“SPECIAL ORDERS HERITAGE AND HORIZONS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGACY AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY” published by Congressional Record on Feb. 29, 2000

Volume 146, No. 20 covering the 2nd Session of the 106th Congress (1999 - 2000) was published by the Congressional Record.

The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.

“SPECIAL ORDERS HERITAGE AND HORIZONS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGACY AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H522-H532 on Feb. 29, 2000.

The publication is reproduced in full below:

SPECIAL ORDERS

HERITAGE AND HORIZONS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LEGACY AND THE CHALLENGES

OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 1999, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, it is always a great opportunity for me to have opportunity to address the Congress in a special order, particularly when the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) is the Speaker pro tempore.

Our theme today is Heritage and Horizons: The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century. As we come to the close of the celebrated African American history month, it is a great opportunity for the Congressional Black Caucus to organize a special order to celebrate black history. I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Chairman Clyburn) for designating me to organize this special order.

I took up the mantle after my predecessor, the Congressman from the 11th Congressional District of Ohio, Congressman Louis Stokes, who had this responsibility for his 30 years in Congress.

The theme for this year's Black History Special Order is Heritage and Horizons: The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century.

As we embark upon a new millennium, I believe it painful and powerful that this theme allows us to pay tribute to our past and allows us to make plans for our future. The question is how do we plan for our future. One way is to plan for our future by giving tribute to our past, learning the lessons of our past and paying tribute to our successes as a people.

I believe the past can serve as a blueprint for future generations on how to get things done.

There are many events that have shaped and defined the African American experience in America today that never should be forgotten. What should never be forgotten is the sacrifice that others have made to ensure future generations' success.

For that reason, I have chosen to highlight my predecessor, the former Representative, Congressman Louis Stokes. He retired from Congress on January 2, 1999. He currently serves as senior counsel at Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, a worldwide law firm based in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the faculty at Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is a senior visiting scholar at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

On November 6, 1968, Louis Stokes was elected to the United States Congress on his first bid for public office.

By virtue of his election, he became the first African American Member of Congress from the State of Ohio. First sworn in at the 91st Congress, Congressman Stokes served 15 consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives. When he retired at the end of the 105th Congress, he became the first African American in the history of the United States Congress to retire having completed 30 years in office.

In the 105th Congress, Representative Stokes was a member of the Committee on Appropriations where, by virtue of his seniority, he was the third-ranking minority member of the full committee and the ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies. In addition, he served as a member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

He was the ninth Ranking Democratic Member of Congress. By virtue of his seniority, Congressman Stokes also served as the Dean of the Ohio Congressional Delegation. He is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chaired the CBC Health Braintrust.

He was born February 23, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio to the late Charles and Louise Stokes. His father died when he was a young boy and Louis and his brother, the late Ambassador Carl B. Stokes, were reared by their young widowed mother.

Stokes was educated in the Cleveland public schools, graduating from Central High School. Following 3 years in the United States Army, from 1943 to 1946, he returned to Cleveland and utilized the G.I. bill to attend Western Reserve University. He received his Doctor of Laws degree from Cleveland Marshall Law School in 1953.

Prior to his election to the United States Congress, Congressman Stokes practiced law for 14 years in Cleveland. He was chief trial counsel for the firm of Stokes, Character, Terry, Perry, Whitehead, Young and Davidson. As a practicing lawyer, Representative Stokes participated in three cases in the United States Supreme Court, including the landmark ``stop and frisk'' case of Terry versus Ohio.

Congressman Stokes' younger brother, the late Carl B. Stokes, made history in 1967 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland, serving with distinction as the first black mayor of a major American city. Carl Stokes also enjoyed a career as an award-winning broadcaster and municipal court judge. In 1994, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles. Ambassador Stokes died in April 1996.

Louise Stokes, a proud mother who always encouraged her sons to get an education, lived to witness many of her sons' historic achievements. Prior to her death in 1978, she was the recipient of numerous awards, including Cleveland's ``Woman of the Year'' award in 1968 and Ohio's

``Mother of the Year'' award in 1969.

Let us talk a little bit about Congressman Louis Stokes' congressional career. In his first term in public office, he served as a member of the Committee on Education and Labor in the House, Committee on un-American Activities, later renamed the House Committee on Internal Security.

In his second term, he was appointed the first African American to sit on the Committee on Appropriations in the House. On February 8, 1972, Louis Stokes was elected as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He served two consecutive terms.

In addition to his seat on the powerful Committee on Appropriations, on February 5, 1975, he was elected by the Democratic Caucus to serve on the newly formed House Committee on Budget. He was re-elected to the Committee on Budget twice, serving a total of 6 years.

On September 21, 1976, Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker Carl Albert to serve on the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The committee had a mandate to conduct an investigation and study of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On March 8, 1977, Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill appointed Congressman Stokes as chairman of this committee. On December 31, 1978, Congressman Stokes completed these historic investigations and filed with the House of Representatives 27 volumes of hearings, a final report, and recommendations for administrative and legislative reform.

In February of 1980, in the 96th Congress, Congressman Stokes was appointed by Speaker O'Neill to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, also known as the Ethics Committee. In the 97th, 98th, and 102nd Congresses, he was elected chairman of this committee. Also, in the 101st Congress, Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker Wright to serve on the Ethics Task Force.

In February of 1983, the 98th Congress, Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker O'Neill to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In the 99th Congress, Representative Stokes was elected chairman of the Subcommittee on Program and Budget Authorization for the committee. In January of 1987, the 100th Congress, House Speaker Jim Wright appointed Congressman Stokes as chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In the 100th Congress, Representative Stokes was also appointed to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, and the Pepper Commission on Comprehensive Health Care.

As a result of the 1990 census and the redistricting mandate in 1992, the 21st Congressional District of Ohio was redesignated as the 11th Congressional District. In the 103rd Congress, which commenced in January of 1993, Congressman Stokes was elected to chair the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies. He also served as a member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, and the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia.

Congressman Stokes is married to Jeanette (Jay) Stokes. He has children: Shelley, Angela, Louis, and Lorene. Angela is an elected official in Cleveland in the Cleveland municipal court. Shelley and Louis C. are both involved in broadcasting, one in New York and the other in Michigan.

He has several grandchildren. He is a graduate of the Cleveland public schools, Case-Western Reserve University, and Cleveland Marshall College of Law where he received his doctor of law.

He has been given numerous designations and honors, among them, the 100 Most Influential Black Americans/ Black Achievement Award. The Louis Stokes Bridge was named in his honor, which is a bridge over Lake Shore Boulevard over Euclid Creek; Louis Stokes Telecommunications Center/Cuyahoga Community College; the Central High School Hall of Fame; the Louis Stokes Community Center; the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library. A street is called Stokes Boulevard in the city of Cleveland named after him and his brother. There is a Louis Stokes Health Sciences Center at Case-Western Reserve University. There is a Louis Stokes HUD Hall of Fame. He has been given the award by the National Minority Transplant Hall of Fame. There is a Louis Stokes Head Start Day Care Center. There is a Stokes Rapid Transit Station in Windermere. There is a Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library at Howard University. There is a Stokes Web site.

There is a Stokes Family Library and Museum, which is housed at the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority in the area where Congressman Stokes grew up as a boy. There is a Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. There is a Louis Stokes building at the National Institutes of Health.

He has received more than 23 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across this country.

I would like to particularly personally pay tribute to Congressman Louis Stokes. It is through his support and encouragement that I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives today. I can only recall with great admiration all of the wonderful things that he did on my behalf and on behalf of the 11th Congressional District. For me to be able to stand, the daughter of a skycap for United Airlines and the daughter of a woman who worked in a factory, standing here as a Member of the House of Representatives, one of 39 African Americans who serve in the House of Representatives, and in fact the first African American woman to serve in the House of Representatives from the State of Ohio.

It gives me great pleasure to be able to recognize and give Congressman Stokes his roses while he can still smell them on this February 29, the year 2000, as the CBC honors Black History Month.

Former Congressman Louis Stokes

Former Congressman Louis Stokes retired from Congress on January 2, 1999. He is currently Senior Counsel at Squire, Sanders and Dempsey L.L.P., a world-wide law firm based in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the faculty at Case-Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, where he is Senior Visiting Scholar at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

On November 6, 1968, Louis Stokes was elected to the United States Congress on his first bid for public office. By virtue of his election, he became the first African American Member of Congress from the State of Ohio. First sworn in at the 91st Congress, Representative Stokes served fifteen consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives. When he retired at the end of the 105th Congress, he became the first African American in the history of the U.S. Congress to retire having completed 30 years in office.

