slave trade valued them at $2.7
billion. The financial legacy of the slave trade contributed to the
creation of nation-states such as France, Spain, Portugal, the
Netherlands, Great Britain, South America, the Caribbean, as well as
the United States.
One of the contemporary myths that too many Americans believe is that
only the South gained from slavery. However, both the southern and
northern economies of the United States profited from slavery. For
example, in Manhattan, enslaved Black men accounted for one third of
the labor force by 1740.
During Reconstruction, former enslaved Africans made some progress:
The first Black Members of Congress were elected to the House and the
Senate. Nevertheless, Black Members of Congress were still not allowed
to eat in the same cafeteria as their White colleagues and were
segregated, overall, in the institution.
And this went on for many years. There was a period in which there
were
[[Page H7552]]
no African Americans in Congress at all because they were run out.
Black Codes adopted under Reconstruction in the South and some areas
of the North restricted freed Blacks from equal political rights,
access to quality education, and jobs. For example, the State of
Mississippi enacted a Black Code law to arrest free African Americans
who were unemployed and lacked permanent housing. They could be
arrested and bound out for a term of labor if unable to pay the fine,
which means they were just reenslaved, and they used the criminal
justice system to reenslave people.
When Reconstruction ended in 1877, the majority of African Americans
lived in the Southern States; however, the southerners used their power
in State and local governments to pass new laws, Jim Crow laws. Some
people refer to this as U.S. apartheid.
As a matter of fact, when White South Africans were setting up the
apartheid system in the early part of the 20th century, they traveled
to the southern part of the United States to learn what we did so they
could replicate it.
The civil rights movement was born out of the need to resist second-
class citizenship and to demand that America deliver on the promises in
the U.S. Constitution.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act granted the Federal Government a new role
in desegregating schools and other public facilities. The progress that
was made and the legislation that was eventually passed in the U.S.
Congress was made because of a massive grassroots movement that we have
come to know as the civil rights movement.
Many laws were passed that allowed for equality or access to
education. But, as soon as those laws were passed, unfortunately, they
were challenged in the Supreme Court.
So, as we remember and honor the 400th anniversary of all the
enslaved Africans' arrival in America, we must never forget the
tragedies, successes, and contributions that all of them made, and that
African Americans are a part of the very fabric of America and have
made significant contributions in every major field.
Oftentimes, we tell the glorious history of the United States, but,
at some point in time, we will embrace all of the history of the United
States and not just focus on the parts that make us all feel good.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Bass for
laying out much of the history and reminding us that this is really an
opportunity to recognize the resilience, the renewal, and the strength
of Africans and African Americans. Through much adversity, as the
gentlewoman laid out, African Americans, the descendants of enslaved
people, continued to rise from our brutal past.
I thank the gentlewoman again for her leadership.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott),
chairman of our Committee on Education and Labor, who has led so many
efforts to educate the public with regard to this 400th year
commemoration and, also, the real significance of the Middle Passage as
it relates to not only 400 years ago, but today.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share some
reflections on events commemorating the first arrival of enslaved
Africans to English colonies, to North America, including a forum my
colleague, Representative Donald McEachin, hosted in Richmond earlier
this summer and the events that took place on Fort Monroe National
Monument last month.
It was my great honor, along with Representative Luria, to welcome
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass and fellow CBC member
Lacy Clay to Hampton Roads for the solemn occasion marking the 400th
anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans to English-
speaking North America.
The history of our Nation cannot be fully understood or appreciated
without knowing and acknowledging the stories of those first what they
said was ``20 and odd'' Africans and the millions who followed them.
This was a goal that Senator Kaine and I had in mind when we drafted
H.R. 1242, a bill to establish a Federal 400 Years of African-American
History Commission. The goal of that commission was to explore ways to
commemorate not just the events of 1619, but also to recognize all that
has happened since.
The city of Hampton and the Commonwealth of Virginia did a tremendous
job in organizing events, including those last month, to commemorate
and reflect on what happened in 1619; but it is incumbent that we, as a
body, support the ongoing and necessary work of that commission beyond
2019, as we committed to do when we passed H.R. 1242.
