Honoring the NAACP

Floor Speech

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the
gentleman for the recitation. It was very touching, very moving, and I
just want to commend him for keeping the memory alive. Thank you so
much.

Madam Speaker, I am honored tonight to thank the leadership and to
thank the Members of Congress who have been supportive of this
resolution that we bring to the floor for a discussion. This is a
resolution that honors the NAACP.

This resolution is not new to the Congress of the United States of
America because, in 2006, it actually passed the House of
Representatives by a voice vote and then, in 2007, it passed the House
of Representatives by a vote of 410-0; in 2008, 403-0; 2009, 424-0; and
2010, 421-0.

I thank the leadership and the Members of this body for the support
it has shown to the NAACP with the passage of this resolution through
the years.

I am honored to be a member of the NAACP. I take great pride in my
membership. I have a life membership in the NAACP. I have been
fortunate enough to serve on the board of the Houston branch of the
NAACP. I served for nearly a decade as president of the Houston branch
of the NAACP, and I have been the beneficiary of the NAACP's works. The
NAACP has made America the beautiful a more beautiful America.

Tonight, Madam Speaker, I would like to continue this discussion of
the NAACP. I would like to say just a few words first about the
founding of the NAACP. It was founded on this day 106 years ago--106
years ago--when approximately 60 people answered what was called the
call.

It was a clarion call for persons to come together to talk about and
discuss a means by which lynching could be dealt with. Of the 60
people, about seven were African Americans. The NAACP is not now and
never has been an organization that has been supported by only African
Americans or what some might call a Black organization. It has always
been an integrated organization.

After having been founded in 1909, February 12, 106 years ago, the
NAACP did embark upon a campaign to end lynching in the United States
of America, a sad chapter in our history, but one that we must never
forget because we never want to see these things happen again.

As things are doing well now in this area of lynching--we don't have
lynchings in the United States of America, generally speaking, we understand the adage--the premise--that if you don't remember your history, there is a possibility that it can be repeated.

For this reason, we talk about these things. They are a sad chapter
in our history, but it is a chapter that we dare not forget. The NAACP,
in embarking on this campaign to end lynching, published a publication
in 1919 that was styled ``30 Years of Lynching in the United States.''

It is interesting to note that lynching was so prevalent in the
United States that the great Billie Holiday--the great Billie Holiday--
sang a song, she was known for this song, styled ``Strange Fruit.''

This was a song that she could only sing in certain places because
this was one of the first songs that dealt with the protest movement
around this notion of civil rights and human rights for African
Americans. This song was first presented in New York at a nightclub,
the Cafe Society.

When she first presented the song, she had much fear and much
consternation because she wasn't sure how it would be received. After
she finished singing the song, there was a silence. For a moment, she
thought that it would not be well received.

Then one person, as is the case with many movements, one person
started to applaud and, after that, one person, then another and
another. Then she received a very loud ovation for this song.

I am going to share the words to the song with us tonight because
this song is probably one of her signature songs, but it is also a song
that predated ``We Shall Overcome,'' which was a part of the civil
rights movement, the contemporary civil rights movement.

These are the words to the song, and you will have some appreciation
for why I am mentioning it to you. The words are:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Of course, we know that this song is referring to the lynchings that
were taking place. In fact, between 1882 and 1968, according to
Tuskegee Institute, there were 3,446 African Americans lynched in the
United States of America--a sad chapter in our history.

This is why the NAACP came into being. In part, it was established to
ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality for all
persons--for all persons--not just African Americans, not just Blacks,
not just as we were known at that time, Negroes, but for all persons;
and it was established as well to eliminate racial hatred and racial
discrimination--all noble challenges and challenges that we would
easily embrace today.

At that time, when the NAACP was founded, because of lynchings that
were taking place and because of a desire to make sure that all persons
were treated fairly and equally, it was a difficult thing to do.
The NAACP, I am proud to say, has a history of being on the right
side of right. It is consistently on the right side of right. The NAACP
was on the right side of right in 1948 and 1953 when it filed and won
the lawsuits Shelley v. Kraemer and Barrows v. Jackson. These lawsuits
dealt with restrictive covenants.

