Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleagues, Congresswoman Cherfilus- McCormick from Florida and Representative Jackson from Illinois, for their leadership, their commitment, and for allowing us to have this opportunity to speak on such an important, important measure.

I was outraged by what we all witnessed in Tennessee at the beginning of April. Following the tragic mass shooting at The Covenant School, the Republican majority in the State legislature chose to avoid passing any meaningful gun reform or even having any meaningful discussion about gun reform. Instead, they sought to thwart democracy and to silence the critics who stood with the community and who demanded action. Prayers are wonderful. I subscribe to them daily. Well-wishing is a wonderful thing, and it make us feel good. That alone without action is not enough.

We as elected officials are sworn to a task and to a duty to serve and to provide. In Tennessee that day, we failed the people of Tennessee. We failed the people of America. Instead of action, they expelled two Black American members of the Democratic Caucus who stood with parents, teachers, and students to demand action and to speak truth to power about the reality of gun violence.

This was an attack on our democracy, and all of us, Republican, Democrat, and other, should be outraged with such an attack on democracy because this issue today may have been an issue that the majority ruling party didn't like.

What happens tomorrow when we unilaterally seek to silence the voices of duly elected people in a democratic society?

Stop and think about that for a second. Stop and think about it. Stop and think about the threat to our democracy. The cornerstone and the pillar of our society is freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the ability to disagree and to have meaningful discourse. That is what we all ran on. That is what the mighty Constitution protects.

Yet, in Tennessee that was ignored. It was ignored. It was defiled. Everyone, of every race and party, should find disdain and pain with that kind of treatment in the democratic process.

In the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, four Members of the House, James Lewis, John Willis Menard, P.B.S. Pinchback, and Josiah Thomas Walls, were wrongly denied the right to take their seats.

These egregious actions in Tennessee show us that the fight for Black representation in the United States is still an ongoing battle.

Our democracy is built on the freedom of speech and the freedom to protest. To expel elected representatives for standing with their neighbors after an horrific act of gun violence against children is appalling. I am enraged that it was two Black lawmakers who were expelled.

Black people in the United States have historically been vilified for speaking up. We have been beaten. We have been attacked by dogs. We have been hosed with powerful water hoses. We have been hanged from trees. Yet, in 2023, two duly elected members of a State legislature were unilaterally dismissed and removed from service for standing up with the people. There were no guns. There were no spears. There were no choke holds. There was no fighting. There was no profanity. There were no broken windows or broken arms. It was mere words--mere words-- that defended the Constitution of our land and that defended the people to protest against something as egregious as the death of children. And we say we don't need to do anything with gun control?

You can't find one thing, Mr. Speaker?

Can we find any one thing that we can come together on that would suggest that we hear the pain? We hear the cries? We see the eyes of Black and White mothers and fathers who will never see their children again?

Yet, we continue to find a comfortable place in the shade and hide behind rhetoric.

The time has come for us to do something, to act, to move, and to show the American people that we will not continue to sit back and watch senseless killings on our streets. Look at the statistics. We have more mass murders in a year than we have days in this year.

Doesn't that mean anything?

Doesn't that cause you to cringe and say no more?

Black, White, Republican, and Democratic, there are lots of things that we can agree to disagree on. Public safety should not be one of them, particularly when it comes to standing up for our young people.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we send a promise of action, and we ask you to join us in delivering on that promise of action.

Today I stand for justice. Today I stand with the Justins. Today I stand with the Tennessee Three. Today and every day I invite you, Mr. Speaker, to join me and others in supporting the bare principle of democracy and protecting its people.

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