Replacing Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) giving me an opportunity to speak.

Mr. Speaker, for those of us who are sons of the South, for those of us who have endured hardship, discrimination, and a lot of things that are very difficult to even talk about, for this moment in time where we are today, where we are going to start the process of healing and setting the record straight as it relates to the real history of this country, it is fitting and proper that those individuals who fought to keep many of our ancestors enslaved should not have to be recognized in a place where people who do good expect to be recognized.

This is not a way of erasing history. It is a way of correcting history so that those people who come and see it will see it in the manner for which it is presented. So, at the end of this debate, I hope we all will be on the same page.

This notion that in America it is not your color, it is not your race, it is not your sex, we have to stand for something; our values should mean something as Americans.

So this bill establishes what America stands for, and we should not recognize traitors in order just to say we are together. Traitors have a place, but not in a place of honor.

My State recognizes the president of the Confederacy. If he had won the war as president, none of us of color would be in this institution today. But thank God he lost and the South lost and we are better because of it. Mr. Speaker, for that, I ask support of this legislation.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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