Congressional Gold Medal for African-American Slaves

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, as my friends are assisting me, I shall start by thanking the leadership for the opportunity to give this message today. I believe this is a message that is long overdue. In fact, it is hundreds of years overdue.

I thank the persons who are assisting me. They have done an outstanding job. I thank all of the persons associated with this body for making it possible for me to have this opportunity to speak today on a matter of vital importance, an issue that is hundreds of years overdue, an issue that can make a difference in the life of our country.

I am Al Green, Member of Congress from Texas, and still I rise, Madam Speaker, and still I rise today to call to the attention of the Congress that I will be asking for a Congressional Gold Medal for the many persons who toiled and slaved in this country such that our country is the economic and, quite frankly, the world powerhouse that it is when it comes to all of the things that can make a country great as it relates to its economic standing.

This is the message that I would have my colleagues take note of, the message that I hope they will give consideration to.

The message: Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. When some people hear this, they have what we call a double take, because it is difficult for them to believe that Confederate soldiers were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.

Some things bear repeating. A Confederate soldier, more than one, were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in 1956. What Congress did for the soldier enslavers it should do for the enslaved. I am asking my colleagues to support the historic Congressional Gold Medal for America's economic foundational mothers, fathers, and children.

I say children because in this country, persons of African ancestry early on were born into slavery, lived in slavery, and died in slavery. This was the status of things in the United States of America at one point and when the country was known as the colonies at another point.

The enslaved people made a difference in the lives of those who were living here as persons other than slaves. The deadline for this document, this monumental piece of legislation, this bill requesting a Congressional Gold Medal, will be February 1, 2023. This will be the first day of Black History Month.

Black History Month has been chosen, Madam Speaker, because the history of Africans in America has not been told. There are many aspects of it that have been deleted from history. I believe that it is time for us to clear the record.

The deadline will be February 1, 2023, the first day of Black History Month. This date was chosen because Black history has not been told. It is one of the greatest stories never told, and we are still trying to complete it. This will be a part of that process, to let people know more about what the enslaved people in this country contributed to the country.

Some people would say to me, and I have had at least one person to say: Do you really believe that Congress will accord a Congressional Gold Medal to the slaves? And my answer is: Yes, I believe Congress will do it.

I believe Congress will do it because I remember what the father of Juneteenth suffered in his effort to get Juneteenth as a holiday in Texas. I remember how he was called names and castigated. I remember how there were people who felt that Juneteenth was a country holiday, they felt that it was too bucolic, too rustic, for intellectual society to embrace. But he fought and he won. The Honorable Al Edwards is now the father of Juneteenth. At the time he introduced it, he was thought of as a person who would never succeed in the Texas House of Representatives, but he served well and he showed and demonstrated to us that persistence can make a difference.

So we plan to be persistent with this legislation, and we plan to make sure that we continue until we get the legislation passed.

The letter that I will send to my colleagues reads--continuing to read it--on July 18, 1956, Congress--this would be the House and the Senate--awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldier enslavers. However, to this day, Congress has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, and children.

I have to pause. Ten million men, women, and children. Who can imagine that a country would have a process by which a person is born into slavery, lives his or her entire life in slavery, and dies in slavery. This was the status of things in this country at one time.

The country has never awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the over 10 million enslaved men, women, and children who toiled for over 240 years to build the economy and the infrastructure, the foundation, if you will, of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on the planet Earth.

These foundational mothers and fathers of our country labored arduously, constructing our roads, bridges, wells, and cities. They laboriously planted as well as harvested the food that fed our Nation. How ungrateful can we be to people who made such a sacrifice for this country, to still to this day see them as less-thans, to this day not accord them some degree of honor and dignity for the suffering that they endured for some 200-plus years.

They were the de facto producers of the cash crops that fueled our Nation's foundational wealth. America is the wealthy powerhouse that it is today because of Black people, people from Africa, who were enslaved, brought to this country, and made to work their entire lives, many of them, so that America could be the economic powerhouse that it was then and has continued to be until this day.

These enslaved human beings of African ancestry toiled as slaves without remuneration or recompense. They have not been given any emolument, and to add insult to this injury, they have not been given any degree of respect for what they did to make this country great.

Their humble hands were relied on for the erection of some of our Nation's most renowned edifices and monuments, including the White House, the Capitol Building--this is the Capitol Building, for those who may be unaware--and the Washington Monument. Humble hands, forced to do the bidding of those who lived lives of luxury, many of them, made America great, built the Capitol, humble hands, the Washington Monument.

