[Pages H2139-H2145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION: ERASING BLACK HISTORY

  (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Brown 
of Ohio was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority 
leader.)


                             General Leave

  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any 
extraneous materials on the subject of this special order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Harrigan). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to 
co-anchor this CBC Special Order hour along with my distinguished 
colleague, Representative Kamlager-Dove.
  For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC have an opportunity to 
speak directly to the American people on erasing Black history, an 
issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, 
the constituents we represent, as well as all Americans.
  It is with great honor that I rise today to lead this CBC Special 
Order hour. For the next hour, members of the CBC will speak directly 
to the American people on the topic of Black history and ongoing 
efforts to erase that history.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a time of fear, worry, and anxiety for millions 
of Americans. President Trump said that he was going to usher in a 
golden age. However, after 119 long, long days of this Presidency, it 
hasn't felt like a golden age. It has felt like a dark age, especially 
for Black Americans.
  President Trump and his administration have attacked diversity, 
equity, and inclusion programs in the government, in schools, and in 
the private sector.
  President Trump has rolled back anti-discrimination laws, and Trump 
has tried to freeze Federal funds that benefit Black communities, 
including in my district in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
  It is not just about his actions. It is also about his words, his 
rhetoric, and what he values.

[[Page H2140]]

  President Trump and his allies have blamed diversity, which is just 
code for Black people, for the January plane crash at Ronald Reagan 
Airport; for the South Carolina wildfires; for the Francis Scott Key 
Memorial Bridge collapse in Baltimore; and even the East Palestine, 
Ohio, train derailment; and on and on and on.
  If something goes wrong somewhere, anywhere, in their mind, 
diversity, equity, and inclusion is to blame. In President Trump's 
vision, every Black American on the job, every woman, and every 
immigrant is a DEI hire, a DEI hire who is blocking more qualified 
White men from the jobs and the positions of power that are rightfully 
theirs.
  Moreover, President Trump has the audacity to talk about his agenda 
being about restoring meritocracy. They use that word over and over and 
over again in their executive orders.
  Meritocracy: The meritocracy of his Secretary of Defense, Pete 
Hegseth, who is an unqualified TV host and who texted war plans to 
people by accident; the meritocracy of his Health and Human Services 
Secretary, Mr. Robert Kennedy, Jr., who is a conspiracy theorist and 
whose primary experience in healthcare and science is using Google; the 
meritocracy of Elon Musk's unvetted, unqualified, and unaccountable 
minions at DOGE.
  The spoken and unspoken message behind all of this is that Black 
Americans and other minorities don't deserve a seat at the table and 
that we don't have merit.

