CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

On 2026-02-02, Representative Shontel M. Brown (D-OH-11) delivered a floor speech titled "CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH" in the House. The speech addressed immigration and also covered taxes, trade policy.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026)] [House] [Pages H1940-H1946] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH (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.) 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 (Mr. Hurd of Colorado). Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Virginia? There was no objection. Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today on the first weekday of Black History Month to anchor the Congressional Black Caucus' commemoration of Black History Month. Mr. Speaker, 2026 marks a century of public commemorations of Black history, which began in 1926, founded by historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. [[Page H1941]] It was originally conceived as a weeklong celebration called Negro History Week, expanded to the full month of February by President Ford in 1976. Why February? To coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In his book, ``The Mis-Education of the Negro,'' Woodson wrote: ``Those who have no record of what their forebearers have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from teaching of biography and history.'' Said another way: If you don't know where you come from and you don't know where you have been, you don't fully understand who and where you are, and you don't know where you are going. I grew up a student of history. My father would be 101 years old this year. He grew up under the tyranny of Jim Crow in Tennessee and in Alabama. My mother grew up under the tyranny of Jim Crow in Mississippi. I grew up listening to the stories of what their life was like, when they saw the best of government through the New Deal in the midst of the depression and they saw the worst of government in Jim Crow. {time} 1940 They told stories, particularly on my father's side, of his father and his grandfather. We didn't know who his great-grandfather was because whatever plantation he was born on in Montevallo, Alabama, didn't think him worthy enough to record his name or his birthday. We were fortunate enough to know who the first James Finnemore McClellan was, also born in Montevallo, but because he died when my grandfather was 10 years old, we know very little about him. What we do know about him we got from family lore. My step-great- grandfather wrote a book called ``Inching Along.'' It is through that book that I fully came to understand my family's history, which was Black history, which was American history. It told how my great-grandfather had to take a literacy test and find three White men to vouch for his character to be able to register to vote after Reconstruction ended. It told how my father and my grandfather had to pay poll taxes, despite the 15th Amendment saying all of them could vote, just to be able to register to vote. It told how my mother, my grandmothers, and my great-grandmothers didn't get to vote until after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The horror that I felt watching the murder of George Floyd on the internet in 2020 was the same horror that my parents felt watching the aftermath of the murder of Emmett Till. That is because history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Through my family's history and through the study of American history, I recognized the pattern. I was born and raised in Virginia, the birthplace of American democracy in July 1619, when the first representative legislature in the Western Hemisphere met in Jamestown. A month later, Virginia became the birthplace of American slavery when a ship of men and women who were stolen from their home in Angola were then stolen again by pirates, brought to the shores at Point Comfort, and sold and traded for supplies. A few short years later, maybe a little over 100, a Virginian penned the words that we will celebrate this July: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men''--and he meant men--``are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights'' of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He didn't mean all men. He didn't mean the men who were enslaved at his plantation. The idea of the founding of this country has been one that African Americans have strove to make true for everyone. Every time we have made progress in making those ideals a reality, there has been a backlash. That backlash involves three things: violence, propaganda, and voter suppression. My great-grandparents saw the first backlash. My grandparents and my parents saw the second backlash. My generation is living through the third. Yet, we have a President who doesn't want us to talk about the bad parts of our history, but they inspire me. This past spring, I took my children to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, not for the first time. I stood in the exhibit on the Middle Passage, which I had been in many times before. It is a heavy exhibit. It is an ugly part of our history, but I felt hope because that time I realized that somebody survived that hell so that I could be here in this body in this fight. It is a fight they never could have imagined. While I fight the same fights as my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and whoever survived that voyage, I do so from a position of strength and power they never imagined. I fight those fights so that my children and my grandchildren don't have to. I am proud to be in this fight as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. We will fight the erasure of our history, and we will celebrate it every single day. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), our chair. 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. I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan, for anchoring this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month and to reflect on the innumerable contributions to our country that Black Americans have made throughout our Nation's history. During Black History Month, we celebrate the generations of Black Americans whose courage, advocacy, sacrifice, and patriotism have moved our Nation and the world forward. From the American Revolutionary War to Reconstruction, the Great Migration, the success of Black Wall Street, the jazz age and the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement and beyond, there is no time in history that Black people have not contributed to the vitality and success of our country. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, I am proud that as our caucus has grown from 13 visionary members in 1971 to a historic 62 members in 2026, we have continued fighting to dismantle barriers, create opportunities, and protect the rights of our communities. Throughout our Nation's history, the CBC has been called to confront countless threats to our communities. Time and again, we have answered that call and stood in the breach on behalf of our communities and the values that make our Nation strong. Today, under the shadow of the Trump administration, we are being called to yet another unprecedented and consequential time in the history of our country that we must address head-on. The past year of President Trump's path of destruction has targeted our communities relentlessly. From purging the Federal Government of Black leaders and Black workers to removing the presence of Black stories and accomplishments from education and historical landmarks across the country, to launching volatile and violent campaigns against Black immigrants, the message from the administration to Black Americans has never been more clearer. At any moment, the Supreme Court could strike down section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, putting our most basic and fundamental rights on the chopping block. These threats have put Black America, once again, in a perilous position, but we are not powerless and will fight back. On the shoulders of our Founders, we will continue to push back against efforts to impede our progress, erase our history, and cut off access to opportunities in our communities. We understand that the anti-DEI movement means anti-Black. This month and every month, we will continue to make clear that the contributions of Black Americans will not ever be erased, undermined, or undone. We will continue fighting for access to the ballot, fair representation, and our fundamental freedoms, which are under threat each and every day. Our history, Black history, is American history. [[Page H1942]] Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for her remarks. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Fourth District of Georgia (Mr. Johnson). Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Madam McClellan from the great State of Virginia. In 1619, the first settlers came to America in the same place where, in that same year, the first slave ship arrived on this continent. I was privileged to be among those in Congress who traveled to Ghana in 2019 to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of the slave trade. It was a great visit. History is so important, and Carter G. Woodson knew the importance of history. He knew that if a culture does not tell its own story, then that story won't get told. If you don't have a story, if you don't know what your parents did, your grandparents,