Senator Kaine and I are working with our colleagues in Congress to
secure Federal funding to support the work of the commission, which is
mandated under H.R. 1242 to plan programs to commemorate the history,
recognize the resiliency of the African American community, acknowledge
the impact that slavery and legalized racial discrimination has had on
our country, and educate the public about those impacts and
contributions to our community.
The commission is also directed to provide technical assistance to
State, local, and nonprofit groups working to further the
commemorations as well as ongoing research on our complicated history.
Madam Speaker, $1 million was included in the House version of the
fiscal year 2020 Department of the Interior appropriations bill to
support the commission's work, and that legislation passed the House
earlier this year.
I am committed to making sure that these funds are actualized.
Thankfully, there is significant precedent for Federal support for
commissions like this.
Additionally, in recognizing the tremendous task before the
commissioners and the funding challenges they faced, Senator Kaine and
I are also actively exploring ways to extend the work of the commission
for several years beyond its present July 2020 termination date.
This part of our Nation's history is far too important to let this
opportunity pass. Every American should be afforded the chance to
understand and learn from it.
As we gathered at the site of where slavery first arrived on our
shores 400 years ago, we reflected on our complicated history; we
celebrated the resiliency and many contributions of the descendants of
those slaves; and we are committed to following the research and
effectively addressing the issues that continue to plague our
communities, including, a tax on our voting rights, police brutality,
environmental injustice, and disparities in education, housing, wealth,
and criminal justice.
So, as we reflect on the events of 1619, let us all commit to
constructively address those horrific years of slavery and legal racial
discrimination and move forward with the strength, wisdom, and resolve
of our ancestors.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from California for
convening this Special Order.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Virginia for that very powerful statement and, also, for the very hard
and diligent work that he has been engaged in around the commission and
what he is doing each and every day to educate not only his district,
but the entire country with regard to not only the past, but, also,
where we must go from here. I thank Chairman Scott again.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms.
Adams). Congresswoman Adams serves on the Financial Services Committee
and the Committee on Education and Labor. But, also, I always have to
say that I know her as an artist, as a professor, but also as a great
public servant. I thank the gentlewoman, again, for being with us
tonight.
Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to be here tonight, and
I want to thank the gentlewoman from California for not only her wisdom
and guidance and for leading this session tonight, but for all of the
distinguished work that she has done for so many years.
I also congratulate the chair of the CBC, Karen Bass, for the
leadership that she is providing, as well as the chair of the Committee
on Education and Labor, on which I have the privilege of sitting,
Congressman Bobby Scott.
I rise today, Madam Speaker, to join my colleagues in recognition of
the 400th anniversary of the first recorded forced arrival of enslaved
African people in America.
[[Page H7553]]
This anniversary marks the beginning of a legacy of oppression and
discrimination, the effects of which we still live with today. From
those first 19 Africans who reached Jamestown, upwards to 12 million
Africans would be kidnapped from their homes and brought to the new
world.
Those men and women had almost everything taken from them: their
names, their religion, their families, and their freedom. But the one
thing that couldn't be taken from them was their spirit.
The culture and customs that they brought to America leave a heritage
for us, their descendants, to be proud of, to recognize how far we have
come and how far we still have to go.
We know structural racism in our society didn't end in 1865. We know
it didn't end in 1965. We know that there are still racial disparities
in access to employment and education and healthcare. We know racial
bias persists in our criminal justice system, and we know that pay
disparities still exist along racial lines.
The shameful legacy of slavery remains, and it is incumbent upon us,
the Joshua generation, to keep us moving forward.
One of the first things we can do to keep us on the path to a more
equitable future is to have a full reckoning with our past. It is long
past time for us, as a society, to have an open and honest conversation
about the lasting effects of slavery in America.
My esteemed colleague Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee picked up the
torch and introduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop
Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, of which I am a proud
cosponsor.
We need to have that open national dialogue to come to terms with how
we as a nation have not historically lived up to our ideals.
The advocacy of our youth who fight for consideration of this bill is
a callback to the fights that made public accommodations open to all
races and that made the voting booth open to all as well.
It is a callback to the abolitionists who awakened the public to the
horrors of slavery and the Black men who became soldiers to protect and
preserve our Union and their freedom.