                              {time}  1930

  The impact is real. Last month, in my district, a man checked out 100 
books on Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ topics from the Beachwood Public 
Library. He didn't check out those books to read them. He checked them 
out to burn them, and he didn't do it in secret. No, he didn't hide 
behind shame. He posted this on social media because he wanted people 
to see.
  See, this kind of hate doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is part of a 
disturbing wave we are seeing across the country, a wave fueled--
sometimes with a wink and a nod, sometimes with a bullhorn--by leaders 
who should know better than to fan the flames of division for political 
gain, a wave normalized by the Secretary of Defense banning books about 
diversity and deleting Pentagon websites highlighting the service of 
women, LGBTQ people, and minority servicemembers, including Major 
League Baseball legend Jackie Robinson.
  Mr. Speaker, what happened in my district isn't just censorship. It 
is an act of hate, plain and simple.
  I join leaders from across northeast Ohio in condemning this act. 
These attempts to erase the voices of marginalized communities are an 
attack on the values of inclusion, empathy, and understanding.
  Mr. Speaker, you can only truly have a community with understanding, 
and to understand your neighbor, you have to understand history.
  That is our topic tonight: history. I am deeply concerned about the 
ongoing effort to erase Black history from our museums, schools, and 
American life.
  Last month, President Trump issued an executive order on ``restoring 
truth and sanity to American history.'' Of course, there are all kinds 
of debates when it comes to history. That is how we advance knowledge.
  Is that what Trump cares about when he talks about truth? Of course 
not.
  His executive order directed Vice President Vance and the Secretary 
of the Interior, two individuals who are not historians, to remove 
objects, exhibits, and funding from the Smithsonian museums and 
national parks that don't fit Trump's agenda or Trump's incorrect 
version of history. That bears repeating: Trump's incorrect version of 
history.
  Think about all the Smithsonian museums, all the national parks, and 
all the historical exhibits around the country. Where do you think they 
directed most of their attention? That is right. Their main focus has 
been on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, 
right down the street on The National Mall.
  Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. Trump's executive order 
mentioned that museum by name out of hundreds across America and laid 
the foundation for denying future Federal funds.
  One thing we have seen from this administration is that they mean 
what they say. This is such a radical shift, and it has happened in 
just a short time. Trump's takeover of the Republican Party seems like 
it has been forever, but it hasn't always been like this.
  When the National Museum of African American History and Culture 
opened in 2016, it was a bipartisan celebration. Joining President 
Obama that day were President Bush and Republican Speaker of the House 
Paul Ryan. These aren't woke individuals by any means, but they 
understood the importance of that museum being on The National Mall. In 
a perverse way, Trump does, too. That is why he is attacking it.
  Black America is not taking this sitting down. In the last month, 
Black churches from across the country have organized trips to the 
museum and fundraisers to support it.
  Black America raised their voices when Pete Hegseth tried to erase 
the history of Jackie Robinson because our history matters.
  Black excellence should be celebrated. The role we have played in 
shaping our country should be recognized, and the pain and legacy of 
slavery and discrimination should be understood. If we don't reckon 
with our past, we will never understand the present, and we will never 
build a better future.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I know it is not just the President who wants 
to erase Black history, and I know the backlash didn't start just this 
year.
  In 2023, the State of Florida, our Nation's third most populous 
State, released education guidelines that included that slavery 
provided benefits because slaves were able to learn skills. They now 
require that as part of their curriculum, that slavery was beneficial, 
some type of workforce training program.
  Florida also launched a comprehensive effort to ban advanced 
placement courses on Black history, while local school districts were 
newly empowered to ban books on Black history.
  This is a nationwide problem. In fact, there are now more States 
where teaching Black history has been restricted than there are States 
where it is required. That is right, only 12 States out of 50 require 
Black history to be taught, while there are now 18 States that have 
passed legislation restricting Black history education.
  Here is why this matters. We know there is inequality in this 
country. No one would deny that. We know who overwhelmingly has the 
wealth, power, and influence and who doesn't. In America, for every 
$100 in wealth owned by White households, Black households own $15. You 
can find statistics like that, no matter how you slice it, on housing, 
health, savings, you name it.
  Last week, we were debating nutrition benefits and food stamps in 
this body. In my district, one in three Black households relies on food 
stamps. For the White households, it is 1 in 10.
  This is the heart of the issue. Do you recognize, like I do, like my 
CBC colleagues do, that this discrepancy did not happen by accident? It 
didn't happen by accident. It happened by design. Do you deny that and 
think that all the racial inequality in this country is really the 
fault of Black people?
  That is really the argument. The only way you can make that case is 
to erase history, whitewash history, and rewrite history.
  That is why history matters. That is why our museums matter. That is 
why our books, literature, and experiences matter. That is why we are 
going to keep fighting back.

  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to lead this Special Order hour tonight. I 
yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove), my friend 
from the 37th District.
  Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio 
(Ms. Brown) and the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this 
Special Order hour.
  Tonight, I, along with my colleagues, rise to talk about something 
that should terrify every freedom-loving American: the coordinated, 
relentless Republican campaign to erase Black history, erase American 
history, whitewash the truth, and silence our stories.
  Donald Trump called for patriotic education instead of honest 
education.