In the 105th Congress, Representative Stokes was a member of the Appropriations Committee where, by virtue of his seniority, he was the third ranking minority member of the full committee, and the ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs-Housing and Urban Development-Independent Agencies. In addition, he served as a member of the Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human Services-Education. In the Congress, Representative Stokes ranked eleventh overall in House seniority. He was the ninth ranking Democratic Member of Congress. By virtue of his seniority, Congressman Stokes also served as Dean of the Ohio Congressional Delegation. He is also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and chaired the CBC Health Braintrust.

Background

Congressman Stokes was born on February 23, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, to the late Charles and Louise Stokes. His father died when he was a young boy and Louis and his brother, the late Ambassador Carl B. Stokes, were reared by their young widowed mother. Stokes was educated in the Cleveland Public Schools, graduating from Central High School. Following three years in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946, he returned to Cleveland and utilized the G.I. Bill to attend Western Reserve University. He received his Doctor of Laws Degree from Cleveland Marshall Law School in 1953.

Prior to his election to the United States Congress, Congressman Stokes practiced law for fourteen years in Cleveland. He was chief trial counsel for the firm of Stokes, Character, Terry, Perry, Whitehead, Young and Davidson. As a practicing lawyer, Representative Stokes participated in three cases in the United States Supreme Court, including the landmark ``stop and frisk'' case of Terry v. Ohio.

Congressman Stokes' younger brother, the late Carl B. Stokes, made history in 1967 when he was elected Mayor of Cleveland, serving with distinction as the first black mayor of a major American city. Carl Stokes also enjoyed a career as an award-winning broadcaster and municipal court judge. In 1994, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles. Ambassador Stokes died in April 1996. Louise Stokes, a proud mother who always encouraged her sons to get an education, lived to witness many of her sons' historic achievements. Prior to her death in 1978, she was the recipient of numerous awards including Cleveland's ``Woman of the Year'' award in 1968 and Ohio's

``Mother of the Year'' award in 1969.

congressional career

During his first term in public office (91st Congress), Congressman Stokes served as a member of the Education and Labor Committee and the House Un-American Activities Committee, later re-named the House Internal Security Committee. In his second term in office (92nd Congress), he was appointed the first black Member ever to sit on the Appropriations Committee of the House. On February 8, 1972, Louis Stokes was elected as Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He served two consecutive terms in this office. In addition to his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, on February 5, 1975, he was elected by the Democratic Caucus to serve on the newly formed Budget Committee of the House. He was re-elected to the Budget Committee twice, serving a total of six years.

On September 21, 1976 (94th Congress) Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker Carl Albert to serve on the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The Committee had a mandate to conduct an investigation and study of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On March 8, 1977, Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill appointed Congressman Stokes as Chairman of this committee. On December 31, 1978, Congressman Stokes completed these historic investigations and filed with the House of Representatives 27 volumes of hearings, a Final Report and Recommendations for Administrative and Legislative Reform.

In February of 1980 (96th Congress), Congress Stokes was appointed by Speaker O'Neill to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics Committee). In the 97th, 98th, and 102nd Congresses, he was elected Chairman of this committee. Also, in the 101st Congress, Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker Wright to serve on the Ethics Task Force.

In February of 1983 (98th Congress), Representative Stokes was appointed by Speaker O'Neill to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In the 99th Congress, Representative Stokes was elected Chairman of the Subcommittee on Program and Budget Authorization for the committee. In January of 1987 (100th Congress), House Speaker Jim Wright appointed Congressman Stokes as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. In the 100th Congress, Representative Stokes was also appointed to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, and the Pepper Commission on Comprehensive Health Care.

As a result of the 1990 census and the redistricting mandate, in 1992 the 21st Congressional District of Ohio was re-designated as the 11th Congressional District. In the 103rd Congress, which commenced in January of 1993, Congressman Stokes was elected to chair the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD-Independent Agencies. He also served as a member of the Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia.

personal information

Birthdate: February 23, 1925.

Wife: Jeanette (Jay) Stokes.

Children: Shelley, Angela, Louis C. and Lorene.

Grandchildren: Brett S., Eric S., and Grant W. Hammond; Kelley C. and Kimberly L. Stokes; Alexandra F. and Nicolette S. Thompson.

Education: Cleveland Public Schools (Giddings and Central High School), Western Reserve University, Cleveland Marshall Law School (The Cleveland State University)--Doctor of Jurisprudence.

designations and honors

Throughout his tenure in the United States Congress, Representatives Stokes has played a pivotal role in the quest for civil rights, equality and social and economic justice. He is the recipient of countless awards and honors which recognize his strong leadership and commitment.

100 Most Influential Black Americans/Black Achievement Award. Each year since 1971, Congressman Stokes has been named by Ebony Magazine as one of the ``100 Most Influential Black Americans.'' In 1979, he was nominated by Ebony in three categories for the Second Annual American Black Achievement Awards. His nomination was based upon his becoming the first African American to head a major congressional investigation and to preside over nationally televised hearings which revealed new facts on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President John F. Kennedy.

William Dawson Award. Congressman Stokes has twice received the Congressional Black Caucus' William L. Dawson Award. In 1980, Congressman Stokes was presented the prestigious award in recognition of his ``unique leadership in the development of legislation.'' In 1994, he received the second Dawson Award for ``significant research, organizational and leadership contributions in the development of legislation that addresses the needs of minorities in the United States.

Louis Stokes Bridge. On June 24 1988, the Board of County Commissioners Cuyahoga County dedicated the Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge over Euclid Creek as the ``Louis Stokes Bridge,'' in recognition of Congressman Stokes' leadership in public service, and his support for federal funding to support road and bridge improvement projects.

Louis Stokes Telecommunications Center/Cuyahoga Community College. On September 24, 1988, Cuyahoga Community College designated the Louis Stokes Telecommunications Center in the Unified Technologies Center in honor of Congressman Stokes.

Central High School Hall of Fame. On March 30, 1990, Congressman Stokes' alma mater, Central High School (now Central Middle School) recognized his historic achievements by presenting him with the school's Alumnus Award and including him into the school's Hall of Fame. On that occasion, the school also dedicated its auditorium as the

``Louis Stokes Auditorium.''

Louis Stokes Community Center. On September 5, 1992, in recognition of the achievements of Ohio's first and only African American to serve in the United States Congress, the community center in Outhwaite Homes was renamed as the

``Louis Stokes Community Center'' by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority.

Louis Stokes Wing/Cleveland Public Library. On January 19, 1994, the Cleveland Public Library Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a resolution to name the new Cleveland Public Library East Wing in honor of Congressman Stokes. The resolution stated that his career ``has extended into areas of law, civil rights, support for education and public libraries, and congressional, national and local leadership on a wide range of issues important to the Cleveland area and the nation.''

Stokes Boulevard--Cleveland, Ohio. To mark Congressman Stokes' historic achievements in the United States Congress, the City of Cleveland voted on June 6, 1994 to designate East 107th Street and portion of Fairhill Road as ``Stokes Boulevard.'' Appropriate signs mark this special salute to Congressman Stokes.

Case Western Reserve University/Louis Stokes Health Sciences Center. Case Western Reserve University honored Congressman Stokes on June 24, 1994 with the dedication of the ``Louis Stokes Health Science Center.'' Congressman Stokes was lauded for his work ``to improve the lives of all Americans and to ensure the full participation of members of minority groups in the many initiatives in health, science, education, and public welfare.''

Louis Stokes HUD ``Hall of Fame.'' On April 5, 1995, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development inducted Congressman Stokes into the nation's first ``Public Housing Hall of Fame.'' Located in HUD's Washington, D.C. Headquarters, the Hall of Fame recognizes Congressman Stokes as a strong advocate of safe and affordable housing for America's families.

National Minority Transplant Hall of Fame. On September 18, 1996, Congressman Stokes was chosen for inclusion in the first National Minority Transplant Hall of Fame. The designation recognizes Stokes' strong leadership in the area of organ transplant education and awareness.

Louis Stokes Head Start Day Care Center. Dedicated during the weekend of June 20, 1997, the ``Louis Stokes Head Start Center'' was built specifically to serve the needs of pre-school children in the Metropolitan Cleveland Area. The Center was named for Congressman Stokes for his dedication in fighting for the rights of Cleveland's disadvantaged.

Stokes Rapid Transit Station/Windermere. On November 17, 1997, Cleveland's Regional Transit Authority designated the Windermere Rapid Transit Station as the ``Louis Stokes Station at Windermere'' in honor of Congressman Stokes for his support for public transit.

Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library/Howard University. Howard University voted to recognize Congressman Stokes for his strong leadership in the United States Congress. On August 11, 1998, Howard University paid tribute to ``one of our nation's most prolific Members of Congress'' by naming their new health sciences library ``The Louis Stokes Health Science Center.''

Stokes Web Site. On August 11, 1998, top executives from Cleveland's business community announced that a web site will be set up in Congressman Stokes' name to inform young people of internships, scholarships and job training opportunities. The site will be called the ``Living Legacy Project: Aim High.'' Stokes was known for autographing photos for young students with the phrase ``Aim High!''

The Stokes Family Library and Museum. Unveiled during Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's Louis Stokes Day 1998, on September 12, 1998, Congressman Stokes' boyhood home in the Outhwaite housing projects will be transformed into the ``Stokes Family Library and Museum.'' The Library will serve as a home for many of the Congressman's awards and memorabilia for organizations around the country.

Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center. On October 6, 1998, on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, Congressman Stokes was honored with the naming of the Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in his honor. The designation recognizes a lawmaker who worked tirelessly on behalf of the nation's veterans and other citizens throughout his 30-year career.

Louis Stokes Building, National Institutes of Health. On October 20, 1998, the House of Representatives voted for passage of an Omnibus Appropriations Bill to fund the Departments of Labor-Health and Human Services-Education. The bill includes language designating Building #50, the Consolidated Laboratories Building on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, in honor of Congressman Stokes. The renaming honors Congressman Stokes for his staunch leadership on the health front.

Honorary Degrees. Congressman Stokes is the recipient of 23 honorary Degrees from colleges and universities across the nation. The degrees were conferred upon Congressman Stokes in recognition of his national leadership and strong commitment to public service.

Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) for yielding to me. Even more so, I thank her for the leadership she is showing in making sure that the month of February does not go by without yet another black history celebration in the name of her predecessor, I must say who was always in charge of this particular feature on the House floor when he was here.

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And you follow in his footsteps in many ways, I say to the gentlewoman from Ohio, and this is a wonderful one which both honors him and to make sure that the Congressional Black Caucus is once again heard on this floor for Black History Month and all that it stands for.

If I may say to the gentlewoman, I would like to discuss two subjects this afternoon related to black history. One is some finished business that this House finished only this month, and the other is tragically unfinished.

The finished business has to do with a bill that was passed on the floor on February 16 that will allow the home of Carter G. Woodson to become a national historic site under the National Park Service. The reason that this was so important is that Carter G. Woodson is the father of black history, the man who discovered black historiography, the second black person to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in the early part of this century, and yet his house, which is a gorgeous Victorian house, stands closed, virtually boarded up.

So here we are celebrating Black History Month every year and right there in the Shaw district, a historic part of the district which was the virtual seat of black America, is the home of the man who is responsible for what was, when I was a child called Negro History Week and has developed into Black History Month, closed. With the bill that the House passed just before we recessed, Carter G. Woodson's home will be open to the public the way Frederick Douglass' home is open to the public in this city and the way that Mary McLeod Bethune's home is open to the public, and will be kept open under the National Park Service, as it deserves.

This man was of immense importance. Without uncovering black history we could never have gotten to the civil rights remedies, because the portrayals of African Americans were so pervasively stereotyped and negative after slavery, with Jim Crow and all that it stood for, that Carter G. Woodson's work looms much larger than life. He started the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which continues his work today. They would like to occupy this house when it is fully renovated. He used his house not only to live but to train researchers. It is a glorious history in and of itself.

May I say to the gentlewoman, I would like to remark on some unfinished business having to do with African Americans. This is a majority black city. Historically it was the capital of black intellectual life because of Howard University and because freed and runaway slaves often found their way here. The Capitol where we now debate was built with the help of slave labor. A glorious kind of intellectual leadership emanated from this city. It always had a large black population, probably because it was so close to the South and, therefore, there was a large segment of freed slaves and a large segment of runaway slaves, one of whom was my great grandfather.

This city has been the home of Benjamin Banneker, who of course helped design the city, and of many great African Americans; Charles Drew, who is responsible for the discovery of the blood bank and the use of stored blood; Duke Ellington, whose 100th birthday we celebrated last year; Frederick Douglass; Mary McLeod Bethune; Senator Edward Brooke, who graduated from the same high school I graduated from, Dunbar High School; and yet, Madam Speaker, this is the only part of the United States where black and white people do not enjoy the full privileges of citizenship.

This used to be the place where people from the South came escaping the harshness of segregation and terrible discrimination. We who live in the District, particularly we who are native Washingtonians, have seen the whole of the South come into its own, with people able to vote, as models for self-government throughout the South, and yet in this town, where the majority of the population is African American, there is still not the same basic rights that blacks throughout the South have finally been able to win.

I am the only representative of the District of Columbia. Although I won the right to vote on the House floor, that vote was taken from me when the majority assumed power. We do not have a full voting representative in this House. We have no voting representative in this House. Does this not sound like the Old South? This is the new capital. This is the capital of the United States I am talking about.

There is rage in this town, particularly because more than 60 percent of the people are African Americans and have seen their folks down home come into full citizenship, while in this town we still exist without the basic rights that everybody else takes for granted. We saw the Congressional Black Caucus expanded by 50 percent, largely from people from the old Confederate States, sent here by whites and African Americans; and yet we cannot send a full voting Member to this House, even though we pay full Federal income tax.

What we have done is to sue in court. And I say to my colleagues, every time an attempt is made to attach a rider to the appropriation of the District of Columbia, consisting of our money not these other Members, democracy is defamed in the United States. And that is why my colleagues will see me on this floor and will always see me on this floor as long as I am a Member of this House reminding my fellow colleagues of that defamation of democracy. The court suit we have brought intends to rectify this situation, since we have not been able to get it rectified in this body.

Some have said that the reason the District has never had its full rights is because of its large African American population. I am not so sure of that. Until the 1970s, this city was majority white. The city, the Jim Crow-segregated city in which I grew up, the segregated schools that I went to, was in a majority white city, and this body was willing to deny those whites their full rights in the House, the Senate, and their full home rule as much as they are willing to deny it to blacks.

And yet there may well be something to the notion that the city always had a large black population. If we look at the history books, that seems to have influenced the way the Congress looked at the District of Columbia. Well, the Congress needs to take that taint off of it. It needs to grant my white constituents and my black constituents the same rights that their white constituents, their Hispanic constituents, and their black constituents have.

Until that happens, until that happens I will not, I will not let an appropriate opportunity go by to remind this body that we have not lived up to our stated ideals. One appropriate time to inject that reminder into the record is during Black History Month, in a largely black city where black citizens and white citizens and citizens of every background wait, no longer patiently, but wait for the same rights that many other Americans have.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, as part of our special hour I would now like to yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).

Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me, and I also want to thank the gentlewoman from Washington, D.C. for her words.

There is absolutely no question that she is absolutely right, and we in the Congressional Black Caucus and many others in this great body stand with her and behind her. And I want to commend her for constantly keeping an issue that is so significant and very important, and one that shows the contradictions of this country and what we are doing in this Congress, shows it up so clearly. I want to thank her for all that she does every day to keep us aware of the situation that we find ourselves in in the very place where we write the laws. So I thank her.

I want to go on to say, Madam Speaker, that this month, through a series of Dear Colleague Letters, I saluted several famous African American Marylanders, and today I rise again to recognize African Americans from my home district of Baltimore, Maryland, for their significant contributions to the American political and educational process, and for distinguishing themselves as the first African Americans to achieve in their chosen professions.

The recognition of these individuals comes as we nationally observe Black History Month. This year's theme, Heritage and Horizons, the African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century, is most appropriate to these Baltimorians who, by accepting the challenges and overcoming the obstacles of their day, have prepared us to meet the challenges facing us in this new millennium.

I cite Roberta B. Sheridan, the daughter of a life-long resident of Baltimore and educated as a teacher. She was dedicated to public education. Even though she was denied the opportunity to teach in the black public schools, because African Americans at that time were deemed unqualified, she persisted in her efforts. With the help of the African American community, a campaign was waged to allow African Americans to teach in black public schools. This campaign resulted in the appointment of Roberta Sheridan in 1888 as the first African American teacher in a Baltimore City public school. Indeed, in the State of Maryland.

Her goal was to ensure that African Americans received a quality education, and she sought to end the educational inadequacies fostered by white teachers who dominated the education of blacks following the Civil War.

I also cite Harry S. Cummings, no relation, from Baltimore's ward 11, one of the two first African American males to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1889. Mr. Cummings' career focused on the legal, educational, and political professions. He was known as the father of the Colored Polytechnic Institute because he introduced a measure for establishing this educational facility and other high schools for African Americans in this area.

