Date: 2015-02-04
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman very much for the yielded time. and I thank the floor staff and the representatives of the Democratic cloakroom. Republican cloakroom for their courtesies. I want to join my good friend who was on the floor earlier this evening. I was detained in a diplomatic meeting. I could not join my good friend. Congressman AL GREEN. as he began to commemorate and salute Black History Month. This is story of a proud people. of Americans who participated in every historic event since the founding of this country and whose ancestors proudly wore the uniform on many occasions. including the uniform in the Civil War and wars beyond. Tonight. I come to salute both national heroes and local heroes from Houston. Texas. andin particularthe 18th Congressional District. This. in fact. is the 39th commemoration of Black History Month. and we celebrate the contributions of African Americans who have contributed to the history and the greatness of our Nation. We pay tribute to trailblazers. pioneers. and leaders. like many of us know. such as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. United States Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce. a U.S. Congresswoman from my congressional district. the Honorable Barbara Jordan. who most recently sat amongst us. retiring from the United States Congress in 197879. U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland. who lost his life trying to provide food to hungry people in Ethiopia. astronauts like Dr. Guion Stewart Bluford. Jr.. and Mae C. Jemison. Frederick Douglass. Booker T. Washington. James Baldwin. Harriet Tubman. Rosa Parks. Maya Angelou. who taught me at Yale University. Toni Morrison. a premier writer. along with another outstanding writer as well. Gwendolyn Brooksjust to name a few of the countless wellknown and unsung heroes whose contributions have helped our Nation become a more perfect union. The history of the United States has been marked by the great contributions of African American activists. leaders. writers. and artists. As a Member of Congress. I stand on those shoulders. Their struggles and triumphs made it possible for me to stand here today and continue to fight for their values and really the values embedded in what America is all about: the values of equality and justice. progress for all. regardless of race. religion. gender. or sexual orientation. Mr. Speaker. I have two very special giants. They are my mother and father. Mrs. Ivalita "Ivy" Jackson. a vocational nurse. and Mr. Ezra C. Jackson. one of the first African Americans who was welcomed for a short period of time into the growing comic book publishing business during World War II. That was the entertainment. Many Americans found stories of joy. drama. various superheroes. monsters. and a number of other things in the comic book business. In New York City. a young man by the name of Ezra Jackson was given the door as the youngest son of my grandmother. Olive Jackson. who had sent three sons off to World War II. My uncles each fought. The youngest son was to stay with his widow mother. In doing so. he found in himself a talent. Even today. I am very proud to say that his works have been shown in the Smithsonian. He is just an individual. one might say average manan African American manwho suffered the indignities of discrimination and later found no place in that industry as he was being replaced by White citizens. I know that their strengtha mother in her tenacity and longstanding work at Booth Memorial Hospitalwas the foundation for myself and my brother Michael Jackson and now with many who have come behind. They were beloved parents. and they taught me the value of education. hard work. discipline. perseverance. and caring for others. I know this is not family night. but I cite my husband. Dr. Elwyn Lee. He became the first tenured African American professor at the University of Houston School of Law. There are many today that make their pathway standing on the shoulders of others. The most wonderful tribute that I like is to our military veterans who. as I indicated when I started. have fought in every war since the Revolutionary Warhow amazing. These people came first in the bottom of a belly of a slave boat as slaves. They can count their history to every single war. fighting on behalf of the sanctity and the security of our Nation. I remember joining Congressman JOHN LEWIS and Congressman CHARLES RANGEL. a Korean war veteran. as we were invited to pay tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen and the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. the famed "Triple Nickels." I was honored to be able to be at that ceremony sponsored by the U.S. Army commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Everything that we have gained has been because our soldiers. regardless of their race. religion. or background. were able to put on the uniform. I am very grateful to say that so many of those who put on the uniform. even when they were treated in an unfair manner in this country. proudly put on that uniform and fought for the Nation. I am reminded of all of them. Mr. Speaker. because they live amongst us in our communities. and as we have seen in the honoring of the Devils yesterday. we see that they are so proud to wear their uniform. They have fought so hard. Let me salute all of our veterans and soldiers. and let me be reminded of those from the African American community who went to serve. even as the laws of this Nation did not treat them fairly. I am well aware of the Tuskegee Airmen because my fatherinlaw was a Tuskegee Airman. along with his wife. who was one of the supporters. Phillip Ferguson Lee and Ethiopia Lee. now 94 years old. received a Congressional Gold Medal. Of course. we know the story of the Tuskegee Airmen achieving one of the lowest loss records of all the escort fighter groups and being in constant demand for their services by the Allied bomber units. a record unmatched by any other fighter group. You know something. Mr. Speaker? These brave men and women. no matteras I indicatedwhat race. it is so interesting. They do not tell their story often. That is why I am so glad that the United States Congress over these last years has begun to honor all of these groups so that their story can be told and forever embedded in the history of this Nation. I want to go on to say that the impressive feats of the Tuskegee Airmen were outstanding and astounding. I believe that their efforts and much of the success of African American soldiers in World War II caused. in 1948. to persuade President Harry Truman to issue his famous Executive Orderwhich I am so glad he issuedNo. 