Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JEFFRIES. I want to thank my good friend, the distinguished gentlewoman from Illinois, Robin Kelly, for once again presiding over this important CBC Special Order hour, as well as her co-anchor, the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, who is right across the Hudson River, and who so ably serves the communities of Newark and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, this evening we have heard from so many distinguished members of the Congressional Black Caucus, most recently from the gentlewoman from Texas, with whom I serve on the Judiciary Committee, about the importance of the moment in time in which we find ourselves right now related to not just the Confederate battle flag, but perhaps more importantly: What is the legacy that we want to have as Americans, as Members of Congress, in dealing with the complicated issue of race?

It is an honor and a privilege to once again have the chance to come to the House floor to have this conversation.

This is a most distinguished venue from which to speak to the American people, an appropriate one, I would add, given the House's constitutional relationship to the people of America, this, of course, being the only institution that was envisioned by the Founding Fathers as one in which the people serving in the institution would be directly elected by the people.

The Senate's Members, of course, in its original constitutional version, were elected by the State legislature. Then, of course, the Presidency, to this day, is a vehicle through which the individual is selected by the Electoral College.

So this is the people's House, the institution most intimately connected to the people of America and the place where we should be able to speak truth to power.

We witnessed that last week as we were forced, unfortunately, to discuss the issue of the Confederate battle flag at a moment when people of all races--Democrats and Republicans, Blacks, Whites, the extraordinary leadership from the Governor of South Carolina, and the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, Jim Clyburn--came together.

At the moment when the Confederate battle flag was coming down in South Carolina, there were Members of this House trying to lift it up.

It was quite unfortunate that we needed to detour from this moment that we were having in America, led in South Carolina, to address the battle flag issue on this House floor; but I am hopeful that, as we move forward now in a more productive way, we can begin to confront some of the public policy challenges that we face in America that supporters of the Confederate battle flag have fought against.

As others have detailed during the presentation here today, the battle flag, which met its initial defeat in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, remained largely dormant in American history until 1954 in the Supreme Court's decision of Brown vs. Board of Education.

It was decided that this facade of separate and equal was constitutionally suspect and that African Americans were being denied the opportunity of being educated in quality public schools in the Deep South and in other places in America.

Really, it was in the mid-fifties and then into the early sixties when the Confederate battle flag was resurrected as a symbol of the segregationists who were fighting to uphold Jim Crow.

It was a symbol of those who were fighting to stop the efforts of courageous individuals like Congressman John Lewis, who in 1965 was the co-chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

It was a symbol of those who were trying to fight efforts by John Lewis and others to make sure that the franchise--the right to vote--was colorblind in nature and that the 15th Amendment could actually be brought to life all throughout America and in the Deep South, where there were those who were trying to prevent African Americans from being able to vote. The battle flag was resurrected in the fifties and in the sixties to stop certain things from happening.

It seems to me that, rather than having the discussion about whether it should come down, no reasonable person can take the position that it should have a place of honor. So it is extraordinary to me that we had to take to the House floor last week and have to come to the House floor today to continue to address this issue.

Hopefully, reason will prevail over the next couple of weeks or the next couple of days--even prior to the August recess--and we can move beyond the Confederate battle flag issue and address some important, substantive issues that many would argue remain as part of the legacy of the Confederacy. We don't want to see the ghosts of the Confederacy invading the United States Congress from a policy perspective.

Those nine souls--God-fearing, church-going African Americans--who were killed simply because of the color of their skin died because of someone who charged into that church with the intention of sparking a race war that was inspired, in part, by the Confederate battle flag.

One of the things that has happened as a result of that tragedy is the battle flag has come down, but that is just the beginning of the work that we need to do in response to that tragedy and the conditions that so many people find themselves in all across America.

As has been mentioned, we have got to confront the gun violence issue that we have in the United States. How can it be that we have 5 percent of the world's population, but 50 percent of the world's guns?

It is estimated that we have more than 285 million guns in circulation. Nobody can give you an exact estimate because a chokehold has been placed around the Federal agencies charged with preventing gun violence and dealing with gun safety in America. It is an incredible act of legislative malpractice, but it is estimated that we have got over 285 million guns in America.

Isn't it reasonable, particularly in the aftermath of this tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina, that we come together and figure out a way to prevent those guns, consistent with the Second Amendment, from falling into the hands of individuals who would do us harm? It seems to me to be a reasonable thing that we can do as Americans.

It also seems important that we would find a way 50 years after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to stop trying to prevent Americans from exercising their sacred franchise and participating in American democracy.

Yet, something happened in the aftermath of 2008, a real interesting moment in November of that year, that seemed to have shocked a whole lot of people across this country. As a result, 2 years later, when there was a midterm election, subsequent to that, there was an outbreak with this concern of voter fraud, fabricated because no one can point to any evidence of an epidemic of voter fraud.

Not a scintilla of evidence has been presented anywhere in this country that we have got a problem that needs to be addressed; but we have had all of these voter suppression laws enacted that are consistent with the ghosts of the Confederacy and what those folks stood for who were waving the Confederate battle flag in opposition to the changes of the fifties and sixties.

What shocks me is that even the Supreme Court has gotten into the act by decimating the section 5 preclearance through claiming that section 4 is outdated, and this House refuses to act on fixing the Voting Rights Act.

I would argue that--again, consistent with our democracy and the spirit of coming together--that, perhaps, that is one of the things we can address so that we can take down, on the one hand, the divisive symbol of hatred--the Confederate battle flag--from here in this Capitol and in whatever form it hangs all across America so that we can lift up policies that make Americans safer, policies that are consistent with our values and that everyone--White, Black, Latino, Asian, Democrats, and Republicans--should be able to rally around.

I am thankful for Congresswoman Kelly's and Congressman Payne's leadership--this wonderful tandem, R. KELLY and D. PAYNE, who are tremendous advocates here in the Congress--and for their giving me this opportunity to share these thoughts.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source