It is a callback to the 19 Africans who landed in chains on those
Virginia shores 400 years ago who never gave up the hope that one day
they would once again be free.
{time} 2000
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Adams for
that very eloquent statement, and also for what she is doing with our
young people as the chair of our Historically Black College and
University Caucus. What the gentlewoman is doing in terms of pulling us
all together on behalf of the education of all of our children is
remarkable. And she is not only teaching us how to teach them, but also
leading the way on so many issues as an educator.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne),
who serves on the Homeland Security Committee and the Transportation
Committee.
Congressman Payne's whole life has been about addressing the
inequities and the vestiges of this last 400 years. But also, he grew
up in a household where his dad, our great friend, the late Congressman
Don Payne, focused on Africa. His son, Congressman Don Payne, Jr., has
Africa in his blood as a result of growing up in a household with his
wonderful, beloved father.
I thank the gentleman for being here.
Mr. PAYNE. Madam Speaker, let me first thank the gentlewoman from
California for those kind remarks. She has been a consummate fighter
for equality for all people across this world, a true humanitarian in
her own right, from Oakland, California.
I had the great honor, during the time we celebrated her birthday, to
see a picture of her with this Afro that was indicative of the times.
It was perfect, and I was not surprised.
But her work in the Congress is second to none, and she has been a
true role model for me, a true friend to my father. He always had high
accolades for the gentlewoman from California, and now that I am her
colleague, I understand why.
Madam Speaker, this year marks what I would call ``America's Great
Economic Shame.''
In 1619, the first boats filled with victims of human bondage reached
our shores. When they docked, the very first African Americans walked
off a plank and into American history. They would create a dilemma for
the leaders and citizens of this new republic that has not been solved
to this day.
They were considered unequal in a country where all men were created
equal. Their existence would cause otherwise pious and moral men to
engage in the most immoral behavior. And they came together to fight
for one goal: the belief that one day, someday, they would be free at
last.
As we commemorate the 400th anniversary of enslaved Africans reaching
this land, America, it is important to discuss how far African
Americans have come as a culture and a community and how far we have
yet to go.
When I look around this Chamber, I see the results of how far we have
come. There are now 55 African Americans in the United States House of
Representatives, led by a champion of our commitment to freedom,
Congressman John Lewis.
This representation would have seemed impossible 400 years ago. Back
then, African Americans were considered property. Back then, families
could be torn apart for a greater economic interest. Back then, African
Americans in slave States could be killed for something as simple as
learning to read.
We did not ask to be slaves, yet we triumphed in spite of it. We knew
they might own our bodies, but they would never control our spirit.
We have succeeded in every area of American life. Let us look at just
a few ways that we have altered America for the better.
It is easy to talk about how almost every original American music
style comes from our community, everything from jazz to blues to hip-
hop, but there are several inventions we use daily that came from
African Americans.
We invented America's first clock and then the first automatic
elevator doors.
We invented the traffic light.
We invented the clothes dryer and the electric lamp.
We invented the ice cream scoop, the lawnmower, the mailbox, and even
the heart pacemaker.
We have triumphed over tragedy, but we still have a way to go.
Right now, local, State, and national politicians are trying to
reverse our civil rights. They could work to support us; instead, they
want to deny us our vote. That is why we need to stick together and
avoid the desire to focus on our differences.
It is important that we remember that it was coming together as a
community that helped us survive the horrors of slavery; that it was
our commitment to the common ideals of brotherhood, sisterhood, and
family that helped us succeed. We need to remember that.
In these times where forces try to tear us apart, it is our common
ancestry that can bring us together. It was true 400 years ago, and it
is true today.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Payne,
first of all, for his kind and gracious words, but, also, for that
brilliant presentation reminding us again not only of our history, but
how we have risen to be great leaders in our country.
I also want to thank the gentleman for his steady leadership on so
many issues, including healthcare, and how he is working to raise the
issue of the racial gaps as it relates to people of color, as it
relates to diabetes and all of those health indices that we have to
close these gaps. I thank him for being here tonight and participating.
Madam Speaker, how much time do I have remaining, please?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California has 35
minutes remaining.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, 400 years ago, as we have heard
tonight, the first slave ship arrived in Virginia. This began one of
the darkest chapters in American history.
