CELEBRATING AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY: CONTRADICTION AND HOPE

On 2026-06-30, Representative Jonathan L. Jackson (D-IL-1) delivered a floor speech titled "CELEBRATING AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY: CONTRADICTION AND HOPE" in the House.

CELEBRATING AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY: CONTRADICTION AND HOPE

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 109 (Tuesday, June 30, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 109 (Tuesday, June 30, 2026)] [House] [Pages H4331-H4332] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CELEBRATING AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY: CONTRADICTION AND HOPE (Mr. Jackson of Illinois was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, my reflections on the Nation's 250th anniversary: Happy birthday, America. Mr. Speaker, 250 years ago, a remarkable experiment was launched upon this continent. It announced to the world that liberty was a universal birthright, that governments derived their authority from the consent of the governed, and that human dignity deserved political expression. It was a dream of uncommon brilliance. Yet on that very same day, another story marched beside it--a nightmare of uncommon cruelty. Freedom and slavery entered history together in an unholy matrimony. The Declaration proclaimed equality while hundreds of thousands remained in chains. The promise was magnificent. The practice was monstrous. The vision soared toward Heaven while the reality remained anchored in human bondage. This is not merely the paradox of America's founding. It is the permanent tension within the American story. Our Republic has always contained both contradiction and conviction, hypocrisy and hope, exclusion and expansion, injustice and aspiration. Yet history teaches us something very profound. The greatness of America has never been that it was born perfect. Its greatness has rested upon its capacity to become better. Every generation has been asked a single question: Will you enlarge the promise, or will you shrink it? That question confronts us today, for what a nation chooses to remember becomes its operating system. What it chooses to forget becomes its character. Memory is not nostalgia. Memory is infrastructure. It determines how a people think, how they govern, how they educate their children, and how they understand their obligations to one another. When a nation tells the whole truth about itself, it becomes stronger. When [[Page H4332]] it edits its past for comfort, it weakens its future. History is not an accusation. History is instructional. History is not about assigning perpetual guilt. History is about cultivating perpetual wisdom. That is why institutions devoted to preserving our collective memory matter so profoundly. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is not merely a building of bronze and stone. It is one of America's greatest classrooms. It reminds us that the story of African Americans is not a chapter added to America's history. It is one of the central texts from which American history is written. African Americans in history make American history whole. The labor of enslaved people helped build this Nation's wealth. They built this building. The courage of abolitionists challenged its conscience. The sacrifices of Black soldiers defended its flag. The determination of teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, clergy, laborers, and ordinary citizens expanded the meaning of democracy itself. To diminish those stories is not simply to diminish African Americans. It is to diminish America itself. Throughout our history, there have been recurring efforts to narrow the Nation's memory. Certain voices have always argued that some stories are too uncomfortable, some documents too inconvenient, and some truths too disruptive. That pattern is not new. It appeared after Reconstruction. It appeared during the long struggle against segregation. It also has appeared whenever honest history threatened comfortable myths. When debates arise over museums, classrooms, archives, monuments, historical interpretations, and books that are being banned in schools, we should recognize them as part of a much longer American conversation about who belongs within the Nation's narrative. The stakes extend far beyond any single institution. They concern whether future generations inherit a history expansive enough to include all who helped build this Republic. The answer should never be fewer stories. The answer should always be fuller stories to tell the whole truth, for memory is not a scarce resource. Truth is not diminished by inclusion. Indeed, the opposite is true. Every time America has widened its understanding of itself, it has become more faithful to its founding ideals. Consider the long procession of those who enlarged the American promise: those who challenged slavery, those who defended the Union, those who fought for women's right to vote, those who demanded women's suffrage, those who organized workers, those who secured civil rights, those who expanded voting rights, those who insisted that democracy belongs to every citizen rather than a privileged few. Each generation inherited an imperfect Nation. Each generation left behind a better one. That is the true American tradition: not perfection but progress, not complacency but correction, not silence but an honest conversation, not fear but an abiding faith. At 250 years, America does not celebrate because every promise has been fulfilled. America celebrates because generation after generation refused to surrender those promises. The American story has always advanced because citizens possessed enough patriotism to criticize injustice and enough hope to repair it. Love of country has never required blindness. It has required courage. It has required the truth to confront those things that are uncomfortable, the courage to confess, the courage to correct, and the courage to continue. Mr. Speaker, a happy 250th anniversary to our country. May God bless the United States. ____________________