National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I rise to urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on amendment No. 31, which is an attempt to sanitize the American history taught by the Department of Defense Education Activities.

I rise as the first Black woman elected to this body from Virginia, who grew up listening to my parents and grandparents tell stories of their lives in the Jim Crow South and its impact on their lives, families, and communities.

I rise as someone born and raised in the birthplace of American democracy and the birthplace of American slavery; the home of the father of our country, the first Commander in Chief of the Army, the first President of the United States, who is watching this debate right now on the wall, who owned and enslaved human beings; the home of Thomas Jefferson, who also owned enslaved human beings, but wrote the resounding words of the Declaration of Independence 247 years ago that we celebrated last week: Ideals that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Unfortunately, he did not mean me.

I am from the home of the architect of the Constitution, which 13 years later, starts with the words: ``We the people.''

It did not include me.

Instead, the Constitution counted my enslaved ancestors as three- fifths of a person and did not grant us American citizenship until ratification of the 14th Amendment.

For nearly 350 years, slavery and Jim Crow created inequity in our communities that still exists today, and the laws that struck down Jim Crow were not a magic wand that erased those impacts.

As more and more people who lived during Jim Crow are dying, we need to tell their stories. We need to teach the good, the bad, and the ugly of our history to show how it shaped us as a nation so that we can heal from it.

This amendment teaches a delusional and irresponsible history.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith), the ranking member.

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Mrs. McCLELLAN. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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