During the course of over 250 years of slavery--that is, government-
sanctioned slavery in America--families were ripped apart. People were
beaten and brutalized. Men, women, and children were sold and traded
like objects. And to this day, Black communities
[[Page H7554]]
continue to suffer from the generational trauma from these crimes
against humanity.
That was followed by another 75 years of racism and domestic
terrorism under Jim Crow and segregation, during which thousands of
African Americans were lynched. Churches were bombed. Entire
communities were burned to the ground in the not-so-recent, distant
past.
Racist economic policies also institutionalized the racial hierarchy
established by slavery and kept African Americans trapped and
segregated disproportionately in poverty: policies like land seizure
laws that left African American farmers at risk of having their land
seized and turned over to their White peers; the Fair Labor Standards
Act, which excluded professions dominated by African Americans from
minimum wage protections; the separate but equal doctrine in schools
and public facilities; the segregation of the armed services, in which
my dad served in a segregated military, fighting in two wars for our
country.
Jim Crow gave way to decades of racist housing policies like
redlining and subprime lending that further prevented African Americans
from building wealth; followed by the war on drugs, which devastated
our communities, tore apart families, and incarcerated millions of
needlessly incarcerated fellow African Americans.
Today, we see continued disparities among African Americans due to
the legacy of slavery, racism, and Jim Crow in America. African
Americans still face disproportionate levels of poverty, unemployment,
and overwhelming struggles to achieve educational and economic
opportunities.
Health disparities, including the highest rate of HIV infections,
continue to impact African American communities due to the lack of
equal access and prevention resources. It is completely unacceptable
that Black women are four times more likely to die from preventable
pregnancy complications than White women.
Now, for decades, our criminal justice system has disproportionately
targeted communities of color, especially Black and Brown women and
men. Structural and institutional racism permeates every aspect of
American society.
And now, sadly, we have a Presidential administration that continues
to ignore our Nation's dark history of racism and bondage and, in many
ways, is trying to move us backwards. From voter suppression, from
targeting African Americans and people of color with budget cuts that
undermine and affect their livelihoods to undermining decades of civil
rights, the gains that we have made, now we see an administration that
is trying to roll those protections back. This President is trying to
turn back the clock.
Tragically, we are also now seeing history repeat itself with rampant
family separation of immigrant families at the border, children being
taken from their parents and put into cages.
The President has normalized racism and xenophobia. His constant
attacks on African Americans and people of color, to questioning the
nationality of our first Black President, to claiming that there are
good people among white supremacists, his racism has given others
permission to hate out loud. It has also set the stage for the toxic
mix of racism, gun violence, and domestic terrorism that is gripping
our country.
Yes, we have a President today, and an administration, who continues
to fan the flames of the fire that was born out of slavery.
So let me be clear, though. We aren't going back. As I our beloved
Dr. Maya Angelou said: And still we rise.
And just because we aren't going back doesn't mean we shouldn't look
back and learn from our past. That informs what we must do today.
Now, the Akan people of West Africa, they have a mythical symbol. It
is a mythical bird. It is a bird called Sankofa. The bird looks back
with an egg in her mouth. It means reminding us to look back at our
past, to look at the mistakes we have made, to look at what happened in
our past that has strengthened us and made us who we are today, and to
move forward and to not make those same mistakes but to fly forward,
creating a new world based on justice and freedom.
{time} 2015
This is our ``Sankofa'' moment.
Earlier this month we observed the 400th anniversary by travelling to
Ghana with a delegation of Members led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and Congresswoman Karen Bass. It was such a privilege and an honor to
witness and hear our Speaker speak as the first American Speaker of the
United States of America to the Ghanaian Parliament. This strengthens
the ties that bind not only between Africans and African Americans, but
between the African continent and American continent. People in both of
our continents really have a long history that we need to recognize as
being oftentimes very difficult but together we must move forward.
So while we were there, we paid our respects at Cape Coast and Elmina
Castles. And at the ``Door of No Return'' we walked through where the
first enslaved Africans departed in chains bound for America. The
experience was a powerful reminder of the inhumanity of the slave
trade, but it was also empowering to witness the strength and
determination of the enslaved to survive and to build a better future
for the next generation. And we walked back through the ``Door of
Return,'' what a glorious moment that was for all Members.
