Date: 1994-06-21
Speaker: JOHN LEWIS (democrat)
Chamber: H

who I met more than 30 years ago as a compatriot in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. for calling us to account around the lives of three young men whose names will always be remembered together as Schwerner. Goodman. and Chaney. who died together and gave new meaning to the words "black and white together." because they died together In Neshoba County 30 years ago. Mr. Speaker. I had spent 1963. or part of it. in the delta preparing for the Mississippi Freedom Summer. in the prototype of what was to become that summer. teaching in the freedom schools. encouraging youngsters and adults to vote. It was the most eventful summer of my life. It was a summer when I also helped write the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party brief. with Joe Rauh. and ran the lobbying operation that ultimately resulted in changes that introduced people into the party ranks and delegations without regard to race and gender. Mr. Speaker. I remember a point in the summer when we were told that the three were missing. They had just gotten there. The summer had just begun for the students. Mickey Schwerners brother was a classmate of mine in college. His wife was in Washington working with us. We waited on a watch we hoped would not be a death watch. and it was. We should remember today. Mr. Chairman. not only because of the sacrifices of these extraordinary young men. and we should remember not for memorys sake. or for the sake of nostalgia. For two reasons we should remember. One has to do with continuing discrimination. the other with new and troubled intergroup relations. The continuing discrimination is sometimes clear in its rawest form. as we see openly racist cults forming in the United States. They do not hide their disagreement with 30 years of progress in race relations in this .country. There is also bitter feeling in the black community about underthetable discrimination. the kind of discrimination that nobody or most of us dare not practice openly. but which is practiced covertly every day. Particularly do young black men feel this because of the stereotyping that comes from the fact that so much crime is committed by black youngsters. and so all young black men are often considered to be potential criminals. That is the kind of stereotyping that Schwerner. Goodman. and Chaney died to remove. The second reason. of course. has to do with intergroup relations. This has always been part and parcel of the raison detre of the civil rights movement. It has always been an allinclusive movement. I never thought we would get 30 years after the triumph of that movement and find that there was namecalling across racial and ethnic lines and a tension that we did not see even then. * Yes. we must not forget. Mr. Speaker. that Schwerner and Goodman and Chaney were not all black. that two of them were white and Jewish. and only one of them was black. and that they died together for a cause they all believed in. When we separate ourselves and do not communicate with ourselves. when there is selfsegregation. it is easy. it is easy for us to forget the .high principles of the civil rights movement. the high principles for which Schwerner. Goodman. and Chaney died. Kids are selfsegregating themselves. and increasingly groups around the country are selfsegregating themselves. That kind of selfsegregation. as opposed to the normal kind of fraternization among groups who are from the same background. but rigid selfsegregation. Mr. Speaker. is the breeding ground for intergroup tension. deprecation. and hatred. Out of the Mississippi Freedom Summer the person I shall remember the most is Fannie Lou Hamer. who thereafter become my own mentor. though she had a sixth grade education and I had just graduated from law school. She always took me back to first principles. When she died. her town. before .that day. had declared Fannie Lou Hamer Day. and that was Rulevlle. MS. Fannie Lou Hamer had brought together the blacks and the whites in that most segregated part of Mississippi to work together on raising food. plants. and animals. so they could all relieve themselves of the hunger that characterized Sunflower County. Today. Mr. Speaker. I would like to invoke the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer. and I thank the gentleman also for invoking the. spirit of Schwerner. Goodman. and Chaney. I want to mention. Mr. Speaker. finally. that this weekend the gentleman from Georgia and I and a number of Members shall be in Mississippi. because there is a reunion this weekend of those of us who were there then. designed to call us all to account and to bring us and help bring our community to its senses on the sensitive and tragic and overriding issue of race in this country. We shall have fun together. we shall sing together the old freedom songs. and there shall be more serious business at the table. the business of reminding ourselves and helping to remind our country that we have a long way to go. and we have got to go there together. to both end discrimination. and while respecting our individual backgrounds. bring us all together. for after all. this is one country. and we. too. are one.