9981. which directed equality of treatment and opportunity in all of the United States Armed Forces and led to the end of racial segregation in the United States military forces. One person to tell that story in the eloquent way that it has been told is General Colin Powellor the famous Davis generals. "Chappie" Davis was who was one and well knownbut Colin Powell tells that story. Clearly. these individuals bravely fought for their country. but they show that they had the right stuff. They are American history. and they certainly are a testament to Black history. Clearly. what began as an experiment to determine whether "colored" soldiers were capable of operating expensive and complex aircraft ended as an unqualified success. based on the experience of the Tuskegee Airmen. whose record included 261 enemy aircraft destroyed. 148 aircraft of the enemy damaged. 15.553 combat sorties. and 1.578 missions over Italy and north Africa. They also destroyed or damaged over 950 units of ground transportation and escorted more than 200 bombing missions. They proved that "the antidote to racism is excellence in performance." as retired Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Carter once remarked. I take joy in this presentation and sharing this with my colleagues. It is Black History Month. but sometimes. we need to remember to say thank you to all Americans who have gone on before us. This month. we happen to be focusing on African Americans. Who can forget United States Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and the strong voice that she was for the vulnerable? A lady from Brooklyn. her first appointment in this Congress was to the Agriculture Committee. No. she didnt run away from it. She ran toward it. Her famous statement is: "A tree grows in Brooklyn." She ran for President. She made history there. There are others like Harriet Tubmanwe call her General Moseswho led slaves to freedom up and down the east coast. She had a sharp tongue and told anybody that was lagging behind: You arent going to stay behind because. if you did and got caught. all my others who are trying to escape would be captured. Certainly. Rosa Parks. who was a proud American. had the great fortitudealthough a small woman who did tailoring workto indicate in a way that subjected herself to being put in prison. put in jail. is that: I. too. am an American. I am so glad that Mae Jemison lives in my community. I obviously represent the city that loves NASA and loves human space exploration. Mae Jemison. the first African American woman to go into space. now has dedicated herself to exposing young people to math. science. engineering. technology. and creating more astronauts for the restored and reinvigorated human space exploration. That is a good thing. That is a very good thing. I believe we can look to work together in the 50th year of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I am a member of the United States Congress and the Judiciary Committee. led by a man who made history himself at that time. JOHN CONYERS. who has served in many capacities but has been a chair of the Judiciary Committee. being the first African American to ever chair that committee. but also a man that at every cornerstone of justice has a fight. whether it is sentencing. whether it is prison reform. whether it is dealing with the issues of copyright. whether it is the social justice issues. Let me say he was the first employer of Rosa Parks outside of her town of Alabama where she made her historic stand in Montgomery. Alabama. She worked for Congressman JOHN CONYERS. I mentioned this is the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. We all know the story. I knew the story beforehand. I worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Right after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. I knew the names of Hosea Williams and James Orange and Ambassador Andrew Young as those who worked closely with Dr. King. Certainly. Reverend Jesse Jackson had moved up to Operation PUSH. I say that to say that we know the story that it was the throngs of unnamed persons who pursued a simple right: the right to vote. I believe their heroic efforts have made it part of Americas history. I always believed one vote. one person is not for me. It is not for whether you are White or Hispanic or Asian or African American. It is for America. I truly believe that they made the first step to tell America that a vote should be unfettered for every citizen. You should not be blocked from votingand I hope. Mr. Speaker. we will get to that pointnot selfishly for one group versus another. but I hope we will get to that point for all of America. I think in this month of Black history commemoration. I need to give a challenge. That challenge needs to be that we need to pass the Voting Rights Act reauthorization as was crafted in the last Congress and supported by bipartisan Members. I had the privilege to be one of the original cosponsors. Former Congressman Spencer Bachus was on that bill with me. We had seen each other and marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He was. of course. a Representative from Alabama. There was no forcing. no pushing. It was just quiet thought that this was the right thing to do by a number of Republican Members who supported that legislation in the last Congress. including one of the esteemed former chairmen of the Judiciary Committee.