Our Power, Our Message During Black History Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, today my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues and I observe Black History Month and celebrate 50 years of Our Power, Our Message.

For 50 years, the Congressional Black Caucus has uplifted the voices of Black people and other marginalized communities so that they can share in the promise of America for all.

For the 117th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus marks a new milestone with 58 members, the largest membership in CBC history. The next 50 years of Our Power, Our Message is strong.

We are here in D.C. witnessing more Black history being made with the first Black woman, HBCU grad, our soror, and a member of our Congressional Black Caucus serving as Vice President of the United States. Indeed, our power and our message are strong.

While we continue to make great strides, it is not lost on me that 2020 was a difficult year for Black people across this country. Collectively, we battled a pandemic that continues to infect and kill Black people at disproportionate rates.

In my home State of Georgia, Black people are also experiencing some of the highest levels of unemployment in decades. By November 2020, Black Georgians had filed 71 percent more unemployment claims than White, Hispanic, Latinx, and Asian-American workers combined.

Being Black in Georgia, we fight daily for what so many take for granted in this country, the right to vote, the right to the fair and equal treatment that George Floyd didn't get, the right to be, the right to exist.

Today, in particular, we reflect on how far we have to go. One year ago, Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and murdered, simply because he was a Black man going for a jog in Brunswick, Georgia.

His murder by white supremacists and the subsequent delays in realizing justice may seem new, but Black people have dealt with systemic racism for centuries in America, and we are here to break these structures and dismantle these systems using our power and our message as the Congressional Black Caucus.

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