[[Page H2141]]

This is a dangerous euphemism for censoring Black pain, Black 
resilience, and Black excellence from the classroom.
  Since then, over 1,500 books have been banned in public schools and 
libraries across this country. More than 40 percent of them feature 
Black authors or Black characters.
  What kinds of books, you ask? I have some for you, books like ``Their 
Eyes Were Watching God'' by Zora Neale Hurston, like ``Go Tell It on 
the Mountain'' by James Baldwin, and, oh, my God, even a children's 
book, ``I Am Rosa Parks.''

                              {time}  1940

  Why are Republicans trying to erase a book written for babies to help 
them learn their history? Why are they so scared of little babies and 
books that we have all read in school, books that we have all checked 
out in libraries, books we have all discussed in book clubs, books we 
have all shared with the little ones in our lives? Why this ban?
  When our history is erased, it is easier to erase our progress. Trump 
and his MAGA allies want our children to grow up ignorant of the truth 
and of who they are. They are trying to scrub Federal websites. They 
are scrubbing Federal websites of any mention of Black contributions to 
science, literature, politics, or innovation.
  Let me say the list is long because we have been in this thing for 
hundreds of years, bringing innovation and progress to this country.
  All I have to say to that is, wow, Mr. Speaker, just wow.
  Yes, they want to alter the Smithsonian's National Museum of African 
American History and Culture, a museum that millions have visited from 
around the globe, including students and families, to learn about our 
Nation's true story and all because they don't agree with how their 
ancestors and themselves have been portrayed.
  Don't be mad at me because you don't like you. Let me say that again. 
This President is trying to erase institutions, literally. Mr. Speaker, 
that is just a weak move. That is a punk, weak move.
  The President has said he wants to get rid of every policy, every 
agency, every grant, and every effort related to DEI, diversity, 
equity, and inclusion. It sounds to me like somebody who is scared of 
the truth. That means rolling back protections against discrimination, 
removing mentorship and workforce programs aimed at closing opportunity 
gaps, and wiping clean any official recognition that America ever 
wronged Black people in the first place.
  Guess what? We ain't going to be that afraid. We are still here. We 
ain't going nowhere. This isn't just about politics.
  While Trump and House Republicans are busy erasing our past, they are 
also working overtime in the dead of night to erase and destroy our 
future.
  Mr. Speaker, we know this White House is serving the billionaires in 
this country. But the House, this body, is supposed to directly serve 
the people. Instead, the majority party has decided to serve Donald 
Trump, and that is the problem.
  How are Speaker Johnson and House Republicans serving the President? 
I am glad you asked that, Mr. Speaker. Even though you didn't, you know 
you want to.
  This is when I am going to pivot to the so-called big, beautiful 
bill, or how about the billionaires' backstabbing bill, a nearly 400-
page monstrosity. Here it is again in small font, in fine print, and 
designed with one goal in mind, to enrich billionaires and punish 
working families, especially Black families.
  Let's start with the numbers. There are $880 billion in cuts to 
Medicaid, a rollback of SNAP and nutrition assistance, which hit the 
Black and Brown communities the hardest. In 2023, over 25 percent of 
Black households relied on SNAP benefits, and a whole bunch of other 
groups relied on SNAP benefits, too.
  There is no meaningful investment in housing. While over 40 percent 
of Black renters are cost-burdened, this bill offers nothing, nada, 
zip, to ease the affordable housing crisis.
  There is a plan to unravel Social Security as we know it, directly 
harming the nearly 5 million Black Americans who rely on those benefits 
in retirement.
  To top it off, there is a permanent tax break for billionaires like 
Elon Musk and the President. That's right, while they strip away 
healthcare and housing, they are cutting taxes for billionaires with 
private jets and yachts and $400 million planes.
  To be clear, less than 15 percent of constituents in every single 
congressional district, yo, red and blue, less than 15 percent of 
constituents in every single district support cuts to Medicaid.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sure you read this: Moody's just downgraded the 
U.S. credit outlook. What does that mean? Higher interest rates, more 
expensive loans, deeper household debt, more expensive money. This 
hurts families already stretched thin and it disproportionately hurts 
Black families who already face a median wealth that is just one-tenth 
that of White families according to a 2022 study.
  When this President and MAGA Republicans say they want to help the 
American family, we have to ask, which American families?
  The regular families I represent in south Los Angeles, Culver City, 
Ladera Heights, and all across the 37th Congressional District in 
California are not being helped by this bill. They are being targeted.
  Just to reiterate, I have 700,000 constituents in my district. Like 
every other Representative, I have 470,000 constituents that will be 
kicked off Medicaid if this bill is passed. My constituents are being 
told they don't deserve to learn their history, they don't deserve 
access to healthcare, they don't deserve decent housing, and they 
definitely don't deserve a tax system that is going to treat them 
fairly.
  Mr. Speaker, the American Dream should not be reserved for those with 
a trust fund or a Mar-a-Lago membership. The American story should 
include all of us, our ancestors, our struggles, our achievements.
  We cannot build a just future on a foundation of lies and fear and 
erasure.
  The real question is why are Republicans so afraid of us? People 
certainly try to get our hair, our men, our body types, our culture, 
our food. They want us as friends and validators. Quite frankly, it is 
exhausting having to navigate all of the insecurities of those trying 
to erase us.
  Democrats here in this Black Caucus are not going to forget but are 
going to fight against policies that punish the poor and reward the 
powerful. Democrats are going to fight for a country where Black 
history is American history and Black futures are American futures.