So, today, as we observe 400 years since the first Africans were
bought to these shores, let it be known that this is a Sankofa moment.
Moving forward, I look forward to this body addressing the damage
caused by the inhumanity of slavery, by advancing positive legislation
that uplifts the descendants of those who were enslaved, including H.R.
40 championed by our great warrior, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee,
whose steadfast and brilliant work is educating the Congress and the
public as to why we need a commission to look these past inequities,
bring them current, and how we begin to address them in 2019.
Let me close by reading a quote from Nikole Hannah-Jones. She is the
author of the 1619 Project. ``The 1619 Project aims to reframe the
country's history, understanding 1619 as our true founding and placing
the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at
the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.''
In Hannah-Jones' seminal piece in the New York Times she wrote: ``Our
Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that
`all men are created equal' and `endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights.' But the white men who drafted those words did not
believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of Black people
in their midst. `Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' did not
apply fully to one-fifth of the country. Yet despite being violently
denied the freedom and justice promised to all, Black Americans
believed fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of Black
resistance and protest, we have helped the country to live up to its
founding ideals.'' She said, ``Without the idealistic, strenuous, and
patriotic efforts of Black Americans, our democracy today would most
likely look very different--it might not be a democracy at all.''
Madam Chair, I have this here, and I want to read a couple of things
from NETWORK, who are our Catholic sisters who are fighting for
justice, because I think this lays it out very clearly in terms of the
progression of where we have been and where we are today through some
of the laws that were passed.
So the NETWORK Catholic sisters laid out the first policy: Slave
codes, 1613 to 1860.
Policy 2: Andrew Johnson's land policies and sharecropping, 1865 to
1880.
Policy 3: Land seizures, 1865 to 1960. During the sixties it was
repealed.
The National Housing Act of 1934. This policy, mind you, guaranteed
loans to white people and legally refused loans to Black people. That
was 1934. That was enacted in 1934.
The Social Security Act, 1935 to present. Black people were twice as
likely to experience hunger or poverty during the Great Depression. And
65 percent of Black people were ineligible to receive this income
support.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
The GI Bill of 1944.
The Separate but Equal Doctrine, 1954 really to present day.
[[Page H7555]]
Policy 9: Subprime loans, 1970s to present day.
Policy 10: The War on Drugs, 1971 to present day.
I really appreciate the sisters and the nuns for laying this out,
because it shows us the institutional policies, the laws that were put
in place that have created this new form of slavery. And this is a very
powerful document. I hope that everyone has a chance to read this. I
include in the Record this document.
[From the Network: Advocates for Justice, Inspired by Catholic Sisters]
The Racial Wealth and Income Gap
POLICY 1: Slave Codes, the Fugitive Slave Act, and American Chattel
Slavery (1613-1860)
The slave codes created ``servitude for natural life'' for
African laborers. 250+ years slave labor of millions of
African and Black people was the foundation of the American
economy and global force that it eventually became. On the
eve of the Civil War, Black slaves were valued at an
estimated $3.6 billion (not scaled for modern inflation), and
none of the Black slaves were able to cash in on that value.
POLICY 2: Andrew Johnson's Land Policies and Sharecropping (1865-1880)
After the Civil War, 4 million Black people largely
resorted to renting the farm land of their previous master in
exchange for a ``share'' of their crop. This system of
``sharecropping'' tied farmers to their former master because
they were legally obligated to buy and sell from them.
POLICY 3: Land Seizures (1865-1960s)
Black people were legally at risk of having their land
seized from 1865 to the 1960's, due in part to the
sharecropping debt that many Black farmers found themselves
in. White landowners could arbitrarily declare that Black
farmers or business owners were in debt at any time and seize
their land.
POLICY 4: The National Housing Act of 1934
This policy guaranteed loans to White people and legally
refused loans to Black people and anyone living near Black
neighborhoods. This policy also resulted in Black people
paying sometimes double or triple the amount to buy a
contract from a white person to pay mortgage on a house that
legally wasn't in their name. Meanwhile, Black people were
making payments to secure their chances of being able to own
their home, while still not receiving any equity on the
payments toward that home.
