ANOTHER BLIGHT ON AMERICAN HISTORY

On 2026-05-12, Representative Al Green (D-TX-9) delivered a floor speech titled "ANOTHER BLIGHT ON AMERICAN HISTORY" in the House.

ANOTHER BLIGHT ON AMERICAN HISTORY

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 80 (Tuesday, May 12, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 12, 2026)] [House] [Pages H3379-H3385] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ANOTHER BLIGHT ON AMERICAN HISTORY (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. McClellan of Virginia was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.) Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus to anchor this Special Order hour. General Leave Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Virginia? There was no objection. Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus to address another blight on American history. Mr. Speaker, 250 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence ``that all men were created equal and endowed by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' Yet, Mr. Jefferson did not include the nearly half a million enslaved men, women, and children in the Thirteen Colonies, including at his beloved Monticello. Eleven years later, the Constitution of the United States created a government by, of, and for we the people in order to form a more perfect Union, yet it considered the enslaved people three-fifths of a person for purposes of House of Representatives apportionment and taxation and excluded indigenous people altogether. Since 1789, the history of our country has been one of each generation attempting to make true for all Americans the promise of American democracy embedded in our founding documents by expanding suffrage beyond White, landowning men. It is a story of cyclical trauma. As the Civil War tore this country apart, Reconstruction sought to bind its wounds, and a violent backlash of white supremacy erased gains made by formerly enslaved men. In the wake of the Civil War, Congress passed the Reconstruction amendments to end slavery, guarantee equal civil, legal, and voting rights to formerly enslaved Americans, and all three granted Congress the power to enforce their provisions. Even with these amendments, southern States resisted, resorting to organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Black citizens for seeking to vote, run for office, and serve on juries. Congress passed the Enforcement Acts to allow the Federal Government to intervene. As a result, Black men gained political power across the South for the first time. In 1870, Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first Black Members of Congress. A total of 22 Black men served in Congress between 1870 and 1901, including John Mercer Langston, who served in Virginia's Fourth Congressional District, a seat that I now proudly serve as the first Black woman elected from the Commonwealth of Virginia. {time} 1940 The political, social, and economic power gained by Blacks across the South during Reconstruction faced a violent backlash as the KKK and other similar organizations began a reign of terror across the South. The Compromise of 1877 ended a deadlock in the Presidential election of 1876 and brought Reconstruction to an end. As a result, widespread violence, fraud, corruption, gerrymandering, malapportionment, and legislation intended to disenfranchise Black voters went unchecked for 50 years. Then the Supreme Court issued two decisions gutting the Enforcement Acts, one which arose from the tense aftermath of a Louisiana gubernatorial election and the Colfax massacre, one of the bloodiest racial confrontations of the Reconstruction era. States wasted no time adopting measures that technically applied to all voters but were designed and enforced to disenfranchise Black voters: literacy tests like the one my great-grandfather took in 1902 in Alabama to be able to vote, poll taxes like the ones my father and my grandfather paid in Tennessee, and more restrictive residency requirements. Yet, we marched on. Then in August of 1965, nearly 100 years after passage of the 15th Amendment, Congress passed the most effective piece of legislation to enforce its provisions: the Voting Rights Act. As Justice Kagan wrote in her dissent in the Callais decision that put the death knell in the coffin of the Voting Rights Act by gutting what is left of it. She wrote that the Voting Rights Act was one of the most consequential and amply justified exercises of Federal legislative power in our Nation's history. Born of the literal blood of the Union soldiers and civil rights marchers, it ushered in awe-inspiring change bringing this Nation closer to fulfilling its ideals of democracy and racial equality. It has been repeatedly and overwhelmingly reauthorized by the people's Representatives in Congress, and only we have the right to say when it is no longer needed. Yet just as the backlash came in response to Reconstruction beginning with Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Roberts Court has systematically, from its ivory tower in Washington, gutted the Voting Rights Act. [[Page H3380]] Essentially the Court has said that the medicine for racism in our political system has worked so let's end the treatment. However, the cancer of racism has not gone away. It has been biding its time in remission, waiting for a chance to spread. Now we see in these same States that race to pass race-neutral poll taxes, literacy tests, character tests, and gerrymander maps to pack or crack Black voters to dilute their power are now moving with all deliberate speed to do the same thing again in Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina. The Congressional Black Caucus will not stand idly by. As our colleague, John Lewis, said, democracy is not a state. It is an act that requires each generation to do its part to build the beloved community. Our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, and some of our members themselves did their part to fight the obstacles put in our way of participation in this government by, of, and for the people, and we will fight tooth and nail to do the same so that our children and our grandchildren don't have to fight these fights. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke). Chairwoman Yvette Clarke is our fearless leader. Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am Representative Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, proudly representing New York's Ninth Congressional District in central and southwest Brooklyn. I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, for anchoring this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour. It has been 13 days since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, opening the door to a coordinated attack on Black political power and fair representation across the South. Since the Callais decision came down, Republicans across the country have wasted no time in their zealous pursuit of power. They have moved with lighting speed to enact new congressional maps in Florida, Tennessee, and Missouri, and are taking aggressive action in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina. Let's be clear: This is an outright power grab, downright theft, snatching fair representation from Black voters across the South of the United States. It is about silencing Black voices, dismantling majority Black districts, and rigging the map in their favor as elections are already underway. For years, we have sounded the alarm as the Voting Rights Act was chipped away piece by piece. Today, the consequences are here, and they are dangerous. Not since Jim Crow have we witnessed such a sweeping and deliberate effort to disenfranchise Black voters, but we are not powerless, and we are not backing down. Every inch of progress in this country has been fought for, won through struggle, through resistance, and through the courage of people this Nation tried to leave behind. The Voting Rights Act was not handed over freely. It was fought for, organized for, litigated for, and ultimately won through the blood and sacrifices of Black Americans and allies who demanded better from their country. As a nation, we are being called to that same courageous fight today. We owe that to the generations who came before us, the freedom fighters who faced dogs, batons, firehoses, and jail cells so that we could have a voice here in the Halls of Congress. We owe it to the generations coming after us who deserve a country where their vote is protected, their voice is heard, and their future is not predetermined by those who fear their power. This fight is for nothing short of the future of American democracy itself, and the CBC will meet this challenge head-on, as we have time and time again, on behalf of the communities we serve. To anyone who thinks we will be discouraged, to anyone who believes that we will be silenced, to anyone who hopes we will sit this moment out, they are mistaken. A setback is just an opportunity for a comeback, and we have no intention of allowing Republicans to drag us backward. When November comes, we will show up in numbers too big to ignore and too powerful to suppress. That is because our history has taught us that progress is never given, it is won. It is won by ordinary people with extraordinary courage and by communities that refuse to be erased. That is the legacy we have inherited, and that is the legacy we intend to protect. We are still here. We are still fighting, and together we will win. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding. Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), who picked up the baton from John Lewis. Ms. SEWELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight with my colleague