Congressional Black Caucus Commemorates Women's History Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. MOORE. Thank you so much, gentlelady from the Virgin Islands. I am so pleased that you put this Special Order together to memorialize the contributions that African American women have made in this, our month of March, a tribute to all women.

As the Democratic cochair of the Women's Caucus, I am particularly proud to talk about some of the accomplishments and challenges, quite frankly, of African American women in this country. It is so obvious that we have to honor some of our ancestors on whose shoulders we stand, women like Harriet Tubman, who led slaves out of slavery, even at the point of a gun, a rifle, a strong African American woman that really instilled the kind of self-respect and self-esteem in the African American community, that strength of character that has helped us survive all kinds of tragedies in our community.

Sojourner Truth, of course, who really was engaged very heavily in the women's right to vote movement, in the suffrage movement. And of course Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi, who fought for the right to vote. And Rosa Parks, who fought to end the segregation in the South on accommodation. And really, moving through history, people like Madam C.J. Walker, first millionaire. So many people, I could just go on and on naming women in every field of business and entertainment, Oprah Winfrey, all the way of course to our very own first lady, our own great Michelle Robinson Obama.

But I think that such a tribute would not be complete if we did not recognize some of the people who are unknown to people, some of the unsung heroes within our own community. And I'm thinking of such a woman right now, a woman named Velvalea Phillips. Velvalea Phillips lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated from North Division High School, my alma mater, the same school that Golda Meir graduated from, and it was at that time a predominantly white school, and she won an oratorical contest, and the school was reluctant to give her that prize because she was a black student, and of course, the majority white student body rebelled and insisted that she win the prize as an orator.

Velvalea Phillips later came to be known as Vel, affectionately as Vel Phillips, went on to run for alderman of the city of Milwaukee. There had never been a woman who had won a seat on the common council until Vel ran, and because she shortened her name from Velvalea to Vel, they thought she was a man. She didn't put any pictures on her literature. So they also did not know she was a black. So she was the first woman and the first black person to become an alderman in the city of Milwaukee.

She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She was the first black person to become a judge in Milwaukee County. She was the first black woman to ever serve on a national party committee in either the Democrat or the Republican national committee, the very first black woman. She is the first and only African American who has ever won a Statewide office in the State of Wisconsin.

She is alive and still kicking, and is a major force in the community brainstorming conference of Milwaukee, a sort of black think tank in Milwaukee that talks about all kinds of social situations in Milwaukee, very thriving organization in our community.

But even then it would be inappropriate to end this tribute without talking about those unknown women who have contributed so much, and I believe that this hour started out with your referencing some of these people. Madea, Big Mama, Aunt Peaches, Cousin Fannie, these people who dug deep into their pockets to pull out a very carefully folded $20 bill to press into your hand as you went off to college to give you some support. Those people who scrubbed floors and were not proud to try to give you a better life than they had. Those people who held the family together when all else failed. And that is why African Americans have thrived and survived to the extent that they have because of the strength of the African American woman in our community.

I will tell you as a physician, gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, that African American women are facing some tremendous challenges right now. We live in America, and of course, African Americans are very proud to be American, but the fact still remains that there is no level playing field in America for African American women. Women in general only earn 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns, and of course, African American women earn even less than that.

And they're faced with so many challenges. With a very high incarceration rate among African American men, African American women are often finding themselves in situations where they are the sole breadwinners in a family where their wages are less than African American men or any men in this country.

African American women, though, have continued to show that they are overcomers; that they can step outside of their story; that they can stand in the truth of their power and continue to inspire generation after generation after generation of African Americans. And we see this so often when we think of people in our community who have been raised up by single female and single female heads of household but have continued to move forward.

We look at our own President, Barack Obama. He is an African American. His mother was not an African American woman but she mirrored the condition of so many African American women in this country, finding themselves rearing African American children on their own.

And that is why I think it is important to come to this floor and to implore our colleagues to not eviscerate the kinds of support that makes so much difference to children. Like the Women, Infant, and Children program, where there have been efforts to cut that by $747 million; efforts to cut Head Start; efforts to cut the maternal and child health block grant; efforts to cut out basic kinds of support that African American women need to support their often lonely task of trying to rear children who are already poor. And the genius of African American women to cobble together a living where there seems to be nothing is something that I admire a great deal and something, quite frankly, that I have been a beneficiary of.

My mother was the mother of nine children. I'm the eighth of nine children, and my mother was poor. At the point at which I was born, my mother had nine children and did not have a high school education. She went back to high school--this was prior to GED--she went back to high school when I was about 5 years old and she got an associate's degree after that, and she went on to graduate and become magna cum laude as an adult, and all this time she kept us fed with beans and cornbread and rice and plenty of fresh water out of Lake Michigan.

She believed firmly in taking us to church and feeding us at the trough of religion and good morality and having compassion and loving justice.

Her very best friend, Ceria Travis, who went to church with her, has a daughter, Dr. Dorothy Travis Moore, who has established a school in Milwaukee devoted to helping struggling African American men because they saw how these strong black women worked hard. And my mom and Mrs. Travis inspired a whole generation of African American men and women to strive for a life better than they had. My mom helped so many young people go on and win college scholarships. She used to train them and tutor them to be able to win scholarships from the local Masons and Elks oratorical contests.

This is why I can't stop, gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, because I had a role model in my own life of a sociological miracle, someone who overcame all of the things that had been said she couldn't do. So that is why, if people tell me that I cannot do something, I have what all children should have, and that is a background of someone who is close to them that says continuously, Yes, I can. Yes, I can. Yes, I can. And as black women, we can do it.

However scarce our resources, however austere these budgets are, we are not going to go away. We are Americans. We work hard. We have built this country, and we have provided this country with a lot of genius. We have provided original music. We have provided inventions and agriculture. We have built this Capitol with our sweat, blood, and tears. And as African Americans, we are proud of the American part. And as black women, we have given birth not only to our children, but we have given birth to a great country.

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