In truth, their sacrificed lives provided the genesis of our Nation's economic preeminence. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and children--were the greatest contributors to the foundational economy whose contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and/or undervalued.

Many of the things that I read to you today I will repeat. They have not been said before. They should be heard multiple times, and some things just bear repeating.

So let me repeat. These sacrificed human beings--men, women, and children, with the emphasis on children--were the greatest contributors to the American foundational economy whose contributions are almost universally forgotten, underrecognized, ignored, overlooked, and undervalued.

For these and countless other justifications, I am beseeching the Congress to award the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the human beings who are the foundational fathers, mothers, and children who toiled as slaves without recompense or recognition for their unparalleled contributions to the infrastructural and economic development of the Nation that we enjoy today.

Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate enslavers. I think this bears some sidebar commentary. Confederate enslavers. The people who fought to maintain slavery have been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. The people who sought to maintain the institution that prevented people from having the freedom that they had have received a Congressional Gold Medal.

What is wrong with us? What mindset could we have had in 1956 when this House decided that it would accord Congressional Gold Medals to Confederate soldiers? I cannot understand how we would ever do this. But then to add additional insult to injury, to never consider the people who helped build the country, the people who made it the economic powerhouse that it was then and is now.

What is wrong with us? Is racism such a disease that it infects our minds to the extent that we cannot see and concentrate with the degree of clarity necessary to make righteous decisions? This was one of the saddest days in this Congress when it voted to give a Congressional Gold Medal to Confederate soldiers.

But there is a way for Congress to redeem itself. Redemption is at hand. And here is the means by which you can redeem yourself, Members: Give these persons who toiled and slaved, born into slavery, lived and died in slavery, give them the same level of respect that you gave the people who sought to enslave them, that fought to enslave them. Some of them died in their effort to keep them in chains, in bondage, subject to the whims of their masters, and their whims were many times things that are unacceptable in decent societies.

Awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to groups of individuals is not unprecedented, as a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Confederate soldier enslavers, also to the Tuskegee Airmen--some of them received their Congressional Gold Medals antemortem, and some others postmortem--to the Navajo Code Talkers, and posthumously to the servicemembers who perished in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.

So, friends, the point to be made here is, you can't make the argument that we can't do it because it is a group of people. We have done it for other groups. You can't make the argument that we can't do it because none of them are alive. We have done it posthumously for others.

There is really no argument to make except you don't believe that persons who toiled all of their lives--many of them lived, died, born into it--that they deserve respect and recognition. That is what this is about, respect and recognition.

I am bringing this to your attention so that you can give consideration to it. We won't ask for signatures until the next Congress because to ask for them in this Congress with the short period of time left would be futile, and I believe that we should wait, and we will wait until February 1 of next year to do it during Black History Month.

It is my belief that men, women, and children who suffered a great crime against humanity--and this was a crime against humanity; slavery was a crime against humanity, one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated on humanity--it is my belief that men, women, and children who suffered a great crime against humanity, toiling unremunerated as slaves, many for their entire work lives, are more deserving of a Congressional Gold Medal than those who soldiered to preserve slavery.

To be as clear as I can be, perspicuously so, it is my belief that those who were enslaved have a greater entitlement to a Congressional Gold Medal than the soldiers who fought to maintain slavery.

The zeitgeist of our time, the mood, the spirit, the zeitgeist of our time impels the introduction of this historic legislation. I am going to ask if Members wish to be recognized as a courageous historic original cosponsor, they should contact my office. We will more than honor requests that are made early, but officially we will start in the next Congress. We will have this historic legislation made available on our website. In my office, you might contact Aaron, and his email address is readily available for those who would like to contact him, or you can simply call our office, and we will be more than pleased to speak to you.

I will close by talking about a couple of pictures that I have here. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a depiction of the arrival of these first 20 or so persons in this what is now the United States of America. It wasn't then, 1619. If you can see this, you can see a representation of persons who are standing around.

This is purported to be the White Lion, the ship that brought them here, and these persons standing around, you can see that they have on clothing that would protect them from the weather. It appears to be a day wherein the weather is not kind, inclement weather. But if you look at the persons who are enslaved, shackled, to say that they are scantily clad is a gross understatement. It would be an insulting euphemism.

