Clemency for Americans

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, very proud to have this opportunity to stand here and to address colleagues, persons who are within the Chamber, as well as people who may be without who are tuning in.

I am especially proud today, Mr. Speaker, because I have in my hand a fact sheet. This fact sheet comes from the White House, and this fact sheet is styled: ``President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans.''

I am so pleased that the President has done this.

Mr. President, if you hear me or if someone informs you, I want them to tell you that I support what you are doing. I have supported you as President. I think you have made a tremendous difference in the lives of a good many people in this country. I do believe history will be kind to you. It will say to those who are not here at this time that you made a difference within your lifetime. That means something to me.

I would like to read a few things from this fact sheet. Thereafter, I will go into something that is related in a very tangential way, but I would like to go into something more. First, I will read from the fact sheet.

It reads: ``Today's announcement will commute the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement and will pardon 39 individuals convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans.''

Let me stop for just a moment. I will come back to this. 1,500 people will now have the opportunity to, in a sense, begin life anew. They will have a new promise that they can now address, and that promise is you can have great opportunities in this country if you play by the rules. This helps them to demonstrate to the world that they are playing by the rules.

It reads, again: ``Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans, the most ever in a single day.'' I am sure that there are many Presidents who have desired to do more. It is difficult to do all of the things that you want to do when you have so many things to do.

This President has had many great things to accomplish. He did a great job with the pandemic. He did a great job when it comes to the infrastructure bill that eluded many others for years, perhaps even decades. He did a great job in appointing people to positions: to the United Nations, a female; to the Supreme Court, a female; a Vice President who is a female, and he selected this person to run with him.

He has done things that will make those who look upon this time--when they look through the vista of time back and see us at this time, they will know that President Biden left great tracks in the sands of time so that we can know that he came one way and then proceeded to do great things in other ways.

He has done this, the most ever in a single day, to those who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.

The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. He is also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemencies in modern history.

Mr. President, I salute you, I commend you, and I honestly believe that your desire is to do things that can benefit humankind. You have demonstrated it in so many ways.

But, Mr. President, I have an additional request. I have called it to your attention prior to this time, but I have this additional request. I have made the request here on the floor of the House of Representatives, and I make it again. I make this request because there are some people who have not been given the special treatment that others have received by virtue of the way they behaved.

These persons are persons who lived many years ago. They are persons who suffered for some 246 years of enslavement. These are persons who have not been treated fairly by our country, Mr. President. They have not been treated fairly by this House of Representatives, Mr. President. They have not been treated fairly by the United States Senate, Mr. President.

I can say these things, Mr. President, because I am an unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated Member of Congress. I want you to know that these persons, the persons who were enslaved, commenced with us, meaning the Colonies, in August of 1619 when the first 20 persons were brought into slavery in the Colonies. They have not been treated fairly, that first 20, nor have the many that followed, some more than 10 million. They have not been treated fairly. They have not been respected.

I am asking for respect for the persons, these some 10 million persons, whose lives were sacrificed--not willingly, I might add--whose lives were sacrificed to make America the great country it is today.

They were the economic foundational mothers and fathers of this country. They planted the seeds and harvested the crops. They served in the homes, they built roads and bridges, and they helped to construct the White House. Their hands were involved in the construction of the Capitol. They have not been respected for what they have done, Mr. President. This House has not respected them.

By the way, when I say this House, that includes Republicans and Democrats. There are people who seem to think that I am somehow myopic and I only see what Republicans do and not do. There are Democrats who have not respected them, as well.

One way that they could be respected would be to simply sign onto a piece of legislation that would accord a Congressional Gold Medal to these persons, a Congressional Gold Medal similar to what we did for the Confederate soldiers in 1956, as well as soldiers who represented the Union, similar to what we did for them. We could do this for them. We can do this posthumously.

Mr. Speaker, this is not directed to you especially. I just want you to understand the condition as I am speaking, Mr. President.

Posthumously it could be done, and this House could do it. Just recently this House last week accorded some special treatment for the victims of the Holocaust, those who were heroes of the Holocaust and heroines of the Holocaust. They were accorded some special treatment. A Congressional Gold Medal will be presented to them. We passed the legislation to allow it to be done.

This is the right thing to do. We should do this for those who were there to help the victims of the Holocaust. It is the righteous thing to do. It is more than the right thing. It is the righteous thing to do.

I salute those who had a hands-on experience with causing this to happen. However, for 246 years, those who were enslaved have not received a similar honor. Similar, not the same, because we are talking about now persons who last week were the heroes who helped them. I am talking about the people who were the victims now.

We have done things for the victims of the Holocaust that we have not done for persons who were victims of slavery. These two circumstances are not the same.

They are both great crimes against humanity. That is what makes them similar. They are not the same. I don't say that the Holocaust is the same as slavery, and I don't say that slavery is the same as the Holocaust. They are two great crimes against humanity, but we have been more generous with our treatment of those who were victims of the Holocaust than we have been for those who were victims of enslavement for some 246 years.