There was a time in this country when persons could restrict the sale
of property to people simply because of who they were, the hue of their
skin, restrict the sale of property to people because of the way they
looked.

These two lawsuits were taken to the Supreme Court of the United
States of America and were won. If the truth be told, we sleep where we
sleep and we live where we live because of the NAACP, because the NAACP
was on the right side of right.

What is interesting about this proposition of being on the right side
of right, Madam Speaker, is the notion that when you are what I call--
what some others would call a Monday morning quarterback, but what I
call a hindsight quarterback--a hindsight quarterback, that is my
phrase--when you are a hindsight quarterback, it is easy to be on the
right side of right because others have had to suffer the slings and
arrows associated with being on the right side of right at the right
time, in the right place, in the right space. The NAACP has dared to be
on the right side of right when it was very difficult to be there.

In 1948 and 1953, when Shelley v. Kraemer and Barrows v. Jackson were
litigated, it was not easy to be on the right side of right, to talk
about integrating neighborhoods, to talk about selling property to
anybody if they could pay the price of the cost of the property.

Being on the right side of right means something in the country that
we know and love. It means something in a country that stands for the
proposition of liberty and justice for all, a country that stands for
the notion that government should be of the people, by the people, and
for the people.

It means something to be on the right side of right; hence it means
something to have an organization like the NAACP that will step forward
using litigation when necessary, protests when needed, but always a
peaceful means to a just end. The NAACP has been there and has always
been consistently on the right side of right.

The NAACP was on the right side of right in 1954 when it won the
lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education. I would daresay that we eat where
we eat because of the NAACP and we go to the schools that we go to
because of the NAACP.

The NAACP took that lawsuit to the Supreme Court under the leadership
of the Honorable Thurgood Marshall with the aid and assistance of the
honorable Charles Hamilton Houston and won that lawsuit, placing the
NAACP again on the right side of right, overturning decades of
injustice with one single lawsuit. The NAACP made a difference in the
lives of all Americans.

The truth be told, if we did not have the NAACP, we would have to
create it because you need an organization like the NAACP. You need an
organization that is willing to take a bold stand in difficult times,
an organization that understands that it is not easy to be on the right
side of right, but that understands also that a great country has to
move forward, and to do so, it must be on the right side of right.

Let me pause for just a moment because we have had a great sage come
into the Chamber tonight. He is, of course, the sage from New York. We
know him as the Honorable Charlie Rangel.

I know him as a friend to all of humanity, a person who has
consistently been on the right side of right, a person who speaks with
clarity, with force, sincerity, and he actually calls them as he sees
them, without any fear and without any belief that there are
consequences that can be of great harm to him, such that he should not
speak truth to power.

Tonight, I am honored to ask my dear friend if he would join me and
give his commentary on the NAACP.

I will now yield to the gentleman from New York City, the Honorable
Charles Rangel.

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Thank you very much. I applaud you for your
very kind words about the NAACP, and I also compliment you for giving
us additional examples of the NAACP being on the right side of right--
the right side of right.

With the history that it has for being on the right side of right,
one can imagine 100 years from now, when someone looks through the
vista of time back upon this time, when the NAACP is the champion right
now for voting rights, who will be on the right side of right when we
look back?

I think that is important for us to consider because we never want to
be on the wrong side of history, but we are in a situation right now
where it will take some courage for some people to be on the right side
of right as we tackle this question of voting rights, voting rights
that have been diminished by the evisceration of section 4 of the
Voting Rights Act, which emasculated section 5 of the Voting Rights
Act, which means that there is no coverage. We have to now find a way
to reinstate section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.

Who will be on the right side of right? Who will be with the NAACP?
When we look back 100 years from now and we examine these circumstances and we understand that it was not easy to be on the right side of right, who will be there so that we can accomplish, again, what the
NAACP has fought for for many decades in this country?

I thank you, again, Madam Speaker. I thank the leadership for this
opportunity. Our time has expired, but our energies are still with us,
and we will continue to be a part of this great august organization
known as the NAACP, as it continues to be on the right side of right.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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