Politically he was successful in becoming the first African American to be elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1890. In 1904, he had the distinction of seconding the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. He received acclaim for his speech. In 1907, he was again elected to a 4-year term to the Baltimore City Council, representing the 17th ward. He served two additional terms in 1911 and 1915. As a fellow University of Maryland graduate, I am pleased to honor him.

I also cite Thurgood Marshall, lawyer and product of a Baltimore black middle class and the impetus for the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Beginning his career, he served as counsel to the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. He argued cases before the United States Supreme Court 32 times, winning 29 cases. He is probably most famous for Brown versus Board of Education, which we won in 1954.

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With this success, doors were opened ending segregated schools and educational inequalities for African Americans. Using the legal process, Thurgood Marshall's legacy was to ensure that African Americans would no longer be excluded from participating in the American fabric because of discrimination.

When asked for a definition of ``equal,'' Marshall stated, ``Equal means getting the same thing at the same time in the same place.''

Thurgood Marshall's achievements culminated in his appointment as the Nation's first African American Supreme Court justice on August 30, 1967. Because of his achievements, I have urged adoption of my resolution urging the United States Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp in his honor because he is immediately deserving of this recognition.

Finally, I cite Parren J. Mitchell, a native Baltimorean, who represents several firsts. He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Maryland Graduate School with a master's degree in sociology. Coming from a family involved in local politics and community affairs, he embarked upon an educational, human resources, and political career. He was Maryland's first black Representative to the United States House of Representatives from Baltimore's 7th Congressional District and one of my predecessors to this body.

Elected to the 92d Congress beginning in 1971, he remained in the House for seven succeeding Congresses until 1987. He enjoyed a successful Congressional career, serving as chairman of the Committee on Small Business for the 97th, 98th, and 99th Congresses. He was instrumental in the formation of the House Black Caucus, now known as the Congressional Black Caucus, to bring to the attention of Congress and the President of the United States legislative concerns primarily affecting African Americans.

I am honored to recognize these African Americans from my district of Baltimore who were the firsts, who dared to meet the challenges of their day, who paved the way and opened doors to ensure equal opportunities for African Americans and their succeeding generations. Indeed, they represent a legacy that gives us hope and confirmation that African Americans continue to succeed and contribute to this wonderful American structure.

As we live today, as we look at our pasts, and as we look to our future, we can take pride in the rich heritage that these individuals have bequeathed to all of us as Americans.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure at this time to yield to the gentleman from Chicago (Mr. Davis).

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I want to first of all thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Jones) for organizing this special order and certainly for giving me the opportunity to share in it with her and the gentlewoman from Washington, D.C. (Ms. Norton) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in paying tribute to the rich legacy and heritage that our ancestors have contributed to American life. I want to use the few minutes that I have to pay homage to the African American church.

There are many outstanding religious institutions in the district that I live and represent, notwithstanding even the one that I hold membership in, the New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, under the leadership of the Reverend Charlie Murray, where they let me serve as a member of the deacon board sometimes when I am there.

But I really want to use the few minutes that I have to pay homage to two other churches, Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Reverend Thomas Higgonbotham, and the First Baptist Congregational Church, under the leadership of Dr. Arthur Griffin, both located in the 7th Congressional District of Illinois.

These two churches have followed the historical tradition of the black church as being the most stable, viable, and reliable entity in black life. Throughout slavery, segregation, black codes, and injustice, the church has served as the major instrument for hope and for change. It was the black church that produced some of our greatest leaders, educators, theologians, scientists, and administrators.

Quinn Chapel was formed in 1847 under the leadership of the Reverend George Johnson. The church was named in honor of the renowned Bishop William Paul Quinn. Bishop Quinn was one of the most prolific circuit-

riding preachers in the 1800s who personally organized 97 AME churches, prayer bands, and temperance societies.

It is interesting to note that Quinn Chapel's first community project focused on the abolition of slavery; and, ironically, Quinn Chapel became a stop on the Underground Railroad. For over 150 years during race riots, depressions, recessions, the great Chicago Fire of 1871, and a myriad of other natural disasters and human crises, African Americans came to Quinn Chapel for protection, information, support, and inspiration.

Quinn Chapel was the birthplace of Provident Hospital of Chicago, organized by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in 1891. Dr. Williams was the first surgeon to successfully operate on a human heart, and Provident was the first United States hospital where African American nurses could be trained and employed.

In addition, it was Quinn Chapel who initiated in 1898 the first known retirement home for African Americans. Most recently, Quinn Chapel was one of the locations that hosted a regional Congressional Black Caucus hearing on law enforcement misconduct.

Similarly, the First Baptist Congregational Church, formally known as the Union Park Congregational Church, was founded in 1851 under the leadership of Philo Carpenter. Philo Carpenter and a group of 48 abolitionist members left the parent church, the Third Presbyterian, over the issue of slavery. The departing members felt that the General Assembly had not adopted a strong enough position against slavery. Ironically, the church also served as a stop along the Underground Railroad.

Carpenter was Chicago's first druggist, opening a drugstore in a small log home on the bank of the river at the point that is now Lake Street. In addition to meeting the congregants' need for spirituality, the church was instrumental in forming several institutions of higher learning.

Among the black colleges founded by this church include Dilliard University in Louisiana, Fisk University in Tennessee, LeMoyne-Owen College in Tennessee, Talladega College in Alabama, Tougaloo College in Mississippi, and Huston-Tillotson College in Texas.

Obviously, these colleges represent some of the finest institutions of higher education. And so this church like Quinn Chapel has been instrumental in shaping the minds of some of our greatest thinkers and leaders.

I attended a meeting just last week of another church at the Rock of Ages Missionary Baptist Church in Maywood, Illinois, where Reverend Marvin Wiley had more than a thousand residents come out to talk about community development.

I also take this opportunity to highlight the work of Reverend Bill Winston at the Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, Illinois.

Madam Speaker, these churches have all helped to set the standards by which other institutions have learned to live. Even today, they continue to inspire through the three cornerstones of life: faith, hope, and love. Because of the contributions of Quinn Chapel AME and First Baptist Congregational, Chicago is indeed a better place in which to live. But more importantly, the United States of America and people throughout the world have benefited from the shining light that has emanated from these institutions.

And so I thank my colleague for the opportunity to share this moment with her and again commend her for putting this special order together.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) and all my other colleagues for supporting me in this process.

I am expecting a couple more of my colleagues, so I am going to proceed with a few more things that I have in front of me until they get here.

It is appropriate today that I recognize or memorialize from the 11th Congressional District of Ohio a gentleman by the name of Gus Joiner. Mr. Joiner's funeral is today at the Second Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Unfortunately, I could not be there. But it would be appropriate at this time that I talk a little bit about Mr. Joiner right here on the floor of the Congress.

``Gus Joiner, a former union organizer,'' and this comes from the obituary section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ``who became chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Federation of Retired Workers in Cleveland, died Friday at Hospice of the Western Reserve.

The 90-year-old Cleveland resident spent his life fighting unfair labor practices, racism and injustice. He also encouraged others to stand up for their rights.

Mr. Joiner, who worked for the Euclid Road Machinery Co. from the 1940s to the 1970s, once went to court to force the independent union at the company to allow non-Caucasians into its ranks. Later, he was instrumental in bringing his fellow workers under the umbrella of the United Auto Workers as Local 426.

After retiring in 1976, he joined the Federation of Retired Workers and spoke out on behalf of senior citizens throughout Greater Cleveland. He showed up at Cleveland City Council committee meetings to share his views on pending legislation and attended hearings to protest the rising cost of utilities.

His most recent crusade was to preserve Madonna Hall, an inner-city nursing home, as a charitable asset of the State of Ohio. Mr. Joiner, chairman of the nursing home's board until stepping down from the unpaid position in 1997, led the trustees' battle against attempts by the home's landlords to claim ownership and sell the nursing home.

``He was the crusader,'' said Mary Davis, the lawyer who represented him in a lawsuit filed in conjunction with the case. ``He had a sense of what was right and what was fair. It's not that often you see somebody willing to risk themselves for what's right or put themselves on the line for what they believe in. He was a person of such extraordinary faith that everything is going to work out OK. When you look at the difficulty of his life, he turned to joy, thanksgiving and celebration rather than bitterness.''

Mr. Joiner, an Alabama native, was a teenager when he started working at a coal company's coke yard in Virginia. He moved on to Chicago to work in the stockyards, but was laid off during the Depression. For a while, he hopped freight trains and rode the rails in search of work.

