IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1148 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 

Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. HICE of Georgia, Mr. WEBER of 

Texas, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. CRAWFORD, and Mr. NORMAN) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration 

RESOLUTION 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

Whereas, on July 22, 2020, H.R. 7573 was brought to the 

House floor for a vote, with the purpose of eliminating 

four specific statues or busts from the United States 

Capitol along with all others that include individuals who 

‘‘served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate 

States of America or of the military forces or government 

of a State while the State was in rebellion against the 

United States’’ yet failed to address the most everpresent historical stigma in the United States Capitol; 

that is the source that so fervently supported, condoned 

and fought for slavery was left untouched, without whom, 

the evil of slavery could never have continued as it did, 

to such extreme that it is necessary to address here in 

order for the U.S. House of Representatives to avoid degVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:16 Sep 29, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1148.IH HR1148

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•HRES 1148 IH 

radation of historical fact and blatant hypocrisy for generations to come; 

Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1840, 1844, 

1848, 1852, and 1856 states ‘‘That Congress has no 

power under the Constitution, to interfere with or control 

the domestic institutions of the several States, and that 

such States are the sole and proper judges of everything 

appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the 

Constitution; that all efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions 

of slavery . . . are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences; and that all such efforts 

have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of 

the people and endanger the stability and permanency of 

the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any 

friend of our political institutions.’’; 

Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1856 further declares that ‘‘new states’’ to the Union should be admitted 

‘‘with or without domestic slavery, as [the state] may 

elect.’’; 

Whereas, the Democratic Party Platform of 1856 also resolves that ‘‘we recognize the right of the people of all 

the Territories . . . to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery.’’; 

Whereas, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 penalized officials 

who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave and made 

them liable for a fine of $1,000 (about $28,000 in 

present-day value); law-enforcement officials everywhere 

were required to arrest people suspected of being a runaway slave on as little as a claimant’s sworn testimony 

of ownership; the Democratic Party Platform of 1860 directly, in seeking to uphold the Fugitive Slave Act, states 


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•HRES 1148 IH 

that ‘‘the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat 

the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.’’; 

Whereas, the 14th Amendment, giving full citizenship to 

freed slaves, passed in 1868 with 94 percent Republican 

support and 0 percent Democrat support in Congress; the 

15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right to vote, 

passed in 1870 with 100 percent Republican support and 

0 percent Democrat support in Congress; 

Whereas, Democrats systematically suppressed African-Americans’ right to vote, and by specific example in the 1902 

Constitution of the State of Virginia, actually 

disenfranchised about 90 percent of the Black men who 

still voted at the beginning of the twentieth century and 

nearly half of the White men, thereby suppressing Republican voters; the number of eligible African-American 

voters were thereby forcibly reduced from about 147,000 

in 1901 to about 10,000 by 1905; that measure was supported almost exclusively by Virginia Democrats; 

Whereas, Virginia’s 1902 Constitution was engineered by 

Carter Glass, future Democratic Party U.S. Representative, Senator, and even Secretary of the Treasury under 

Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed 

the goal of the constitutional convention as follows: This 

Democrat exclaimed, ‘‘Discrimination! Why, that is precisely what we propose. That, exactly, is what this Convention was elected for—to discriminate to the very extremity of permissible action under the limits of the federal Constitution, with a view to the elimination of every 

Negro voter who can be gotten rid of legally.’’; 


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Whereas, in 1912, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson’s 

administration began a racial segregation policy for U.S. 

government employees and, by 1914, the Wilson administration’s Civil Service instituted the requirement that a 

photograph be submitted with each employment application; 

Whereas, the 1924 Democratic National Convention convened 

in New York City at Madison Square Garden; the convention is commonly known as the ‘‘Klan-Bake’’ due to 

the overwhelming influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 

Democratic Party; 

Whereas, Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 

continued Woodrow Wilson’s policy of segregating White 

House staff and maintained separate dining rooms for 

White and Black staffers. He also continued the White 

House Correspondents Association’s ban on credentialing 

Black journalists for White House duties until outside 

pressure from Black publications finally forced a change 

in policy in 1944, the last year of his presidency. According to the American Journal of Public Health, prior to 

his presidency, Roosevelt not only banned Blacks from 

receiving treatment at his polio facility in Warm Springs, 

Georgia, Black staff were forced to live in the basement 

of the facility or in a segregated dormitory while White 

staff lived in the hotel or in surrounding cottages; 

Whereas, Democrat Congressman Howard Smith, former 

chairman of the House Rules Committee introduced the 

‘‘Declaration of Constitutional Principles’’ in a speech on 

the House floor where he attacked the Supreme Court’s 

1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 

(KS) which determined that segregated public schools 

were unconstitutional. Smith’s declaration urged people 


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to utilize all ‘‘lawful means’’ to avoid the ‘‘chaos and confusion’’ which would occur if they desegregated schools. 

History.House.Gov states that ‘‘Under Smith, the Rules 

Committee became a graveyard for numerous civil rights 

initiatives in the 1950s.’’; 

Whereas, in 1964, the Democratic Party led a 75-calendarday filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act; 

Whereas, leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil 

rights for African-Americans was a fellow member of the 

Democratic Party, Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia—a known recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan; 

Whereas, Democrats enacted and enforced Jim Crow laws 

and civil codes that forced segregation and restricted 

freedoms of Black Americans in the United States; and 

Whereas, on June 18, 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the removal from the Capitol portraits of four previous Speakers of the House who served in the Confederacy saying that the portraits, ‘‘set back our nation’s 

work to confront a combat bigotry;’’ the men depicted in 

the portraits were Democrat Robert M.T. Hunter, Democrat Howell Cobb, Democrat James L. Orr and Democrat 

Charles F. Crisp: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Speaker of the House of Rep2 resentatives shall remove any item that names, symbolizes, 

3 or mentions any political organization or party that has 

4 ever held a public position that supported slavery or the 

5 Confederacy, from any area within the House wing of the 


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1 Capitol or any House office building, and shall donate any 

2 such item or symbol to the Library of Congress. 

Æ 


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