Recognizing the Significance of Black History Month

Floor Speech

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I now yield myself such time as I might consume.

Mr. Speaker, every February Americans celebrate African American Black History Month. This tribute dates back to 1926, and it is credited to a Harvard scholar, Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Dr. Woodson, the son of former slaves, dedicated his life to ensuring that black history was accurately documented and disseminated.

In an effort to bring national attention to the contributions of African Americans, Dr. Woodson organized the first annual Negro History Week in 1926. He selected the second week of February, during which Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass had celebrated their birthdays.

Later, Woodson's contributions helped emerge during the civil rights campaign of the 1950s and 1960s, where the black studies movement began to spawn African American history, theory courses, programs and departments on the Nation's college and university campuses. During the early 1970s, Negro History Week was renamed Black History Week; and in 1976, it officially became Black History Month, designating all of February for the recognition of African American history.

In 1926, during the time for the first organized tribute to black history, the sociopolitical landscape in this country for African Americans was demonstrably different than it is today. At that time, ``separate but equal,'' a doctrine that afforded African Americans second-class citizenship, was the law of the land, although it was an immoral one.

Through many historic efforts of many Americans of all races, legalized discrimination became a thing of the past. This body passed landmark legislation, most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was just 43 and 42 years ago when President Lyndon Johnson signed these legislative measures into law, laws that prevented Jim Crow laws from subjugating and denying African Americans the right to vote in certain southern States, the imposition of poll taxes, the segregation of schools, housing, bus and train transportation, restrooms and other public accommodations.

Moreover, Black History Month is also promoting public awareness of the struggles and achievements of African Americans. We must continue to build on the existence of the past and look forward to the future.

African Americans, over the years, have made great strides, but, yet, we still have a long way to go. For instance, in 2005, there were 37 million poor people in America. The poverty rate is about 24.9 percent for blacks, compared to 8.3 percent for whites.

The homeownership rate among white households is about 74.2 percent, compared to 47.1 percent for African Americans. This huge gap between white and black homeowners will continue to be a primary factor that will undermine the growth of African Americans and their family structure to obtain wealth, capital assets and better neighborhoods.

While 5 percent of the world's population lives in the United States, we have 25 percent of the world's prison population in United States jails and prisons. Nationally, the Bureau of Justice statistics reports that the United States incarcerates 2 million people. Whites are about 36 percent, compared to 46 percent for blacks in prison.

As some of us know, the majority of people in prison are attributed to drug convictions. The law is not equally applied when it comes to drug offenses involving crack and powder cocaine. Five grams of crack cocaine brings a mandatory sentence of 5 years, compared to 5 grams of powder cocaine, which has no sentencing requirements, and the possessor of powder may get probation. Of course, a disproportionate number of the individuals who use crack cocaine are African Americans.

These are just a few barriers that many African Americans confront every day. And so when we honor Black History Month, we are recognizing the struggles and achievements of African Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I know that Representative Al Green, who is the sponsor of this legislation, had intended to be here today to speak on it. Unfortunately, he had to be away in Texas taking care of some activities in his district, and I would ask that he be allowed to submit his statement for the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I support H. Res. 198, and urge all of my colleagues to vote for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) for his statement. And I also want to thank him for the opportunity to work with him today during this process. It has indeed been a pleasure.

I also want to commend Representative Green from Texas for his introduction of this legislation.

In closing, let me also indicate that it is important that we look at the contributions that all racial ethnic groups have made to the development of this great country that we call the United States of America.

There is no group who didn't come here looking for something different than what they had. And fortunately, for many of them, they have been able to find that America is, indeed, a country where every person can have the opportunity to grow and develop to be a part of.

I have been pleasured, I guess, to represent many high profile individuals, African Americans like Oprah Winfrey, who is in my congressional district, like Michael Jordan, who played basketball out at the stadium in my district.

But I often tell young people that I grew up in an environment where we were taught to read by unlocking words. And to us, history sort of meant, at that time, his story. And so I encourage them to think of what I call mystery, which becomes my story. And so each one of us have an opportunity to contribute to the further development of this great Nation.

I commend the gentleman for introducing H. Res. 198. I urge its passage.

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