In the 1930s, he joined relatives in West Virginia, where he worked in the coal mines and organized labor unions under volatile circumstances. As a local officer and organizer with the United Mine Workers out of Fairmount, W. Va., he once chaired the speakers' platform with legendary UMW President John L. Lewis at a state convention. Mr. Joiner also worked undercover to help organize unions in the western Pennsylvania communities of Johnstown and Uniontown.

During World War II, he worked in the Navy yard in Norfolk, Va. By the mid-1940s, he was in Cleveland and working at Euclid Road Machinery.

Mr. Joiner considered voting not only a right, but a responsibility. He voted in every primary and general election for 66 years, including the general election of November 1999.

He had been church treasurer, Audit Committee chairman and trustees secretary at the Second Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cleveland, where he was a member for more than 50 years. In 1972, he was named the parish's Man of the Year. He also was a trustee of the United Black Fund.

When his children were younger, Mr. Joiner participated in PTA activities at John Hay High School, where he complained about the better resources given to the white West Side schools.

``He was an advocate for us if we had any trouble or problem at school,'' said his daughter, Margaret of Cleveland. ``That same zeal he used to make sure the little person wasn't trampled, he used to defend his children.''

Mr. Joiner and his wife, Mildred, who died 15 years ago, raised seven daughters and a son.

In addition to Margaret, Mr. Joiner is survived by daughters, Mary Heard, Betty Pittman, Barbara, Victoria and Kathryn, all of Cleveland, and Carolyn Williams of Albany, N.Y.; son, Franklin of Cleveland; 12 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and a sister.

I stand here with pride, even on the day of the memorial services of Mr. Joiner, to talk about this wonderful 90-year-old man that I knew all the time that I grew up in the city of Cleveland, as well as part of my public life. I am glad that I had the opportunity to get to know him as well as to memorialize him in the Record of the United States Congress.

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Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson).

Ms. CARSON. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) a member of this august body for whom I have the greatest admiration and the respect for in terms of her commitment to justice and equality for all people. I am very happy that my distinguished colleague has allowed me to be just a very brief part of this black history celebration in the month of February that was inspired by Carter G. Woodson many years ago, first as the Negro History Week, if you will, and later extended to a whole month.

It is ironic, I believe, that it is in the shortest month of the year, that is, the month of February, given that we have so many virtues to extol of so many African Americans who have done a yeoman's job in building this great Nation in which we all enjoy freedom. Very briefly, let me pay a special tribute to a young man, a young man who at the age of 108 years old just last year made his transition, Dr. John Morton-Finney.

At the time of his transition he was believed to be the oldest practicing attorney in the whole United States. But even more importantly, John Morton-Finney was the first teacher to join the staff of Crispus Attucks High School when it was opened in 1927, an African American school in my district for which I am a proud graduate that was built on the bedlam of racism but indeed produced some of the most outstanding scholars and noted sportsmen that this country has ever known.

John Morton-Finney finally had the education center in Indianapolis named for him after a year of my insistence that began because John Morton-Finney's work, his life, his legacy is a hallmark in terms of the contributions of African Americans in my particular district; and it stands there as a beacon of hope, a beacon of testimony, a beacon of illustration of what people can be if they decide that that is what they want to be.

John Morton-Finney had over 30 earned degrees. He headed up the language department. He was a quasi-scientist, quasi-inventor and just a noble, noble individual. I am so happy that our school board in Indianapolis finally got around to paying due where due was certainly earned because in the course of an ordinary life, many of us would leave some things undone, but in the life of John Morton-Finney it is a challenge to figure out what in the world it was that he did not do or what it was that he left unaccomplished and that is merely one of the qualities of his life so worth celebrating, especially in this month of African American history celebration for their contributions. I want to thank my colleagues that preceded me and thank the gentlewoman from Ohio specifically for bringing this to the floor of the United States Congress, to the ears and eyes of America and certainly for allowing little old me from Indianapolis, Indiana to have just an infinitesimally small part of this very vital process.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I would like to thank my colleague for being so modest but as she sits here she is the one who had the idea of awarding Rosa Parks the Gold Medal.

Madam Speaker, I await the chairman of the CBC, and so I have a poem that I am going to attempt to do very quickly in his absence. The author is Gloria Wade-Gayles. The poem is entitled And The Women Gathered. I think it is appropriate that I do this poem right now because it talks about black history and then we are on the brink of the month of March, which happens to be Women's History Month as well.

I want to give my best at doing this piece of poetry. I would also like to give appropriate credit to my former chief of staff, Marcia Fudge, the national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., who is now the mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio. It is as a result of her love of poetry that I even learned about this particular poem. I think Gloria Wade-Gayles does a fabulous job of writing. It is entitled And the Women Gathered.

And The Women Gathered

(By Gloria Wade-Gayles)

And the women gathered.And the women gathered.And the women gathered.Thin womenStout womenShort womenTall womenYoung womenNot so young womenFlat chested womenBig bosomed womenWomen with blue eyesGreen eyesBrown eyesWomen with silky hairCurly hairBleached hairPermed hairGraying hairAnd the women gathered.Coming by planesBusesVansCarsTrainsAnd strong feet never tiredTo gather for freedomMarried womenDivorced womenSingle womenWidowed womenThe Women GatheredCocoaCreamNut brownBeigeCaramelFudgeBlackberry blackAs different as the stars that grace the nightThe women gatheredAs one constellation.And the world took noticeThat women are warriors

(Always have been even in the beginning)And so they gathered as women willIn the very eye of the stormPushing against its furyWith their ownAnd the world took noticeThat women birth babiesAnd revolutionsThe women gatheredTen thousand Rosas inspired by oneYou saw them.You saw them.You saw them.You saw them.The world saw them.Montage from the movement: HeadlinesMontgomery, AlabamaDecember 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery,

Alabama refused to surrender her seat to a white man when ordered by a local bus driver. The Montgomery bus boycott begins. Blacks walk, walk, and walk for freedom and dignity.Women were there.Greensboro, North CarolinaFebruary 1, 1960. Students sit in at lunch counters and are refused service. Return. Are arrested.A wave of sit-ins spreads to 15 cities in five southern

States. Women were thereMay 4, 1961. The freedom rides begin. Blacks and whites ride together on a chartered bus. Savage beatings, arson, legal harassment.Women were there.Birmingham, April 3, 1963.Bull Connor turns on water hoses and unleashes ferocious dogs. Physical violence. Mass arrests.Bombings.Women were there.Birmingham, September 15, 1963.Four young black girls are killed in church bombing.

Mississippi, summer of 1964Civil rights activists, blacks and whites invade the State, registering voters establishing freedom Schools.The South.During the course of one year, 80 people were physically assaulted, 30 buildings bombed, 1,000 arrested and five murdered.Women were there.Throughout the movement,Women sang the songs passionately.

``We shall not. We shall not be moved.

``Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom.

``Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round, turn me round.

``And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave, and go home to the Lord and be free.''And the women gathered.In need of empowerment for themselves but they gathered to change the South.They gathered because women do not sleep through nightmares.We shall not call the roll.It is as long as the NileWhere civilization was born.We shall not call the roll.The women wore their courageAnd not their names.It is that way with women.And so we say.Women warriorsTrailblazersTorchbearersActivistsThinkersMovers and shakersDreamersRevolutionariesWe salute you.And we promiseThat we will notSleep through the nightmaresOf homelessness, unemployment,Poverty, violence against children, women, men, IgnoranceOppression of all kinds.We promise thatA new generationOf womenWill gather.We are that generation.

Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, there is much to celebrate. The economic climate is improving significantly. African American businesses are borrowing, investing, and building capital at record levels. For African Americans, median household income is up, the poverty rate is sharply down, and the unemployment rate is down to the lowest level on record (8.1 percent).

However, despite our economic progress and electoral gains, we still have not achieved all we can. In addition to the disparity of income in our country, one important area we must address is environmental justice--a significant human rights issue for this century. The issue of environmental justice stems from the concern that impoverished communities, frequently comprised of people of color, suffer larger and disproportionate environmental risks compared to other Americans. The environmental justice movement also concerns inequality, including wealth and income disparities, inadequate schools, gaps in medical services, uneven economic opportunities and investment inequities.

In recent years, America has significantly improved its air and water quality and reduced waste disposal and toxic chemicals. However, the improvements have been uneven and the benefits skewed. These factors cause troubling health problems and threaten all our other progress. The fight for a healthy environment has been led by many local grassroots leaders. In San Francisco, Linda Richardson has helped lead the fight to address these problems and achieve environmental justice. Mrs. Richardson founded Southeast Alliance for Environmental Justice, a San Francisco based environmental organization. She also is a member of the San Francisco Planning Commission and an expert on the impact of environmental pollutants on poor communities.

