400th Anniversary of First Enslaved Africans Brought to America

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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 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.

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.

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source