Department of the interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert), the subcommittee chairman, as well as the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the ranking member, for their hard work in shepherding this important legislation to the floor and, most importantly, for working with me and my staff to propose this amendment and to make sure that it is budget neutral.

On the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we need to invest in the National Park Service sites associated with the civil rights movement, not cut necessary funding. Seminal locations such as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site tell the story of the struggle for civil rights and voting rights in this country. It is our obligation to preserve these prominent locations for future generations.

My amendment increases funding by $2.5 million for the documentation and preservation of civil rights history as well as restores $2.5 million for the rehabilitation and preservation of historic sites on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges, and $2 million additional for competitive grants for the civil rights initiative to preserve sites of the civil rights movement.

Institutions such as Miles College in Alabama and Tougaloo College in Mississippi served as a base for students who were involved in the civil rights movement. Some projects that would benefit would include digitizing the archives at places like Tuskegee University, where the Tuskegee Airmen as well as the records and papers of Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver reside. Other sites that would benefit from this funding include the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., the Selma Interpretive Center at Selma University, the Selma to Montgomery Interpretive Center at Alabama State University, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park in Maryland.

Mr. Chairman, over the last 5 years, as the Representative of the Seventh Congressional District and a proud product of Selma, Alabama, my native hometown, it has been an honor to not only represent this wonderful district, but to protect the legacy of those that came before us and to make sure that the history of the movement is preserved for future generations.

It was my high honor on March 7, 2015, to welcome President and Mrs. Obama as well as President and Mrs. George W. Bush, along with 100 Members of Congress and the Senate, Republican and Democrat, to my hometown of Selma, where we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March. Let us try to preserve that history and continue to show our commitment to the legacy of John Lewis and those brave Freedom Fighters who changed the Nation as well as this world by their quest for equality and justice for all.

I want to again thank the subcommittee chair, Mr. Calvert, and I want to thank the ranking member, Ms. McCollum, for their dedication and commitment to this preservation. I urge my colleagues to support the Sewell amendment and commit ourselves to the task of preserving the civil rights and voting rights.

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

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