PAYING HOMAGE TO THE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES

On 2026-02-09, Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH-3) delivered a floor speech titled "PAYING HOMAGE TO THE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES" in the House. The speech addressed taxes and also covered defense, labor policy. It referenced legislation: S1948.

PAYING HOMAGE TO THE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 27 (Monday, February 9, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 27 (Monday, February 9, 2026)] [House] [Pages H2085-H2090] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] {time} 1930 PAYING HOMAGE TO THE BLACK MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Clyburn of South Carolina was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.) General Leave Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Van Epps). Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from South Carolina? There was no objection. Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to join with my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to pay homage to the Black men and women of our Armed Forces whose service and sacrifices have far too often gone unrecognized and underappreciated. To make matters worse, they have often been denied their proper and well-deserved benefits as veterans who proudly served our Nation. There has been no war or conflict in which this country has been involved that Blacks did not participate. The men and women we are honoring tonight, as we commemorate the 100th year of celebrating Black history, made memorable and consequential contributions to the greatness of this country. It should not be insulting to any red- blooded American to hear about them, read about them, and learn about them in the same manner that we learn about others whose contributions were similar, but their skin color made them more worthy. [[Page H2086]] When we hear stories of the American Revolution, we don't often hear of Crispus Attucks, a Black man who became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was the first of five colonists shot and killed on March 5, 1770, in what became known as the Boston Massacre. His murder stirred the revolutionary fervor and America's fight for its liberation from the British. So, why is it that all of us were taught about the Boston Tea Party but nothing about the Boston Massacre? The life of Crispus Attucks is far less documented than his death. Crispus Attucks escaped from slavery in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1750 and spent two decades on trading ships and whaling vessels. His death continues to serve as a reminder that African Americans took an active role in the path to American independence, not a passive one. The poet John Boyle O'Reilly celebrated Attucks as ``the first to defy, and the first to die.'' In his 1964 book, ``Why We Can't Wait,'' Martin Luther King pays homage to Attucks for his courage and defining role in the American Revolution. Why don't our textbooks? In his 1881 autobiography ``Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,'' Douglass wrote that he ``urged every man who could enlist to get an eagle on his button, a musket on his shoulder, and the star-spangled banner over his head,'' and ``there is no power on Earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.'' Douglass believed the Civil War offered the Black soldier an opportunity to gain his stripes, but he could not convince his friend, Abraham Lincoln, to allow Blacks to serve. In August 1862, a formerly enslaved Black man from South Carolina came here to Washington and convinced Lincoln to allow Blacks to serve. History records that 170,000 Blacks joined the Union Army, 19,000 joined the Union Navy, and 40,000 died in that war. Robert Smalls, who convinced Abraham Lincoln to allow these freedmen to serve, became a captain in that Navy, participated in 18 battles, and was the only genuine hero of the Civil War. In my not-so-humble opinion, Robert Smalls is the most consequential South Carolinian who ever lived. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln acknowledged their value, saying: Without the military help of the Black freedmen, the war could not have been won. In what textbook do we find that? I would say very few, if any. World War II saw the service of many African Americans who never got their just due in or out of the military. My father had two brothers. Both of them, William and Charlie, served in World War I. Every time I tried to engage them in conversations about their experiences in that war, they never ever would discuss that. They made it very clear to me that the treatment they got both in that war and when they came back home made them wonder what they were fighting for. World War II was much of the same. If I were to mention tonight the Montford Point Marines, I would suspect very few, if any, in this Hall would recognize them. Well, Montford Point Marines were those Black marines who were not allowed to be trained at Camp Lejeune alongside White soldiers. They were sent to a mosquito-infested swamp in Montford Point, and that is where they served from 1942 all the way through 1949. I am pleased that this body, in its wisdom, saw it fitting and proper to give the Congressional Gold Medal to those Montford Point Marines in such a way that I would think was offering an apology for the way they were treated while they were serving. Now, I would mention, in speaking of World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen, and everybody would know about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces, flying over 15,000 combat missions. They played a vital role in the Allied victory in World War II. Instead of being defined by the discrimination and the doubts of those around them, they became one of the most successful pursuit squadrons in our military. They went on to embody the true meaning of Black excellence. {time} 1940 They left a segregated country to fight in a segregated Army and painfully returned to a country that still did not treat them with the dignity and the respect that they deserved and had earned. They had a movie made about them, the ``Red Tails,'' but they were not given their GI Bill benefits. On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, desegregating the Armed Forces so there would be no more Montford Point marines. Truman declared: There shall be ``equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.'' Many servicemen wrote to President Truman. Perhaps the most pivotal letter that Truman got came from Isaac Woodard, Jr., a World War II veteran who, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, was dragged off a bus and beaten to near death and blinded by police in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina. In response to Woodard's letter, President Truman declared, and I am quoting Truman: ``When a mayor and a city marshal''--I want to repeat this: ``When a mayor and a city marshal can take a Negro sergeant off a bus in South Carolina, beat him up and put out one of his eyes, and nothing is done about it by the State authorities, something is radically wrong with the system.'' In January 2025, President Trump made the decision to stop teaching Air Force recruits about the Tuskegee Airmen in the name of banning DEI initiatives. Their heroism is not DEI. It is American history. Sergeant Woodard deserved better treatment because of his sacrifices. President Truman decided it was time to close a chapter on one part of American history. Other Black soldiers returning home from World War II found themselves facing the same socioeconomic and racial discrimination they had faced before going off to war. Instead of being welcomed back home with open arms, they struggled to find jobs, to get an education, and to purchase homes. We cannot undo the injustices of our past, but we can begin to restore the possibility of full economic mobility for those whom the original GI Bill left behind. That is why I have sponsored for several years now the GI Bill restoration act that would bring us one step closer to that goal. America can't change what happened to these Black soldiers. We can't change what happened to too many soldiers like Sergeant Woodard who went uncelebrated because our Nation judged them by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. However, we can do our best to make it right, and that begins with us passing my legislation that I co-led with Congressman Seth Moulton, the Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act. We didn't stop with World War II. Just 2 years after Truman issued his executive order, we began to desegregate the Armed Forces. There we were in the Korean war, and we put Truman's executive order into action and was greeted with resistance. Truman's 1948 executive order inspired many Black men to join, believing the military would provide an equality of opportunity the greater American society lacked. It was in the Korean war that African Americans first served shoulder to shoulder with soldiers of all races and backgrounds for the first time. A message resounded throughout the Nation: If people of different races could serve as comrades in combat abroad, they could live as neighbors at home. The quest for racial equality extended far past the barracks or on the battlefield, but that same quest for racial equality returned home with Black soldiers. I often think about our former colleague, the late Congressman Charlie Rangel. At the age of 17, Charlie Rangel left school and joined the Army to help his mother support his family. Soon after he enlisted in 1948, he deployed to Korea for what he thought was a police action but soon realized it was a full-scale war. With a fighting spirit, he found himself in combat during the Korean war and risked his life to rescue 40 soldiers from behind enemy lines. Returning home to Harlem, New York, Rangel was first elected to Congress in 1970 and would go on to serve [[Page H2087]] 2