Authorizing Use of Rotunda for Ceremony Commemorating 50th Anniversary of Enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Marcia Fudge, for yielding time to me on this important resolution. I also want to commend her for her leadership on this initiative to pay appropriate commemoration to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Prior to my first election to the House of Representatives, I served in the State government of my native State, South Carolina, in an office charged with administering this landmark legislative achievement.

We, in South Carolina, effectively used provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce fair employment practices. That instrument has had tremendously positive impact on the working men and women of my State and across the country.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Law of 1968, and other initiatives embody the ideals upon which this Nation was founded.

I had the opportunity to expound on this notion at some length when I spoke in Dayton, Ohio, in 1985 as president of the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies. At that time I spoke these words:

We are an experimental Nation toying with the idea of individual rights as opposed to collective control and tyranny. So far, the experiment has worked, no doubt to the surprise of many who witnessed its birth over 200 years ago.

It is interesting to speculate why not only has the Nation survived, but also its ideals and principals. Let me hazard a few guesses as to why America and its ideals have worked over all these years. First of all, I do not believe America is perfect. Neither did the Founding Fathers of the Nation. No sooner had our Constitution been written than the first ten amendments were presented and adopted. They were called the Bill of Rights, and we can all be thankful that they were included in the package.

I continued on that day:

Americans have never tried to conceal or ignore their imperfections. For the most part, they have tried to recognize and correct them. When the enslavement of a race of people created a conflict which threatened the very foundation of our Constitution, the Nation went to war with itself to resolve the conflict and ensure the integrity and sovereignty of the Constitution. And, a century later, when it was found that discrimination still prevented millions of Americans from participating as full-fledged citizens, our Nation moved to correct the flaw with wide-ranging civil rights legislation.

This bill that we commemorate today was one of them:

Now, while it is common to say that no nation in the history of the world has granted more individual freedom, it is just as valid to say that no nation has ever tried harder to correct the flaws and impediments in its system. We are still imperfect, and we are still trying to live up to the principles to which the Constitution has committed us. The important message is that this Nation has never stopped trying, and we would do well not to stop now.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, too many in this country hold the view that the flaws in the system are not worth fixing or no longer need attention. Too often, the view is advanced that the civil rights movement and all of its achievements are things of the past.

I strongly disagree with that view. The work of securing a more perfect Union is never completed. The struggle continues.

I want to thank Chair FUDGE for her leadership on this resolution to commemorate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the rotunda of the Capitol.

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