Floor SpeechCeremonial2025-03-11

MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION

EnvironmentTradeLaborVoting RightsInfrastructureCivil Rights

Context

On 2025-03-11, Representative Shomari Figures (D-AL-2) delivered a floor speech titled "MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION" in the House. The speech addressed the environment and also covered trade policy, labor policy.

Full Text

MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1078-H1079] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION (Mr. Figures of Alabama was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with a deep sense of responsibility to highlight an issue that is disappointing that we have to highlight. We just spent the weekend, myself and colleagues on both sides of the aisle from both the Senate and the House and people from around the country and around the world, down in Selma, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which recognizes the importance of voting rights. We reflected on the lives of the people who marched across that bridge 60 years ago for me to be able to stand here today and for people who look like me to be able to have a fair opportunity to participate in our electoral process. They were led on that day by a former colleague of many Members here, Congressman John Lewis. Before Mr. Lewis was nearly killed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, he was nearly killed a few years earlier in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a Freedom Rider, and he was on the bus of Freedom Riders himself with other young college students at the time, both Black and White, as they came from Birmingham into Montgomery, Alabama. They were abandoned by the State highway patrol escort that they had on that day. When they got to the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, there were hundreds of Klansmen and Klan supporters awaiting them who unleashed a brutal and savage attack on them nearly killing them, including a U.S. Department of Justice official who had been sent to monitor the freedom rides. The reason I stand here today is because several years ago we had the wisdom to designate that Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station as a national historic landmark, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places here in the United States, and the National Freedom Rides Museum is now housed in that building. Last week, just before we went down to Alabama, DOGE, in its infinite wisdom, decided to list that building for sale. That strikes a chord with people in the State of Alabama, both Democrats and Republicans. That strikes a chord with me as someone who sits here today who is the product of the Voting Rights Act. We think we will win on this one. We hope that they will see the logic in preserving American history. After all, just a few years ago we saw people literally lose their minds over efforts to remove the monuments that have been [[Page H1079]] placed around this country in recognition of those who fought to keep people who look like me enslaved. I think we will win this one, but we shouldn't have to keep doing this. We shouldn't have to stand up for pieces of history in this country. We shouldn't have to stand up for pieces of history related to our civil rights, related to voting rights. We shouldn't have to deal with an administration where it seems every single week we are having to stand up again, whether it is talking about the Tuskegee Airmen and their rightful place in history, whether it is repealing an equal opportunity executive order that has been in place since the 1960s, whether it is seeing this administration hit pause on Federal scholarship funding to land-grant institutions for historically Black colleges but not hitting pause on the same funding for land-grant schools that were not historically Black colleges. It is a shame. We should not be doing this. We have to do better. We cannot keep running the clock back in an effort to appease this administration's efforts to whitewash history. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in honor of John Lewis, in honor of the civil rights workers, both known and unknown. We will stand with you. We will fight for you because we will not sell our history. We will not go down silently. We will not go down quietly, and we certainly will not go backwards. ____________________

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MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1078-H1079] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] MONTGOMERY GREYHOUND BUS STATION (Mr. Figures of Alabama was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with a deep sense of responsibility to highlight an issue that is disappointing that we have to highlight. We just spent the weekend, myself and colleagues on both sides of the aisle from both the Senate and the House and people from around the country and around the world, down in Selma, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which recognizes the importance of voting rights. We reflected on the lives of the people who marched across that bridge 60 years ago for me to be able to stand here today and for people who look like me to be able to have a fair opportunity to participate in our electoral process. They were led on that day by a former colleague of many Members here, Congressman John Lewis. Before Mr. Lewis was nearly killed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, he was nearly killed a few years earlier in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a Freedom Rider, and he was on the bus of Freedom Riders himself with other young college students at the time, both Black and White, as they came from Birmingham into Montgomery, Alabama. They were abandoned by the State highway patrol escort that they had on that day. When they got to the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, there were hundreds of Klansmen and Klan supporters awaiting them who unleashed a brutal and savage attack on them nearly killing them, including a U.S. Department of Justice official who had been sent to monitor the freedom rides. The reason I stand here today is because several years ago we had the wisdom to designate that Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station as a national historic landmark, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places here in the United States, and the National Freedom Rides Museum is now housed in that building. Last week, just before we went down to Alabama, DOGE, in its infinite wisdom, decided to list that building for sale. That strikes a chord with people in the State of Alabama, both Democrats and Republicans. That strikes a chord with me as someone who sits here today who is the product of the Voting Rights Act. We think we will win on this one. We hope that they will see the logic in preserving American history. After all, just a few years ago we saw people literally lose their minds over efforts to remove the monuments that have been [[Page H1079]] placed around this country in recognition of those who fought to keep people who look like me enslaved. I think we will win this one, but we shouldn't have to keep doing this. We shouldn't have to stand up for pieces of history in this country. We shouldn't have to stand up for pieces of history related to our civil rights, related to voting rights. We shouldn't have to deal with an administration where it seems every single week we are having to stand up again, whether it is talking about the Tuskegee Airmen and their rightful place in history, whether it is repealing an equal opportunity executive order that has been in place since the 1960s, whether it is seeing this administration hit pause on Federal scholarship funding to land-grant institutions for historically Black colleges but not hitting pause on the same funding for land-grant schools that were not historically Black colleges. It is a shame. We should not be doing this. We have to do better. We cannot keep running the clock back in an effort to appease this administration's efforts to whitewash history. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise in honor of John Lewis, in honor of the civil rights workers, both known and unknown. We will stand with you. We will fight for you because we will not sell our history. We will not go down silently. We will not go down quietly, and we certainly will not go backwards. ____________________