Title: Calling on the Senate to rename the Russell Senate Office Building.
Policy area: Congress

Summary:
This resolution declares that the House of Representatives (1) once again rejects White nationalism and White supremacy as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States; (2) condemns the use of captions, statues, memorials, and artwork used or erected to memorialize Senator Richard B. Russell, or any other lawmaker who intentionally disavowed the Declaration of Independence's exhortation that all persons are created equal; and (3) calls on the Senate to rename the Russell Senate Office Building for an honoree who embraced equality for all Americans, and to revert to using the building's original name, the Old Senate Office Building, until the Senate selects such honoree.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1042 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1042

  Calling on the Senate to rename the Russell Senate Office Building.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 9, 2020

 Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Ms. Bass, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. 
 Cleaver, Mr. Cooper, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Ms. Haaland, Mr. Hastings, 
Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Lowenthal, and 
Mr. Thompson of Mississippi) submitted the following resolution; which 
   was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Calling on the Senate to rename the Russell Senate Office Building.

Whereas Senator Richard B. Russell opposed civil rights as ``unconstitutional 
        and unwise'';
Whereas in 1935, Senator Russell participated in his first filibuster of a civil 
        rights bill, when he and his colleagues in the Senate stopped an anti-
        lynching bill with 6 days of nonstop talking;
Whereas in 1936, Senator Russell stated in a re-election campaign speech that 
        ``as one who was born and reared in the atmosphere of the Old South, 
        with six generations of my forebears now resting beneath Southern soil, 
        I am willing to go as far and make as great a sacrifice to preserve and 
        insure White supremacy in the social, economic, and political life of 
        our state as any man who lives within her borders'';
Whereas in 1956, Senator Russell wrote an initial draft of the Southern 
        Manifesto, the bicameral resolution stating support for segregation and 
        refusal to observe Brown v. Board of Education;
Whereas, because President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 
        1964, Senator Russell, along with more than a dozen other Senators, 
        including Herman Talmadge, boycotted the 1964 Democratic National 
        Convention in Atlantic City;
Whereas, on March 17, 1964, the New York Times published an article entitled, 
        ``Relocate Negroes Evenly in States'', in which Senator Russell proposed 
        a voluntary ``racial relocation'' program to adjust the imbalance of the 
        African-American population between the 11 States of the old Confederacy 
        and the rest of the Union;
Whereas in 1972, shortly after Senator Russell's death, the Senate voted in an 
        overwhelming majority (99-1) that the Old Senate Office Building be 
        named the Russell Senate Office Building;
Whereas historian Gilbert C. Fite wrote at the conclusion of his biography of 
        Senator Russell, ``White supremacy and racial segregation were to him 
        cardinal principles for good and workable human relationships''; and
Whereas Public Law 115-58, a joint resolution signed into law on September 14, 
        2017, rejects ``White nationalism, White supremacy, and neoNazism'': 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) once again rejects White nationalism and White 
        supremacy as hateful expressions of intolerance that are 
        contradictory to the values that define the people of the 
        United States;
            (2) condemns the use of captions, statutes, memorials, and 
        artwork used or erected to memorialize Senator Richard B. 
        Russell, or any other lawmaker who intentionally disavowed the 
        Declaration of Independence's exhortation that all persons are 
        created equal; and
            (3) calls on the Senate to rename the Russell Senate Office 
        Building for an honoree who embraced equality for all 
        Americans, and to revert to using the building's original name, 
        the Old Senate Office Building, until the Senate selects such 
        honoree.
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