It is time for that to change. I don't see the House doing anything to change it right away.

When I say the House, I am talking about Democrats and Republicans. I don't see them doing anything right away.

However, Mr. President, there is something you can do right away. You can accord those persons who suffered from the indignation and humiliation associated with slavery with the harm, the pain, the suffering, and the agonizing. You can do something for them.

This is not all that should be done, but if you do this, you will show that their lives meant something to us, that it means something to you, and here is what you can do. You have with the power of the pen and the will to do it. Grant them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

It has been done posthumously for many others. It could be done posthumously for them. Let's show them that this country appreciates their 246 years of sacrifice, that they didn't labor, forced into it I might add, but that they didn't labor in vain, that somebody appreciates the fact that they were the economic foundational mothers and fathers of this country.

Somebody appreciates the fact that we stand on their labor. What they did to lay the foundations for what we are today still benefits those of us who are here today.

Mr. President, I would ask kindly and humbly and from the bottom and depth of my heart and soul that you would give them the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It would make a difference in terms of how they are viewed.

Maybe if it is done, we can get people in Texas to cease with this notion that the enslavement of some more than 10 million people was somehow a benefit to them. There is no benefit to people to be enslaved, but there are people in Texas who seem to think so.

If you would do this, it would help us to better understand that we can now start to move forward to do the things that would show the respect for them that we have shown for the victims of the Holocaust.

In Texas, for edification purposes, there may be some who don't know, there are people who believe that the enslavement of these more than 10 million people was involuntary relocation.

Involuntary relocation is not what it was. It was kidnapping. It wasn't involuntary relocation. It was placing people on ships and treating them like cargo. Some of them were stripped and chained. It wasn't involuntary relocation. It was forcing them against their will to leave their families.

By the way, there were Africans who were involved in this trade, too. I am leaving nobody out.

They were forced. They were taken away from their families by force. Some of them were taken away by African people who then traded them into slavery, and then they were traversed across the Atlantic. When they arrived, they were not treated and welcomed with any degree of dignity. Women were raped, and men were brutalized and lynched.

The Supreme Court in this country indicated that they had no rights that a White man had to respect. They were disrespected by the Supreme Court. They were disrespected by President Johnson when he decided he would abandon the whole notion of some sort of recompense for them, and they have been disrespected throughout history. To this day they have been disrespected.

They were taken to various places and sold on the auction blocks. Children were separated from mothers and fathers. Husbands were separated from wives. They had no rights. You could do whatever you wanted to them if you were the master. They have been disrespected.

Mr. President, I beseech you and I implore you to show them some respect and grant them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I will still continue to bring to the attention of the Members of this House the fact that they but only have to sign onto a document that is necessary for the House to do what it can to grant them the Congressional Gold Medal. I will continue to present it.

For those who would like to know who signed on, I have people ask me: Why don't you announce who signed on and who hasn't?

I am not doing it, but the Record speaks for itself. For those who would like to know, the Record speaks for itself. I am not trying to make friends. I am trying to make sure that people are respected who have earned the respect that they richly deserve. I want them to know that there is at least one person who is going to fight for them. I want them to know.

They are not here.

How can they possibly know?

Well, know in the sense that I believe that if I do this, that somehow the times will change such that they will benefit. Even after they have had their demise, they will still benefit from what we are doing.

By the way, I am not alone. I said I am one person. I want to let you know that there are others. We have 125 people who have signed on to this request for the Congressional Gold Medal, 125 out of 435.

There are people who would prefer that the Al Greens of the world who would bring these things to the forefront wait until they are ready to see this happen. They have a timetable that they have set for it. Sometimes in a timetable, it involves doing it maybe 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. Let's just make sure we do it when the people who are unbought, unbossed, and unafraid are not around so that they won't be able to say: I was able to help get that done.

There is some notion that you don't have to do this until there is some event that might occur in the life of the person who is presenting it, and then you can do it afterwards. Well, I am not going to allow that to cause me to believe that I should just wait and let things work out and let it happen. I am not that kind of guy.

I want to see it happen in my lifetime. I want to see this happen while I am still in this House of Representatives. If it can happen for the persons who were victims of the Holocaust, meaning there are people who can bring legislation and get it passed, then it ought to happen for those persons who were enslaved. We ought to be able to bring legislation that relates to them and get it passed, too.

For some reason, and I know what it is, we will do for the victims of the Holocaust what we will not do for those who were victims of enslavement in this country.

Now for the reason: It is easy to look through the window of life and be critical because you are looking into someone else's life. In this case, you are looking into another country when we are dealing with the Holocaust. It is easy to do that, to look into the window of life and be critical, to talk about what happened to our Jewish brothers and sisters.

