Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, let me say thank you to my colleagues and my friends for chairing tonight's Special Order hour. To the gentlewoman from Florida and the gentleman from Illinois, I thank them for speaking truth to power. I thank them for reminding us of our history. I thank them for reminding us why we are here tonight as we speak to the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to stand in solidarity with the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and with the Tennessee Three. I have this raised fist on a poster behind me saying: I stand with the #TennesseeThree.

Mr. Speaker, as we speak truth to power tonight in the face of an unspeakable tragedy, in which six Americans--three educators, and three babies 9 years old--were murdered senselessly due to gun violence, the move by the Tennessee legislature to expel these lawmakers for using their voice to speak truth to power is unjust, undemocratic, and un- American.

You will hear those words riddled through our Chamber throughout the night. To silence lawmakers for standing up for the will of the people is not democracy. I am glad that my classmate, my colleague, and my friend, Congressman Donald Payne reminded us of April, 7 years ago in this very Chamber, where in a full House we had a sit-in and stopped the Congress in an effort to get laws passed on gun violence, gun reform, because of the number of times we come to this Chamber, we come to the floor's microphone, and we say: 1 minute of silence. We did it today, Mr. Speaker.

Democrats and Republicans can come and stand in this Chamber and in a solemn hollow voice beg us to pray for the victims of another mass shooting, beg us to stand together for 1 minute, 60 seconds in it, because lives have been lost to gun violence with assault weapons.

Mr. Speaker, I respect the Second Amendment, but I don't respect coming to this floor--and I don't respect the individuals that will not bring gun reform to this floor in legislation that will help us eradicate what we are living through. It is just not fair.

If I had my way, I would put a piece of legislation on the House floor that says we can't come to the floor and do a 1-minute when we are losing lives because we can put something in place to make a difference.

The expulsion of the State representatives, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black, duly-elected members representing minority districts, makes it clear that racism is still alive and well in this Nation.

What happened in Tennessee's legislature was a blow to our democracy. If this can happen in Nashville, it can happen in any community in this country we call America. Republicans in Tennessee's legislature shut down the members for standing up for our children.

Mr. Speaker, gun violence is a leading cause of death. Mr. Speaker, gun violence is an epidemic in our country. Inaction, Mr. Speaker, should not be an option. We need more leaders and officials standing on the front lines with the American people to assure them that we are fighting to ban assault weapons, fighting to protect our children, fighting to protect our communities, and yes, fighting to protect our democracy. That is exactly what the Tennessee Three did.

Two Black men--young men--and a White woman stood together for justice. They fought to defend our democracy and the power of our voices. And, yes, as you have heard and I imagine will hear repeated again, just yesterday another tragedy occurred in this Nation, taking the lives of four Alabama young people, 16 years old, going to a birthday party.

I imagine this week we will come to this floor again, Democrats and Republicans, and acknowledge that this should not have happened, and acknowledge that, again, we should bow our heads for 1 minute, 60 seconds.

As a grandmother, as someone who has grandchildren who I hope can live to look to the future, I would hope that we would stand here and say for our children, if not for us as Republicans and Democrats, that we can stand together and come up with some type of legislation for gun reform.

Let me end here by saying, yes, we should put gun violence at the forefront of our agenda.

Mr. Speaker, it is simple, we should put people over politics because not bringing gun reform to this floor is simply a political maneuver. Let me say, we stand here together as members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, and we remind you that you cannot expel justice and you cannot expel our voices.

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