Her work has demonstrated the importance of implementing safe, healthy, and equitable environmental policies to bring about environmental justice. Thanks to this grassroots work, Americans now realize that it is no longer tolerable for pollution and environmental toxins to prey heavily on our Nation's vulnerable population, including impoverished Americans; minorities; and our children.

Despite this realization, too many still take our Nation's environmental health for granted. For example, each year, more than 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used on crops, lawns, and public spaces. Consumers Union reports that many children are eating fruits and vegetables with unsafe levels of pesticide residues. This residue is dangerous and plagues our children at every meal. Our children are our most important resource.

Mrs. Richardson is committed to ensuring that our civil rights include the right to live in a clean and healthy environment. I commend her work and believe that a nation that preserves its environmental health establishes the foundation for a healthy, stable, and prosperous society. To complement the work of grassroots leaders, my colleagues joined me to request an increased budget for the Environmental Protection Agency to employ trained staff with a civil rights background. Our vision cannot be achieved without the combined force of private and public sector work toward the same goals.

To commemorate Black History Month, we should join together to organize, educate, and fight for better environmental, health, education, and economic outcomes for all Americans. While we work to adequately fund enforcement activities and implement safe environmental policies, we must also demand funding initiatives in infant mortality, heart disease, AIDS, immunizations, cancer screening and management to eliminate racial health disparities. Let's follow Linda's success and work to implement a more progressive vision that eliminates environmental injustice.

Mr. BISHOP. Madam Speaker, first, I appreciate the opportunity to join my colleagues in recognizing Black History Month, and I thank Congresswoman, Jones for arranging this year's Special Order to remember the far-reaching role that black Americans have played through the centuries in making our country what she was, what she is, and what she will be.

Our topic is, ``Heritage and Horizons: The African American Legacy and the Challenges of the 21st Century.''

This is a big subject!

The legacy is certainly big--as so is the challenge!

Historian Benjamin Quarles has pointed out in his ground-breaking work on black history that, except for native American Indians, blacks are the country's oldest ethnic minority. In fact, the roots of black Americans sink deeper in the histories of the 13 original colonies than any other group from across the Atlantic.

America was born in diversity, and many groups have played a part in the country's phenomenal growth and development. And the part played by Americans of African descent has been huge. We are just now beginning to understand the impact that black America has had on every period in the country's history.

It's an historic fact that America could not have emerged as a great world industrial power as quickly or as forcefully as she did without the presence of a skilled black labor force, or without the contributions made by black Americans in every field, including the sciences, technology, exploration, business, religion, government and politics, the military, the arts, and in all aspects of our society.

As I took the floor this evening, I found myself thinking of Henry Flipper.

Some of you will recognize the name Henry Flipper--who was born in Thomasville, Georgia, which is located in an area of southwest Georgia that I have the privilege of representing--is remembered as the first black graduate of West Point, who went on to serve with distinction as a young military officer on the western frontier, and who was wrongly forced out of the service on the basis of false charges, even though he had been fully exonerated from those charges.

When he died in Atlanta in 1940, he was a forgotten man, and was buried in an unmarked grave. But, in recent years, historians have dug more deeply into his life. And what they have found is truly remarkable.

In spite of his bitter setback in the Army, historians have learned that he made enormous contributions to America's growth in the late 1800's and early 1900's. He helped develop the railroad in the West. He had a pioneering role in developing the oil industry. As an engineer, inventor, surveyor, and, later in his career, as a top advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, he played a big part in the country's Westward expansion.

Although born in servitude, he helped change the face of America.

There are countless examples of African-Americans who have made a real impact on the country's history. Henry Flipper is just one of many great black leaders produced by my own state of Georgia. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is another. As the leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement, he played a big role in the transformation that took place in our country in the middle of the 20th Century.

Their stories all tell us that our country's unique diversity has been a great source of strength, and should be celebrated. In fact, America's heroes are not limited to any race, or creed, or gender or national background. We find examples of greatness among all people in this patchwork of cultures that has become the strongest, freest, and most productive nation the world has ever known.

By observing Black History Month, we learn more about our history; we celebrate our diversity; and we become inspired and motivated by Americans who have helped lead the way toward fulfilling the country's great promise of equality of opportunity and justice for all.

Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise to represent to citizens of the Thirtieth Congressional District to pay honor and tribute to scores of African-Americans who have paved the way for the realization of the American dream.

African-American history is American history. Even before there was a United States, Crispus Attucks became the first American martyr when he was killed during the Boston Massacre of 1770, fighting against taxation without representation. Over 5,000 black soldiers and sailors fought in the American Revolution, only to be told that they were only three-fifths human when the Constitution was ratified.

Africans transplanted to America endured centuries of oppression, beginning before they even set foot on the American shore. The middle passage was a terrible, often fatal voyage of slaves from Africa to the New World. Africans were herded like livestock into the lower decks of a ship, where they were shackled together in inhumane conditions, fed only substance portions, and thrown overboard in shark infested waters if they got sick, weak, or the weight of the ship was simply too heavy. Once here, they were subjected to every oppressive tactic known to man, from the spirit breaking submission demanded on the plantation, to the family breaking practice of slave breeding and trading, to the mind numbing laws forbidding slave education.

Yet, even in the days when it seemed that ``hope unborn had died'', Africans in America reached amazing heights of achievement in all areas of endeavor, from science and medicine to politics and education, from Benjamin Banneker and Daniel Hale Williams to Shirley Chisholm and Martha Collins. Over stony roads, African-Americans have trod over the obstacles to success, each time redefining the American Dream as they fought on to victory.

I would like to take this special opportunity to highlight the enormous contribution to African-American history, and thus, American history, by African-Americans from Texas, and, in many cases, from my district. Maynard Jackson, who went on to become the first and one of the most successful mayors of Atlanta, was born in Dallas in 1938. As mayor of Atlanta, he laid the foundation for the new South's centerpiece city by ensuring that all races were allowed to take part in Atlanta's economic opportunity.

``Blind'' Lemon Jefferson used Dallas as a base to launch an extraordinary blues career, during which he made over 100 recordings of his intricate melodic rhythms and influenced countless artists, including B.B. King. Before Rafer Johnson went on to be a gold medalist and a world decathlon record holder, he also lived in Dallas.

Dallas native Bobby Seale went on to lead tens of thousands of African-Americans toward heightened political consciousness. Dallas served as a launching pad for James Farmer, the noted Congress of Racial Equality leader and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And as the first black mayor of Dallas, Mayor Ron Kirk continues to lead the city into unprecedented economic success.

North Dallas has produced extraordinary African-Americans. Dallas native Ernie Banks set records in baseball and was voted the ``Greatest Chicago Cubs Player of All Time''. Austin native Bill Picket was the first black working cowboy, and revolutionized the genre with his unique style of bulldogging. From my birthplace, Waco, TX native Monroe Majors became the first black to practice medicine west of the Rocky Mountains, and Jules Bledsoe changed the face of opera through his groundbreaking production, ``Showboat.''

Madam Speaker, I have just scratched the surface of North Texas African-American contributions to the American fabric. From Al Lipscomb, who led the fight to make Dallas elected officials more representative of the populace, to Royce West and John Wiley Price, who led the fight for justice in Dallas today. As I look to the dawn of a new century, I am proud to be a part of America's esteemed legacy of African-American achievement.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today on the last day of Black History Month to share with you a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The remarks to follow were given by my good friend and esteemed colleague, Representative John Spratt from the Fifth Congressional District of South Carolina. Representative Spratt's remarks on the late Dr. King bring a very refreshing and much-needed view on the subject of America and where we ought to be heading as we enter the new Millennium. Our home State of South Carolina is involved in a national debate, as I've spoken about recently, regarding the confederate battle flag flying atop the Statehouse in Columbia. Were we all to read Representative Spratt's remarks and take them into close consideration, we might be one step closer to understanding the past and moving towards the future that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned for our nation.

Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record the following remarks given by Representative John Spratt on January 17, 2000, at the Mt. Prospect Baptist Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--Remarks of U.S. Representative

John Spratt, Mt. Prospect Baptist Church, Rock Hill, South Carolina,

January 17, 2000

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was 26, in the pulpit of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church less than two years, when he was drafted to lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He was 39 the night he told the sanitation workers in Memphis that God had taken him up on the top of the mountain and let him see the promised land. ``Mine eyes have see the glory of the coming of the Lord,'' he said. ``I'm not fearing any man.''

He would have been 71 on Saturday, had he lived. But the next day in Memphis, he stepped out onto the deck of the Lorraine Motel, and a gunman, filled with the venom he had tried all his life to pacify, fired a rifle bullet through his jaw, and killed him instantly.