POLICY 5: The Social Security Act (1935-Present)
Black people were twice as likely to experience hunger or
poverty during The Great Depression, and sixty-five percent
of Black people were ineligible to receive this income
support. This was designed in such a way that excluded
farmworkers and domestic workers--who were predominantly
Black--from receiving ``old-age'' and ``unemployment''
insurance. To this day, farmworkers and domestic workers are
excluded.
POLICY 6: The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
This was enacted to help lift the economy out of the Great
Depression but excluded a number of tip-based professions
predominantly held by Black workers from the first minimum-
wage protections. Even though the Black unemployment and
poverty rates were twice that of White people during the
Great Depression, the very policies meant to alleviate
economic strain were often withheld from the Black community,
making it harder to build wealth in the future.
POLICY 7: The G.I. Bill of 1944
This was enacted to help World War II veterans adjust to
civilian life by providing low-cost home mortgages, low-
interest business loans, tuition assistance, and unemployment
compensation. Most of the benefits distributed were
unavailable to Black service members.
POLICY 8: Separate but Equal Doctrine (1954 to Present Day)
Despite the Separate but Equal, Doctrine being overturned
in 1954, American schools are more racially segregated today
than they have been in the past four decades, since Black
students are seven times more likely to live in areas of
concentrated poverty, and attend underfunded, understaffed,
and overcrowded schools.
POLICY 9: Subprime Loans (1970s to Present Day)
Starting in the 1970's and continuing today, the private
sector issued subprime loans almost exclusively to Black
families, regardless of income, good credit, or financial
history. As a result, Black families continued to unfairly
pay more money for homes of the same value as their White
counterparts, causing rates of foreclosure among Black
families to increase.
POLICY 10: The War on Drugs (1971 to Present Day)
The War on Drugs exacerbated the racial wealth gap with
practices that inherently targeted Black and brown
communities. Although rates of drug use and selling are
similar across racial lines, Black men are up to 10 times as
likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted,
convicted and incarcerated for drug law violations than
White.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, finally, let me just close by
thanking Congresswoman Karen Bass, once again, for keeping the
motherland of millions of Americans in the forefront of our foreign
policy, for the Congressional Black Caucus for recognizing the
solemnness of this moment, the importance of this moment and
recognizing that African Americans after 400 years are continuing to
fight for justice and for freedom and for a more perfect union for all
Americans.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise in recognition and
commemoration of the first enslaved Africans who arrived in the United
States 400 years ago. In 1619, the first recorded year of African
slaves arriving in the land we now call the United States of America,
did not know of our future. Our blood lines have continued in this
country since that time. Our history in this country began 400 years
ago when the first captured and kidnapped Africans were put on a boat
from the Kingdom of Ndongo in Angola and landed in North America.
The African slaves who first landed in English North America didn't
know that a whole new classification of black people, African
Americans, would develop into strong advocates of equality, justice and
freedom for people of all nations around the world. They didn't know
about Martin nor Malcom; Mahalia nor Michelle; all they knew is that
they had to survive. They knew they had to live to fight another day.
And here we are still helping to build this great nation, today.
While those first 20 survived, millions of captured, kidnapped, and
enslaved Africans did not, they drowned in horrible deaths in the
Atlantic Ocean. This period of middle passage was devastating for
African people. Those who survived were traumatized by the deadly
voyage to a land of slavery, the opposite of freedom. Here in this
magnificent Capitol, built by slaves, in this great city, built by
slaves, in this great nation, built by slaves, we stand stronger than
ever before.
To those who came before us, I honor your sacrifice and continue your
fight for freedom. 400 years later, the fight for survival and freedom
continues.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congresswoman
Barbara Lee for anchoring this Special Order recognizing the 400th
anniversary of the first slave arriving in America.
Four hundred years ago the first slave arrived in America, ships set
sail from the west coast of Africa and in the process, began one of
mankind's most inhumane practices: human bondage and slavery.
For two centuries, human beings--full of hopes and fears, dreams and
concerns, ambition and anguish--were transported onto ships like
chattel, and the lives of many forever changed.