This picture speaks volumes about what slavery was all about. It was about people who were thought of as less than human. Didn't have to treat them fairly. Didn't have to keep them warm if you chose not to. Didn't have to keep them alive. One insult could cost a person his or her life. The picture is worth a thousand words. These people, well- clothed, looking on, some of them possibly contemplating what they would do with these human beings.

I plan to go to Norfolk, Virginia, Old Point Comfort, if you will. I want to see this place. It is identifiable. I want to see it. I want to say I was there. I want to say I stood on the soil where human beings were first introduced, by many accounts. There may be some discrepancy, but my most accounts, this is where it happened. I am going to go.

Here is another rendition. This one shows a baby. Looks like the baby is with a female, possibly the mother, dressed in clothing that I would consider more acceptable for the weather than in the other. There are many renditions, but we still have the White Lion, and we still have persons standing around talking about these human beings, contemplating their fate is my speculation.

What kind of person enslaves a baby? What kind of person enslaves a baby? What kind of person would see a child and see labor that can be the benefit of having this human being survive and have this child grow up and deny the child an opportunity to get an education? What kind of person denies a baby the opportunity to grow up and just understand the world by virtue of being able to read?

There are still places on the planet where young girls are not allowed to get the same level of schooling and education as young men. I am opposed to that. I am opposed to the people who do that. I have good reason to be opposed. Here is one. I understand what has happened.

What kind of person keeps people in ignorance intentionally? The kind of person who would want to make sure that this person never has a life, but only an existence. They didn't have a life. They just existed to serve their masters.

Anybody who believes that this piece of legislation is inappropriate is a person that doesn't understand this, and I am being kind by saying what I just said. There are many other ways; there are many adjectives.

When I first examined these photos, I had tears well up in my eyes because I realized who they were. Not only were they human beings, these were my relatives. These are the people on whose shoulders I stand. More than 240 years they suffered. These are the people that this country ought to honor and appreciate, and these are the people that deserve what we have given to the enslavers.

I won't give up, friends. I will not. These are my people. I am not ashamed to say that I am a proud descendant of the enslaved people who made America great. I am not ashamed of it.

My dear brothers and sisters, my dear friends, I beg that you give consideration to the legislation. Those who want to have further query can call me, talk to me. I will be on the floor.

It would be no surprise, when I initially thought about introducing the legislation, my thought was, well, we will just wait and introduce it and start asking for signatures. But, no, I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to read it, peruse it, dissect it, scrutinize it, and do all the things you need to do to make a decision. Then, once we file it, I am going to come back to this floor, and I am going to announce and thank the persons who have signed on to the legislation. Anybody who signs on to this legislation deserves a word of gratitude, and I will be one of the many who will, hopefully, give these expressions of gratitude. I plan to come back to the floor and say to the public at large: We thank you for supporting this legislation.

My hope is that we will get the signatures necessary for the benefit of the public at large. You cannot get this legislation passed in the House with a majority of votes. It will take 290 votes or more.

I see the Parliamentarian looking in my direction. If I am incorrect, Madam Parliamentarian, will you give me some nod as to being correct or incorrect? She indicates that I am correct. So, now you have heard it from me and you have heard it echoed from the Parliamentarian: 290 votes we will need, not 289, 290 people of goodwill who have the courage to recognize the people who made America great.

Others have done things to make America great. I don't mean to minimize the efforts of any others. I just mean to maximize the efforts that have been ignored, that have been, quite frankly, with intentionality pushed aside.

They are people who are ashamed to acknowledge that they are the proud descendants of the enslaved people who built this country. I am not one of them, of course. But there are still people who are. They are ashamed. We have to change that. I want to do everything I can to bring about that change.

I will return to Al Edwards, the father of Juneteenth. I remember what he went through. He was my friend. I saw him suffer. I know about his fight to rid South Africa of Apartheid, how he went to jail in that struggle.

I am prepared to do whatever it takes, however long it takes, as long as I am in Congress.

Madam Speaker of the House of Representatives, I thank you for this time, and I will be asking for additional time to have additional commentary about this subject. I assure you that those who take this seriously will be doing the righteous thing, not just the right thing, but the righteous thing.

Again, I will close with Maya Angelou's very powerful words. She reminded us that we--persons of my ilk, if you will--were: Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I plan to fulfill their dreams.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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