  As the saying goes in our country: If you don't tell your story, 
someone else will. You best believe they will get it wrong. We are 
telling our story tonight, and we are telling the real truth.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Troy Carter).
  Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank our outstanding leaders 
tonight for this Special Order hour.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of our museums, our cultural 
institutions. We know that African-American history is, in fact, 
American history, and it must be recognized as such.
  The Musk-Trump administration's executive orders targeting museums 
are disgraceful. It is a disgraceful attempt to erase Black Americans' 
contributions from our Nation's history.
  I am especially disgusted by the administration's attack on the 
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
  For so many years, under the leadership of the late John Lewis, who 
played a key role in the efforts to secure funding and legislation for 
this museum. Our community fought for the creation of this museum. Our 
community fought many times for it when Republicans fought against it. 
Finally, it was signed into law in a bipartisan way. It was signed by 
George W. Bush in 2003.

                              {time}  1950

  Mr. Speaker, it was a bipartisan effort--this museum that tells the 
story of the struggles of African Americans and the contributions of 
African Americans, which, by the way, is American history, history that 
everyone should know--the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is history, 
just that. It happened.

[[Page H2142]]

You can't untouch or touch up what has already happened.
  When it was finally signed, many stood together hand-in-hand--Black 
and White, Republican and Democrat--recognizing the significance and 
the importance of this monumental legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask: Why was it okay then for Republicans, Black and 
White, Democrats, and Independents to stand together hailing the 
importance of this international museum of history that recognizes the 
contributions of African Americans and the pain and suffering of the 
African-American community?
  Why was it okay for us to be lockstep then and not now? Why is this 
Republican administration so threatened by this museum that it would 
seek to defund, defame, and deface?
  This museum today is a testament of the legacy of generations who 
sacrificed everything for justice, progress, and equality. We will not 
stand by as our history is dismissed, diminished, or defunded.
  The National Museum of African-American History and Culture is not 
divisive; it is essential. It tells the truth of a people who built 
this Nation, endured its greatest injustices, and still rise to shape 
its future with brilliance, faith, and resilience in the face of great 
obstacles, even in 2025. Yet, we rise.
  When the administration chooses to target museums that honor Black 
history, it is engaging in a deliberate attempt to silence the truth 
and to erase the past.
  I demand, we demand, and we all should demand full support for every 
museum and institution that honors dignity, struggles, and the 
contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic 
Americans, and all Americans because our history is important.
  African-American history is, in fact, American history. You cannot 
separate the two. Our history is a history that everyone should know.
  The Congressional Black Caucus earned the name, the ``Conscience of 
the Congress.'' We are here tonight to say:
  Hands off of the National Museum of African-American History and 
Culture.
  Hands off of our hard-fought gains.
  Hands off of the efforts to remind people that a history that is 
forgotten is a history that is repeated.
  History and culture will stand, and all other similar institutions 
across our Nation should likewise be protected. Let's end this foolish, 
foolish Musk-Trump notion that our Constitution doesn't matter, that 
our rule of law doesn't matter, and that our ability to work together 
somehow is a bad thing. We know it isn't.
  I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to wake up and 
not let anyone divide us any further than we have already been divided. 
We are one country. We have a responsibility to the people to do the 
right thing.