American history is pock-mocked with violence, but it is also marked by turning points where God gave us great leaders who steered us in the right direction. George Washington was one. Abraham Lincoln, another. Franklin Roosevelt lifted us out of the Depression, assuring us we had ``nothing to fear but fear itself.'' Martin Luther King, Jr. called us to

``rise up and live out the true meaning of our creed, that all men are created equal.''

There were Americans then, and there are Americans now, who have never understood that Dr. King was speaking to them when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But surely everyone can be thankful for this: that when African-Americans demanded their rights, they did not rally behind a leader filled with bitterness and belligerence; they turned to this man who told his followers, ``The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.''

Langston Hughes wrote, ``We too sing America,'' but it was Martin King, Jr. who showed how. He brought audiences to their feet merely by reciting ``My Country `Tis of Thee.'' In a voice that sounded like the trumpet of Gideon, he called on America to let freedom ring, and all who heard it never forgot it.

At his funeral, they called him ``a warrier for peace.'' A leader willing to die for his cause but not willing to kill. A protester who was also a peacemaker. A black man, of an oppressed people, who reached out to everyone, even his enemies, because his objective was not to win but to reconcile. He was a Nobel Prize winner who could have become a messianic figure, and preached in pulpits all over the country, but he chose to go to his death marching with the garbagemen of Memphis.

His greatest achievement was, in his words, ``a method of struggle that made it possible to stand up against an unjust system and fight it with all your might, yet never stoop to violence and hatred in the process.'' He gave Gandhi credit for helping him understand the philosophy of nonviolent protest. But he believed that this spirit was rooted in the black church, in three centuries of Christian stoicism when African-Americans were gripped in bondage.

In the dark days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. told his congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, ``You who protest courageously, yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in the future, the historian will have to say, `There was a great people, a black people, who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.' ''

This national holiday is not created out of magnanimity. It is created out of respect for a people who have earned it, to honor a man who belongs with the greatest American leaders.

We honor only two other Americans with national holidays bearing their names: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I am proud to say I voted for law designating this day, but I will be first to admit that all it does is make the third Monday in January a legal holiday. This can become just another ``day off'' unless we make it ``a day on,'' a time to reach into our souls and ask what we can do to make the dream a reality.

Lyndon Johnson explained why this day matters long before it was ever designated, thirty-five years ago. The week after Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, LBJ addressed the nation on television. John Lewis had been beaten into the ground after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but he was watching, and as LBJ spoke, his spirit soared. This, he says, was the

``strongest civil rights speech any president ever made.''

LBJ began by saying, ``At times history and fate meet at a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week at Selma, Alabama.''

``Rarely,'' he said, ``in any time does an issue lay bare the heart of America itself . . . But the issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. Should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, we will have failed as a people and as a nation.''

After thirty-five years, LBJ's words still ring true. The stakes are the same, and failure is not an option. That's why this holiday and what it's about are vitally important, not just to African-Americans but to all Americans.

Last spring, I went with my colleague and friend, John Lewis, on a pilgrimage to Selma, and to Birmingham and Montgomery. We prayed in the church in Birmingham, where the lives of four girls were cruelly cut short by dynamite, exploded in the midst of a Sunday morning worship. We sat in the pews at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and listened to Dr. King tell his congregation during the bus boycott:

``The tension in this city is not between white people and black people. The tension is, at bottom, between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.'' and on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we marched, arm-in-arm, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

On the way back, a reporter asked why I had made the trip, and I told him I thought everyone should come to Birmingham and Selma. Everyone should know the Edmund Pettus Bridge as well as Concord Bridge in Massachusetts; and everyone should know what happened in Kelly-Ingram Park as well as what happened on Lexington Green.

If you fast forward thirty-five years from LBJ's speech, you have to say we have come a long way. Dr. King's mission is far from finished; but that doesn't make the accomplishments of the civil rights movement any less momentous. We should not let ourselves or our children diminish what was achieved in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, or say that race relations are no better now than then. We grew up in the segregated South. We know better.

And besides, we have to remember how far we've come because it inspires us to keep going. We should remember Philip Randolph, telling the Judiciary Committee that ``when Negro Americans travel the highways of this country, we are stalked by humiliation.'' And remember how Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, helped put an end to that indignity. When we think there is little we as ordinary citizens can do, heroines like Rosa Parks remind us we are wrong.

They remind us also that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have accomplished little or nothing, but for those who stood behind him and those who charged ahead, as shock troops of the movement. They were ordinary Americans like Dub Massey and Jim Wells and the Friendship Nine. But it was, in Dr. King's words, ``their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, their amazing discipline in the midst of almost inhuman provocation'' that gave us the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among the early protesters was a young woman named Diane Nash, an organizer of SNCC. At the time of the Rock Hill sit-ins, SNCC was in dire financial straits, and meeting to discuss how they could keep going. One of the Friendship protesters, Tom Gaither, used the single phone call allowed him at the jail to call SNCC collect in Atlanta. Gaither called to tell SNCC that the Friendship students didn't want bail and wouldn't be asking SNCC for bond money. They were going to serve out their thirty days in jail. This became a precedent for the whole movement, and so inspired SNCC that four of those at the meeting in Atlanta drove to Rock Hill, sat-in at McCrory's, and joined the Friendship Nine in the county jail.

Diane Nash was among them, and today, she issues us a caveat. She says that ``the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.'' She says this not to diminish Dr. King, but so that ``young people will not think that this was his movement, and say `I wish we had a Martin Luther King today to lead us . . . If people know how the movement started and why it succeeded,'' says Diane Nash, ``they will be more likely to ask the right question, which is: `What can I do?' ''

Every community needs stories of sublime courage, discipline, and principle like these. These are our epic poems, and we should be telling them and teaching them because they build respect; they show us we are stronger than we think; they inspire our better selves.

Those who want to keep the Confederate flag flying over our Capitol claim it as their heritage. But Confederate veterans served in the General Assembly from 1866 to the early 1920s, and never resolved to raise their old battle flag over the dome of the Capitol. If we want to preserve our heritage, what about the motherlode of heritage in the civil rights movement? In a country where there is too much violence in the home, in the schools, on the streets, here is a rich history of non-violence worth our study.

Every school child in South Carolina should know stories like these. They should know the story of those black children in Clarendon County who walked miles to school every day, as busses full of white children passed them by. They should not study South Carolina history without learning the name of Levi Briggs and those brave parents who put their lives on the line to correct this inequity, and went on to the Supreme Court with Briggs v. Elliott. They should know the twisted road to school integration and the quiet heroes, like Matthew Perry and Judge Waring, who helped clear the way.

We should teach character, teach it by telling the stories of Rosa Parks and Levi Briggs, John Lewis, and the Friendship Nine. And while we are at it, we should preach persistence, to our children and ourselves. For one of our country's virtues has been our capacity to struggle endlessly with our problems, and never be completely satisfied with our solutions. We have to keep seeking solutions; and even if we never see closure, never give up in the search for a society that matches our ideals and principles. In the realm of racial justice and equality, progress has been slow, and it has been uneven, but we have not just been spinning our wheels in a rut of racism. We have made progress.

Look, for instance, at the difference the Voting Rights Act has made. Take the Congress. In 1965, John Lewis was spearheading SNCC, in the streets protesting. Today he is in the Congress, Chief Deputy Whip on the Democratic side. He serves there alongside 38 other African-Americans, Jim Clyburn among them, the first black elected to Congress from South Carolina since 1896. Charlie Rangel of New York is another; if Democrats gain control of the House in the next election, Charlie will take the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in Congress.

America is better for all Americans, but it is still not what it ought to be; and old symbols, like the flag flying over our Capitol, are too much to be dismissed as mere

``vestiges of the past.'' We stand on the doorstep of America's fourth century, three hundred years from the day the first African slave set foot on this soil, and we cannot say this is the country we want it to be.

Dr. King liked to say that he wanted more than ``just physical proximity with no spiritual affinity.'' He wanted a country where ``not only elbows but hearts rub together.'' We cannot say that we are such a society, nor can we say that we will become one by laissez-faire policies, benign neglect, or mere evolution. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us years ago from his cell in the Birmingham jail that ``human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes from the tireless, persistent efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God.

Now that we have reached certain goals, I think we need a higher goal. Americans have always believed that we have, in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a rendezvous with destiny. At a time when most people in the world lived barely above the level of animals, Americans showed that government of the people is the only government for the people. We showed that when church and state are separated, both fare better. We showed that when people from countries like Ireland are liberated from strife and prejudice, they thrive in a tolerant land. We showed that free education, made available to all, is like a rising tide; it lifts all the boats in a society. We showed that people can come from the simplest backgrounds, like Martin Luther King, Jr., the grandson of slaves and sharecroppers, and give birth to great things.

