Replacing Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding me the time, and for his leadership and his management of this significant piece of legislation.

I want to thank Mr. Davis and the other Members on the other side for their tremendous cooperation in trying to help us move to a more perfect Union.

Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, I stood on this floor and I referred to this Chamber, this great Hall, as America's classroom. And it is in that spirit that I think of this building as America's schoolhouse. And what is taught in this building, what is experienced by the people who visit this building ought to be about the uplifting of this great Nation.

What people see when they come here, who people see lauded, glorified, and honored when they visit this building ought to be people who are uplifting to history and the human spirit.

It is in that light that I recall the writings of one great writer who wrote that if we fail to learn the lessons of history--I think it was George Santiano--we are bound to repeat them.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from history. I study it every day. Hardly a day goes by when I don't spend some time looking at some facet of American history.

We did not come to this floor with this legislation to get rid of that history. A lot of it we don't like; a lot of it we do like. And I think that what we need to do is discern between what should be honored and what should be relegated to the museums and to other places to commemorate that history. That is not eradicating history. That is putting history in its proper place.

And for those who did not do what I think they should have done, they have got a place in the history books, but it is not to be honored, and it is not to be glorified. It ought to be put in its proper perspective.

So I don't have a problem with the fact that one of the statues in here, John C. Calhoun--he was a historical figure. He died in 1850, if my memory serves, 10 years before the war broke out. So we aren't talking about John C. Calhoun as a Confederate. We are talking about John C. Calhoun as one of the Nation's biggest proponents of slavery and the relegation of human beings.

I want to thank my home State of South Carolina, because the people of Charleston, Mayor Tecklenburg and the city council in Charleston, decided several weeks ago, the John C. Calhoun statue should be taken down, and they did it.

Clemson University--Calhoun, one of the great founders of that university--is one of the original land grant schools. Clemson University decided that they would take John C. Calhoun's name off of their honors college.

So if the State of South Carolina, where he was from sees that, why is it that we are going to laud him in this building?

I am asking my colleagues to do for John C. Calhoun what his home State is doing for him, putting him in his proper place, not a place of honor. They didn't tear down his statue; they very meticulously took it down to retire to his proper place.

Mr. Speaker, you and I spoke last night about one other gentleman whose statue is in this building, Wade Hampton. Wade Hampton, he was not a Confederate, but he was a perseverer. There were three Wade Hamptons, senior, and the third.

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Mr. CLYBURN. But Wade Hampton's history should not be glorified. I don't know what my State's going to do about him, but what I would like to see us do here is put him in his proper place.

So those two statues that are here representing the State of South Carolina need to be removed from their places of honor and, at some point, I would hope the State would bring them back home and put them in their proper place.

So, I would like to say here today that I am not for destroying any statue. I am not here for burning down any building. I am here to ask my colleagues to return these people very properly and lawfully to their proper place. Put them where they can be studied. Put them where people will know exactly who and what they were.

But do not honor them. Do not glorify them. Take them out of this great schoolhouse so that the people who visit here can be uplifted by what this country is all about.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to follow Whip Clyburn and the historical context of being a history teacher, and also the historical context of serving this institution and what it means. So I thank Whip Clyburn for his leadership.

I thank my good friend, Mr. Butterfield, for his leadership on this issue. We are going to work together today to make sure that we are sending a message to the American people that it is Republicans and Democrats standing together.

Now, I have a unique district in central Illinois. I am from the Land of Lincoln. As a matter of fact, Abe, himself, lived in my district. I represent Lincoln's Tomb, Lincoln's Home. The old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln delivered his ``House Divided'' speech in 1858 is in my Congressional District. It was there when Lincoln not only spoke out against slavery and, specifically, the Dred Scott decision, but stood unequivocally in support of a free country, famously saying: ``A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.''

While Lincoln and many others who stood for freedom are represented throughout this Capitol, there are others that symbolize the opposite. While we cannot erase our past and should do everything we can--as Whip Clyburn just stated--we should do everything we can to learn from it instead.

The statues in the U.S. Capitol represent to visitors throughout the world what we stand for as a Nation. I support this important discussion about which statues belong in the U.S. Capitol and, also, the goal of this legislation.

Before we began debating this piece of legislation, my friend, Mr. Butterfield, and I had a discussion, a discussion about the 13th Amendment. And I invite all Members of this institution to come to my district, to come to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, where I can show you an original copy of the 13th Amendment; also, one of the first copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.

This institution is not just an extended classroom. Where Lincoln lived, where Lincoln is honored, the 13th District of Illinois, that I am truly blessed to represent, is also a living classroom of the good things in our Nation's history.

Now, we also have to remember that the National Statuary Hall Collection was created in 1864 to commemorate States and their contributions to this country. And many statues being discussed today were donated by States to the collection nearly 100 years ago. And as my colleagues earlier said, many States are already working to remove them.

While I support their removal, I believe the better route would have been to have some more hearings in the Committee on House Administration. But today, today, is not about politics. Today is about coming together as an institution. And today is a day that I can say I proudly am blessed to be a Member of Congress.

Our country, right now, is facing a very difficult time, and Abraham Lincoln's spirit of unity is desperately needed. ``A house divided against itself cannot stand.'' As leaders, we need to come together to show there is much more that unites us Americans than divides us, and lead this country, together, Republicans and Democrats, through this difficult time.

I hope this legislation today, the bipartisanship that we will see, is a shining example to the rest of the country of what we can build together.

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