  We will continue to use all of the tools in our toolbox. You have 
heard me speak of the three Cs--the Congress, the courts, and the 
community--and we will use every one of them, and we will continue to 
fight until victory is won.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Carter), a place with rich culture.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my distinguished privilege to yield to the 
gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan), my good friend who 
represents the Fourth District.
  Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I am a proud Virginian.
  Virginia is the birthplace of American democracy. It is also the 
birthplace of American slavery.
  From the beginning of this country, we have been on the right side of 
history and the wrong side of history. I am proud to stand here as a 
history maker in my own right, elected in 2023 as the first African-
American woman to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia.
  How did I get here? My interest in government was sparked by a love 
of history. My love of history was sparked by my parents.
  My father, who was born in 1925 in Nashville, Tennessee, spent his 
summers in Alabama at a school that his grandfather, my great-
grandfather, founded because Tennessee did not think Black children 
were worthy of a high-quality public education.
  I am the daughter of Lois McClellan, born in the Gulf Coast of 
Mississippi in 1932, who had to leave her town to become the first 
member of her family to go beyond the eighth grade because the State of 
Mississippi did not deem Black children worthy of a quality public 
education. The Catholic church did, but only to the eighth grade.
  Listening to my parents' stories as a child, they saw the best of 
government through the New Deal. They saw the worst of government 
through Jim Crow. Yet, it wasn't just what I learned in a textbook 
because their stories--my grandparents' stories and my great-
grandparents' stories--weren't in the Virginia textbooks. I learned 
them at my parents' feet. I learned them because my great-grandfather 
happened to write a book about his experiences.
  This history helped me to understand how this country was actually 
founded. By going to historic sites, the names and dates came alive, 
but my family's history wasn't told. When I would go to Monticello, I 
was fascinated by the idea written by Thomas Jefferson that `` . . . 
all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain 
unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.''
  Yet, I learned nothing about the hundreds of Black people, including 
the mother of his children, who lived at Monticello and served him but 
weren't free. I didn't learn those stories while visiting Monticello. I 
learned them later as an adult.
  My study of history has shown that, in Virginia, this beautiful idea 
of a government derived from the people, rather than divine right 
through kings, was created in Virginia, the first representative 
democracy in the Western Hemisphere, less than an hour away from where 
I live, in Jamestown. Yet, those settlers came on a business venture to 
take land that was already settled by Algonquian-speaking people for 
over centuries, and that land was exploited to make money for the crown 
of England.

  Yet, they created a government in July 1619. A month later, the first 
recorded Africans were brought to our shores at Point Comfort, who were 
stolen from their home in Angola, stolen again from a slave ship by 
pirates, and traded to those settlers for goods and victuals. Their 
names weren't even recorded. They were listed as 20-some-odd Africans. 
That is how this country was founded. It is uncomfortable, but it is 
true.
  I will spare you the full 400-year history, but there is a pattern to 
it. History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The history of our 
country has been: How do we reconcile the ideal upon which we were 
founded by the reality upon which we were founded? How do we reconcile 
that every time we make progress toward that ideal--and we have made 
progress. I wouldn't be standing here today in a body that was not 
built for people like me but may have been built by people like me. We 
have made progress, but every time we make progress, there is a 
backlash. That backlash has included three things: propaganda, 
violence, and voter suppression.