The reverberations from this horrific series of acts--a transatlantic
slave trade that touched the shores of a colony that came to be known
as America, and later a democratic republic known as the United States
of America--are unknown and worthy of exploration.
Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved
in the United States and colonies that became the United States from
1619 to 1865.
The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily
sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through
1865.
American Slavery is our country's original sin and its existence at
the birth of our nation is a permanent scar on our country's founding
documents, and on the venerated authors of those documents, and it is a
legacy that continued well into the last century.
While it is nearly impossible to determine how the lives touched by
slavery could have flourished in the absence of bondage, we have
certain datum that permits us to examine how a subset of Americans--
African Americans--have been affected by the callousness of involuntary
servitude.
We know that in almost every segment of society--education,
healthcare, jobs and wealth--the inequities that persist in America are
more acutely and disproportionately felt in Black America.
This historic discrimination continues: African-Americans continue to
suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships
including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 black people
incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current white
unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of
white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.
A closer look at the statistics reveals the stark disparity in these
areas.
Black household wealth is less than one fifth of the national
average.
The median black household had a net worth of just $17,600 in 2016.
Yet in that same year, the median white house hold held
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$171,000 in wealth while the national household median was $97,300.
The black unemployment rate is 6.6 percent, more than double the
national unemployment rate.
Approximately 31 percent children live in poverty, compared to 11
percent of white children. The national average is 18 percent which
suggests that the percentage of black children living in poverty is
more than 150 percent the national average.
In the healthcare domain, the disparities suffered by African
Americans is also troubling.
Over 26 percent of African Americans do not have health insurance,
compared to a national average between 8.8 percent and 9.1 percent.
One in four African American women are uninsured.
Compared to national average, African American adults are 20 percent
more likely to suffer from asthma and three times more likely to die
from it.
Black adults are 72 percent more likely to suffer from diabetes than
average.
Black women are four times more likely to die from pregnancy related
causes, such as embolisms, and pregnancy-related hypertension, than any
other racial group.
In our nation, among children aged 19-35 months, black children were
vaccinated at rates lower than white children: 68 percent versus 78
percent respectively.
Education has often been called the key to unlocking social mobility.
African American students are less likely than white students to have
access to college-ready courses.
In fact, in 2011-12, only 57 percent of black students have access to
a full range of math and science courses necessary for college
readiness, compared to with 81 percent of Asian American students and
71 percent of white students.
Black students spend less time in the classroom due to discipline,
which further hinders their access to a quality education.
Black students are nearly two times as likely to be suspended without
educational services as white students.
Black students are also 3.8 times as likely to receive one or more
out-of-school suspensions as white students.
In addition, black children represent 19 percent of the nation's pre-
school population, yet 47 percent of those receiving more than one out-
of-school suspension.
School districts with the most students of color, on average, receive
15 percent less per student in state and local funding than the whitest
districts.
And, of course, we cannot consider the disparities between black and
white in America without considering the intersection of African
Americans and the Criminal Justice system.
There are more Black men in bondage today who are incarcerated or
under correctional control, than there were black men who were enslaved
in the 1800s.
The United States locks up African American males at a rate 5.8 times
higher than the most openly racist country in the world ever did:
South Africa under apartheid (1993), African American males: 851 per
100,000
United States (2006), African American males: 4,789 per 100,000
Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment. For example,
incarceration rates in the United States by race were:
African Americans: 2,468 per 100,000
Latinos: 1,038 per 100,000
Whites: 409 per 100,000
African American offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent
longer than white offenders for the same crimes and are 21 percent more
likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants
according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Looking at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on
even clearer:
For White males ages 25-29: 1,685 per 100,000;
For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,912 per 100,000;
For African American males ages 25-29: 11,695 per 100,000. (That's
11.7 percent of Black men in their late 20s.)
Overall, one in 50 murders is ruled justified--but when the killer is
white and the victim is a black man, the figure climbs to one in six.
A handgun homicide is nine times more likely to be found justified
when the killer is white and the victim is a black man.
Hand gun killings with a white shooter and a black male victim
exhibit an even more dramatic bias: one in four is found justified.