Now that the barriers that segregated us have been removed, our challenge, and I think God's purpose for us, is to show the world--from Belfast to Bosnia, from Cape Town to East Timor, that different races and ethnic groups need not cripple and debilitate a country; they can make a country richer and stronger; that we can not only co-exist, but thrive on our differences.

This is our heritage, and it should be our mission, our creed, our high calling. If as a people we can embrace this goal, we can make our country that shining city on a hill that the Puritans set out to build three hundred years ago. We can make our country the country Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of, ``where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.''

Our goal does not have to be a completely color-blind, totally homogenized society. That's too utopian, and frankly, I think, too bland. I think our richness as a people derives from our differences. I think it is enough to strive for a plural, multi-racial society, where the visible differences of race, color, and culture no longer carry the stigma of somehow not being a full-fledged American.

If we make this our goal, we can put the flag flying over our State Capitol in perspective. It's a wedge issue, and we need to be rid of it, so that we can get on with far more important tasks, because time is running short. Halfway through this new century, our population is expected to hit 400 million. Fifty-three percent will be white. Twenty-five percent will be Hispanic, 14 percent will be black, 9 percent Asian, and one percent American Indian. Our existence as a people is moving toward a level of complexity the world has never seen before. In the 21st Century, the United States will be the world's nation; the American canvass will be painted with colors from every shade of the earth.

Surely, we do not want this racially more diverse America to be a racially more divided America.

Surely, we want the world to look to America in this century, as it did in the last, and see that future works, see many races not only surviving but thriving, richer as a culture and as a country because of our differences.

Two years ago, I went to Bosnia to visit our troops in a forlorn place, ripped asunder by ethnic warfare. When I landed at Tuzla, I was met by Major General Morgan, an African-American, who commanded our troops there. When I went to Sarajevo, I was met by General Shinseki, a Japanese-American, who commanded the entire NATO mission. I doubt that any racial message was intended by the assignment of these two officers. But I have to tell you, I was proud to see my country making that statement in that ethnic-torn part of the world. And I believe that America can cast that beacon, that sign of hope, that message of racial harmony, all over the world.

How do we plot the route to an interracial society over the next fifty years? Well, there are lots of ways. But on the map of racial progress, education is the name of almost every road. Almost all studies come to one conclusion: education is our best solution and our greatest challenge.

For one thing, the public schools right now have a racial or ethnic composition comparable to what the whole nation will look like in 2020. The school age population is 66 percent white, 15 percent black, 14 percent Hispanic, and 4 percent Asian. The future of diversity in this country will depend heavily on how well the schools work out the issues of full and equal inclusion.

In saying this, I am not shifting the burden onto teachers and school administrators. I am speaking to all of us as parents, to churches, to people, to the whole community. All of us have to pitch in and make our public schools second to none, up to the challenge of educating every child to the limit of his potential.

Which brings me to my last point. Americans need to realize that though we came over here on different ships, we are all in the same boat now. The burden of change should not rest on African-Americans alone. The burden should rest on all of us if we believe our creed.

In that connection, let me commend the City of Rock Hill, the Council, and Mayor Doug Echos, in particular, for sponsoring ``No Room for Racism,'' and for your resolution on the Flag.

No Room for Racism may be mostly dialogue, but I believe it is dialogue that we need I believe that efforts like this can blossom, so that one day, ours is country where all sing America. And I believe it is God's purpose, Dr. King's drean, and our duty to make it just that.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Black History Month. I thank my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus very much for their leadership on this very special order and tribute to black history and appreciate tremendously these members who have joined me on the floor of the House to acknowledge this very special month.

I am thrilled to stand here on the House floor as an American and as an African-American Member of Congress. In the 211 years of congressional history there have been only 105 African-American Members of Congress. 101 African-Americans have been elected to the House of Representatives, and only 4 have been elected to the Senate. I am boldly able to stand here today, Madam Speaker, because other courageous and brave African-American pioneers stood valiantly before me. During Black History Week, but most importantly throughout the year, I am reminded of the legendary achievements that have paved the way for my colleagues and I.

This year marks the first Black History Month celebration of the 21st Century. Appropriately, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History has labeled ``Heritage and Horizon--The African American Legacy and Contributions of the 21st Century'' as the theme for this year's celebration. I think you will agree, African-

Americans have played an integral part in the development and prosperity of our nation. Tonight, I would like my remarks to reflect the rich legacy of the African-American experience, and its relationship to American history.

Seventy-four years ago, a bold and daring scholar had a vision to honor the Legacy of African-Americans. As you know, this legendary scholar, Carter G. Woodson founded what was then called ``Black History Week.'' Now, our nation celebrates the entire month of February as Black History Month. And if I might quote my 14-year-old son Jason Lee,

``we should not be regulated even by a month, for African American history is a history of a people and the history of America.''

So I would hope that as we take to the floor of the House on the last day of this month, my colleagues will join me in additional days in which we will spend talking about African American history, and I would hope that we would begin to explain to the American people how intimately woven this history is with America. As we recall African-

American history, we should not be afraid to say that it is American history, and we should not be afraid to recount it over and over again, not out of hatred or hatefulness, but out of the need to educate and to allow this country to move forward and to build upon the richness of its diversity and to solve some of the very problems that we confront today.

African-American history is rightfully recounting the contributions of great Americans. Americans who dared to change not only their individual community, but also their surrounding nation. As I recall the legacy of African-Americans, I remember the brave and bold leaders of our past. There is no shortage of articulate, influential African-

American leaders in our nation's history. These individuals influenced both the African-American community and our society at large in powerful ways as they fought to win freedom, fair treatment, and better lives for all of America. For example, brave men like Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark Vesey, who organized and led doomed but valiant slave rebellions against brutal slave owners. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth, who undermined the institution of slavery by speaking, writing, and lobbying against it--

at considerable personal risk. And brave individuals like Harriet Tubman, who risked her life and her hard-won freedom to return to slave-holding states to lead other African-Americans north to freedom along the Underground Railroad. And the Civil War, where over 200,000 African-American men fought in the Union Army and Navy--to free their enslaved brethren, and prove that African-Americans too were committed to Democracy and the preservation of America.

And in the early 1900s, African-Americans like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Mary Church Terrell shaped attitudes within the African-American community and won the respect of all Americans across the country. Also, Marcus Garvey led what was labeled the Black Nationalist movement and fought institutional racism in the United States.

In the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, A. Philip Randolph worked to organize African-American workers and end the division of the labor movement along racial lines. He also worked diligently to end discrimination in the military and the government.

And after World War II, African-American leaders like Charles Hamilton Houston, William Henry Hastie, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Malcolm X made significant marks on American history--in our courts, our schools, our government, our politics, and in foreign affairs. African-American women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisholm, and Barbara Jordan, one of my personal heroes, broke old barriers and won the respect of millions of Americans for integrity, their intelligence, their dedication, and their professional accomplishments.

This recitation of African-American leaders is by no means all-

inclusive! In fact, it touches upon only a few of the vast amount of African-American leaders who have shaped this country's history and added to the legacy of African-American accomplishments in America. I mention these names to merely observe the fact that African-Americans have always played an integral part in the history of the United States.

As part of this annual observation of Black History Month, it is vital to remind America that in the face of racism, discrimination, and violence, many African-Americans have changed the very fabric of this nation. I would like to stress that all of America can draw great satisfaction and strength from this history. It is important, because as we embrace this history, it provides not only inspiration for African-Americans, but also all of America on the dawn of the 21st Century.

Madam Speaker, I believe that we must speak about African-American history throughout the year, because there are still many barriers that America has yet to hurdle and face at the dawn of the 21st century. America has not accepted in a collective and collaborative fashion that African American history is a history of America. Issues that impact our communities such as increased funding for nutrition programs, affirmative action, the Voter's Rights Act, reparations for African-

Americans, racial profiling, equitable funding for Historically Black College and Universities, equitable training and funds to children for access to the Internet, and a multitude of other critical issues are concerns that Americans must join together and combat. If America embraces African American History as American History, we would go so much further in solving these problems and many other critical problems.

In closing, I strongly feel that all Americans must have a better understanding of each other. Our rich diversity has been (at the same time) the reason for our continued struggles and progress. We must learn each other's history! African-American history must be the kind of history that is living; that is accepted; that is widespread; and that all people can understand. This great nation must embrace this rich history of the past and the present, and use it as a guide for reshaping America's future.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues for this opportunity to present issues with regard to Black History Month this year. Our theme again was Heritage, Horizons, Accepting the Challenges of the 21st Century.

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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 146, No. 20