                              {time}  2000

  My great-grandfather experienced the first backlash. Born on a 
plantation in Alabama, he got the right to vote after he took a 
literacy test and after he had to answer two sets of questions because 
he was on a list of people not to register because he was a teacher 
teaching other Black people in his community how to get a better life.
  He experienced the terror of lynchings, being afraid that if you 
looked at someone the wrong way, you could be hung. If you disrespected 
someone, you could be shot by a mob that was never brought to justice. 
That was the backlash that came in response to Reconstruction, which 
was never fully taught in my history books. We went from the end of the 
Civil War to the civil rights movement.
  The second wave of progress and in response to that progress was the 
backlash of our leaders being assassinated. I heard these stories from 
my parents and my grandparents, but they are not here anymore. My 
father passed away over a decade ago. My mother passed away last year. 
As more and more people who lived under the terror of Jim Crow are 
moving on from this mortal plane, it is important we keep that history 
alive.

[[Page H2143]]

  Not all of them shared that history because it was painful and it was 
uncomfortable. They didn't like talking about it and many of them did, 
but their stories are fading. That is why our museums and history and 
books that can continue this legacy on are important because I can't 
quite explain to my now 10 and 15-year-old children in quite the same 
eloquence that my parents did. I can't explain what they went through 
the same way. When they were here for spring break earlier this year, 
we went to the African American History Museum. Watching that history 
come alive through my children again, I felt my parents with me. I felt 
my grandparents with me. I felt my great-grandparents with me.
  As I stood in the exhibit on the Middle Passage thinking about what 
somebody in my family lived through so that I could be here in this 
moment and fight this latest backlash to erase our history, somebody 
survived being chained in the bottom of a slave ship with hundreds of 
other people from Africa to Virginia, but I don't know who they are. I 
don't know who their children are. I don't know who their grandchildren 
are. In my father's family, we can only trace back to his grandparents 
because before that, no one deemed it important to write down the names 
of the people they enslaved.
  That is why not only is this personal for members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus but is also important to our country to heal 
because the American people are family and like every family, we have 
suffered trauma. Like every family, if you ignore the trauma, if you 
bury the trauma, it doesn't heal. The only way it heals is when you 
acknowledge what happened and you learn from it. That is why every time 
there is a backlash and it involves propaganda to erase what happened 
and the truth, it doesn't erase it, it buries it and the trauma flares 
up.
  Why do you think the Russians in 2016 decided to choose race as the 
scab to pick at? That is because in this country we have never truly 
healed. Until we talk about all of our history, we will never heal as a 
country and we will never live up to the ideals upon which we were 
founded.
  The Congressional Black Caucus will fight every day to make sure that 
our stories are told, that all American stories are told, whether they 
are uncomfortable or not. They happened and they made us who we are as 
a people. It made us who we are as a Nation, and we cannot run from it.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her personal and 
powerful story about the benefits of history, as well as healing.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland, the Honorable 
Glenn Ivey.
  Mr. IVEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues from Ohio and California 
for hosting this event today.
  My colleague from Virginia who just spoke, which I hadn't actually 
planned on talking much about that, but after my family moved from 
North Carolina, we moved to Virginia and one of the things I recall was 
Virginia history.
  We had our history book. Interestingly enough, it started with 
Jamestown and Williamsburg obviously, then it kind of skipped ahead to 
the Civil War and the focus of the Civil War. There is no mention of 
slavery in between the two, by the way, or barely any.
  The focus of the Civil War was what they called the great Confederate 
generals: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the others. It talked 
about how great they were as generals, and the fact that if they only 
had an equal amount of supplies as the Union generals, they would have 
been able to win the war. They called it the war between the States.
  In some instances, the war of northern aggression, which is a little 
hard to imagine these days, but that was the schoolbook I learned from 
in my public school in Prince William County.
  The interesting thing about that, we have seen what the effort was 
with respect to the attempt to change history, we became the United 
States after the Civil War, after the African-American community was 
liberated from slavery and there was a chance to have the opportunity 
to vote, to participate fully in the community, in the Nation. That was 
overturned essentially by a deal that was cut between the North and the 
South after President Lincoln was assassinated and it led to the 
segregation of African Americans across the country.
  What went side by side with that was the obliteration of the actual 
history of what had led up to that point and the twisting of history to 
argue that, essentially, African Americans couldn't be trusted to be 
voting people in the democracy; that, in some instances, they even 
claimed that African Americans belonged in chains, belonged in slavery. 
As you heard earlier, the suggestion--I think that was from the Florida 
State government, not 150 years ago but recently--that African 
Americans actually benefited from being enslaved.
  Now, we all know how silly that is or, I guess, our colleagues, maybe 
not necessarily in Florida, but it is a ridiculous statement. It is the 
kind of erasure and twisting of history that I think is critical to 
make sure that we fight against.