But then again, we knew these inequities existed I because for many
Black Americans, these disparities are just a part of daily life.
This is why, in 1989, my predecessor as the most senior African
American on this September Judiciary Committee, the honorable John
Conyers, a past Chairman of this Committee introduced H.R. 40,
legislation that would establish a commission to study and develop
proposals attendant to reparations.
Though many thought it a lost cause, John Conyers believed that a day
would come when our nation would need to account for the brutal
mistreatment of African-Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow
segregation and the enduring structural racism endemic to our society.
I would like to take this moment to personally thank the estimable
John Conyers for his work on this legislation for the last thirty
years.
With the rise and normalization of white supremacist expression
during the Trump administration, the discussion of H.R. 40 and the
concept of restorative justice have gained more urgency, garnering the
attention of mainstream commentator, and illustrating the need for a
national reckoning.
H.R. 40 is intended to create the framework for a national discussion
on the enduring impact of slavery and its complex legacy to begin that
necessary process of atonement.
The designation of this legislation as H.R. 40 is intended to
memorialize the promise made by General William T. Sherman, in his 1865
Special Field Order No. 15, to redistribute 400,000 acres of formerly
Confederate owned coastal land in South Carolina and Florida,
subdivided into 40 acre plots.
Since its introduction, H.R. 40 has acted to spur some governmental
acknowledgement of the sin of slavery, but most often the response has
taken the form of an apology.
However, even the well intentioned commitments to to examine the
historical and modern day implications of slavery by the Clinton
administration fell short of the mark and failed to inspire substantive
pubic discourse.
Since my reintroduction of H.R. 40 at the beginning of this Congress,
both the legislation and concept of reparations have become the focus
of national debate.
For many, it is apparent that the success of the Obama administration
has unleashed a backlash of racism and intolerance that is an echo of
America's dark past which has yet to be exorcised from the national
consciousness.
Commentators have turned to H.R. 40 as a response to formally begin
the process of analyzing, confronting and atoning for these dark
chapters of American history.
Even conservative voices, like that of New York Times columnist David
Brooks, are starting to give the reparations cause the hearing it
deserves, observing that ``Reparations are a drastic policy and hard to
execute, but the very act of talking and designing them heals a wound
and opens a new story.''
Similarly, a majority of the Democratic presidential contenders have
turned to H.R 40 as a tool for reconciliation, with 17 cosponsoring or
claiming they would sign the bill into law if elected.
Though critics have argued that the idea of reparations is unworkable
politically or financially, their focus on money misses the point of
the H.R. 40 commission's mandate.
The goal of these historical investigations is to bring American
society to a new reckoning with how our past affects the current
conditions of African-Americans and to make America a better place by
helping the truly disadvantaged.
Consequently, the reparations movement does not focus on payments to
individuals, but to remedies that can be created in as many forms
necessary to equitably address the many kinds of injuries sustained
from chattel slavery and its continuing vestiges.
To merely focus on finance is an empty gesture and betrays a lack of
understanding of the depth of the unaddressed moral issues that
continue to haunt this nation.
While it might be convenient to assume that we can address the
current divisive racial and political climate in our nation through
race neutral means, experience shows that we have not escaped our
history.
By passing H.R. 40, Congress can start a movement toward the national
reckoning we need to bridge racial divides.
Reparations are ultimately about respect and reconciliation--and the
hope that one day, all Americans can walk together toward a more just
future.
We owe it to those who were ripped from their homes those many years
ago an ocean away; we owe it to the millions of Americans- yes they
were Americans--who were born into bondage, knew a life of servitude,
and died anonymous deaths, as prisoners of this system.
We owe it to the millions of descendants of these slaves, for they
are the heirs to a society of inequities and indignities that naturally
filled the vacuum after slavery was formally abolished 154 years ago.
And let me end as I began, noting that this year is the 400th
commemoration of the 1619 arrival of the first captive Africans in
English North America, at Point Comfort, Virginia.
Let us proceed with the cause of this morning with a full heart, with
the knowledge that this work will take time and trust.
Let us also do with the spirit of reconciliation and understanding
that this bill represents.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to help address the harm that
slavery has had on our nation by supporting H.R. 40.
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