I am as critical as anybody in terms of what happened to them. It was wrong. It should never have happened. I have stood and fought for them to be properly respected. I have voted for the pieces of legislation that relate to the Holocaust. I have gone to events. I have been to Yad Vashem in Israel. I have been associated with the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas. I believe it happened. I know it happened, and I know that we will never be able to do enough to make sure that it never happens again.

However, we do that by looking through the window of life.

When it comes to the enslavement of people in this country, then we have to look into the mirror of life. The window of life is clear. It is translucent. You can see into it clearly and through it into the lives of others, but the mirror of life is blurred. We don't want to see the reflection in the mirror of life because that reflection is us. We are the people in the mirror of life, we have to now examine ourselves.

We don't want to admit that slavery even occurred in this country. It is easy to say that something happened in a horrific way someplace else, but it is hard to acknowledge that it happened here in the United States of America, the country that boasts liberty and justice for all, the country that says bring your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, come to these shores and enjoy that freedom.

It is not in those exact words. I am talking about the Statue of Liberty and the words inscribed on that statute.

I am saying to you that we have to now look into the mirror of life. We have to acknowledge that these things happened.

We can acknowledge that if we can look into that same mirror of life and grant the Confederate soldiers who were the enslavers, if we can grant them a Congressional Gold Medal, then surely we can do the same for the enslaved.

It is difficult. It is difficult.

By the way, again, I am not talking just about Republicans. I am talking about Democrats and Republicans who refuse to see into the mirror of life the necessity to do for the victims of 246 years of slavery, to see the necessity to do for them what we have done for victims of the Holocaust, maybe not the same thing but similar things. Similar things.

My hope is, Mr. President, that you can help us change this by simply signing the necessary documentation to grant them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I just hope that there is somebody who will take what I have said today to the President. I have already delivered the message prior to this, but I don't think you can deliver a message too many times when it is something that is of necessity, and this is of necessity.

It is of necessity that the people in this country respect those who were enslaved. We have not done it.

I would add: Respect them to the same extent, maybe in different ways, but similar ways as we respect the victims of the Holocaust.

It is time for the United States of America, all within, to examine the mirror of life and critique ourselves for what we have done for 246 years. That was 246 years of enslavement, but it was followed by other things, such as Black codes followed by convict leasing; followed by lawful, legal segregation, which was another form of racism; followed by invidious discrimination.

All of these things have taken place, and what happened on August 20, 1619, when the first 20 persons were brought here and placed into enslavement, still has an impact on what is happening now because there has been no recompense. There has been no justice for these millions of people who have made America the country it is.

I say ``made.'' Someone will say, well, they didn't do it by themselves. Let me just revise that and say, helped to make America the great country that it is, but there is no question that millions suffered. There is no question that the suffering lasted for more than 246 years. There is no question that we have disrespected them for what they have done. I say ``for what they have done'' because there are many people who see them as the culprits.

They see the enslaved people as the perpetrators. I don't understand that mentality, but it exists, so they blame them for what they have done for being enslaved. The only thing a good many of them did was resist. Nobody wanted to be enslaved, but people will tend to blame the victims.

For too long, we who have had the opportunity to do something about it have been victims in the sense that we have bought into the notion that this is not something that needs to be addressed now; this can be addressed later on. For 246 years, it wasn't addressed while they were enslaved, and it hasn't been addressed since that time.

In a sense, the people who are doing nothing about it have been victims of a society that disrespects the victims of slavery. I am sorry I have to be the bearer of truth, but somebody has to do what I am doing currently. I regret having to say these things to people, but people need to know from somebody that this is wrong. We ought to have the courage to do something about it, as opposed to wanting to do something about the messenger.

Rather than deal with the message, they would rather deal with the messenger. Deal with the message. The messenger didn't create the circumstance that requires the message to be brought to your attention. Deal with the message. Look into the mirror of life.

Don't be a perfect victim yourself and be silent on something as salient as this issue. This is one of the great issues of our time, and it will be one of the great issues of our time until it has been confronted.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand here. I am still proud to say that I am a citizen of the United States of America. I am proud to say that I salute the flag. I say the Pledge of Allegiance. I sing the national anthem. I stand for the national anthem. I stand to salute the flag. I place my hand over my heart when I salute the flag.

I am not one of those people who hates this country. I love the country. That is why I do what I do to make it a better country. I am trying to live up to the more perfect Union that we all believe this country can become.

Mr. Speaker, I want you to know that, as a person who is proud to be a citizen of the United States of America, notwithstanding all the things that have happened here and the things that it has done to me personally when I was a son of the segregated South, and I had to go to the back door and sit in the back of the bus, stand in the back of the line, get locked up in the bottom of the jail were I arrested, sit in the balcony of the movie, I want you to know that I still believe the words we have seen and read in the Constitution, the Jeffersonian Declaration of Independence, and the Madisonian Constitution. I think these words can make a difference, and I am going to fight to use these words to make a difference.

I believe, Mr. President, that you can do this. Please grant the enslaved the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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