  My mother was a librarian. My mother-in-law ended up being a 
librarian, so we had a heavy concentration of focus on books in my 
family during that stretch and the importance of history. I thought I 
would give a couple of examples of some of the issues that had popped 
up with respect to what the Trump administration has done.
  This is the executive order by President Trump that was issued in 
March. It was titled: ``Restoring Truth and Sanity to American 
History.'' The reality is it wasn't about restoring truth and sanity to 
American history, it was really about hiding and deleting and 
whitewashing American history.
  One of the things they did in their first steps was to go to the 
Naval Academy. I guess an executive order was issued and the Department 
of Defense focused on this, in part. The Naval Academy, in response to 
that executive order and those directions from the White House and the 
Pentagon, pulled the book called ``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' 
from the bookshelves at the Naval Academy. That was by Maya Angelou, 
who was one of the most respected writers in American history.
  If I recall correctly, she was one of the poet laureates and spoke at 
one of the inaugurations, as well.

                              {time}  2010

  What I thought was interesting about that was that even though they 
pulled Maya Angelou's book from the shelves--the book, by the way, was 
an autobiography. It talked about her rise, her growth as she was 
raised in the South, and the terrible things that she went through, 
including sexual assault and racial discrimination issues, and how she 
rose above it. In fact, a later book that she wrote based on one of her 
poems is called ``And Still I Rise,'' and it is the type of inspiring 
literature that I think not only should we not be hiding from 
Americans, but we should be encouraging all Americans to see.
  The Naval Academy pulled that book, but they left two copies of 
another book, ``Mein Kampf'' by Adolf Hitler, still on the shelves. In 
addition to that, there was another book that they left called ``The 
Bell Curve.'' You might not recall ``The Bell Curve,'' but I distinctly 
remember when it was published. ``The Bell Curve'' argued that Black 
men and women are genetically less intelligent than White people. That 
is still on the shelves at the Naval Academy, but the book that 
critiqued ``The Bell Curve'' was pulled. This is what we are getting 
from the Trump administration.
  Of the books that they called for them to review, I think it was 
approximately 900 books. They reviewed those books, based on the 
request from the Trump administration, based on the executive order. 
Ultimately, it resulted in nearly 400 books being selected for removal 
from the Naval Academy's library.
  What I thought was interesting about that was the person the library 
is named after, Admiral Nimitz, actually held a totally different 
conception about what should happen with respect to the sharing of 
information in books. In fact, he founded the library for this 179-
year-old institution in Annapolis, Maryland.
  I represent Maryland. I am proud of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, 
but this is a low moment in the history of the academy, I must say.
  In response to this decision, one of its alums, Admiral James 
Stavridis,

[[Page H2144]]

said: ``The Pentagon might have an argument if midshipmen were being 
forced to read these 400 books.''
  By the way, he is an author, an academy alumnus, and a former 
Commander of all U.S. forces in Europe.
  ``As I understand it, they were just among the hundreds of thousands 
of books in the Nimitz Library which a student might opt to check out. 
What are we afraid of keeping from them in the library?''
  I couldn't agree more with this question.
  ``Book banning can be a canary in a coal mine and could predict a 
stifling of free speech and thought,'' he continued. ``Books that 
challenge us make us stronger. We need officers who are educated, not 
indoctrinated.''
  General Mark Milley is not a fan of the Trump administration. 
Certainly, the feeling seems to be mutual. You may recall, back in June 
2021, this issue came up where they were challenging him with respect 
to something that was called critical race theory. We won't go into all 
of that, but keep in mind that K-12 schools never taught critical race 
theory. In any event, they brought it up with General Milley. He said: 
``I have read Mao Zedong. I have read Karl Marx. I have read Lenin. 
That doesn't make me a Communist.''
  He then offered an argument for expanding political studies in the 
service of defending the Constitution after the January 6 attack on the 
Capitol. He said: ``I want to understand White rage, and I am White and 
I want to understand it. What is it that caused thousands of people to 
assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the 
United States of America?''
  Just a little aside on that point, there is a plaque that has been 
requested to be posted here in the Capitol that represents the brave 
men and women of the Capitol Police who fought to protect the people 
who were trapped here by the attacking mob. The Republican leadership 
refuses to post that plaque, but you can't change history.
  As another example, they wanted to eliminate information about Jackie 
Robinson, the celebrated baseball player, a Hall of Fame star, who was 
a great baseball player for sure but also celebrated because he 
integrated Major League Baseball. Prior to his arrival, African 
Americans were basically not allowed to play in the major leagues. They 
wanted to strip out this information about Jackie Robinson.
  This is an article that talks about Robinson's military service 
during World War II, when he served in the 761st Tank Battalion, the 
Black Panthers. It noted that he was court-martialed, but eventually 
acquitted, after refusing to move to the back of an Army bus in 1944. 
He received an honorable discharge later that year.
  This touches me a bit because my father-in-law served in World War II 
and was a decorated soldier, as well. In fact, after World War II, he 
reenlisted for ground combat in Korea. They made him wait a few days to 
make sure that he really knew what he was doing, and of course, he did. 
He is buried at Arlington now. He had a Silver Star and two Bronze 
Stars, outstanding service, and rose to the level of captain.
  When he came back from Italy, where he had been serving, to the 
United States, he was in an all-Black battalion. There were German 
prisoners who actually had a chance to ride in the front of the train, 
while he and his other Black colleagues still had to ride in the back 
because segregation continued. Even though the war against Hitler was 
supposed to be a war to end racism and fight Nazi discrimination, when 
he got back here, it was still the same old story.
  They also tried to strip out information about Medgar Evers, a World 
War II veteran and Mississippi civil rights activist who was 
assassinated in 1963. He had been a leader with the local NAACP and was 
assassinated because he was fighting for the right to vote for African 
Americans. They erased that information from the Arlington National 
Cemetery website.
  The Army removed, but subsequently reinstated, a website dedicated to 
the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in military 
history. That unit was made up of Japanese-American soldiers who fought 
despite the internment of their families. Those were the concentration 
camps that held Japanese Americans, largely in California but also in 
other parts of the country.

  Despite that, Japanese-American soldiers volunteered to fight in 
World War II. One of those soldiers, Daniel Inouye, later became a 
long-serving United States Senator from Hawaii. I remember Senator 
Inouye primarily from his leadership in the Watergate hearings. He was 
an outstanding public servant, a great American, and a great soldier, 
but they tried to eliminate his history from the history books here.
  We have this most recent incident, too. President Trump fired the 
Librarian of Congress. This one kind of came out of the blue, it seemed 
to me. She had served in that position for nearly 10 years, including 
during his first administration. She had been celebrated as a great 
Librarian, and she had done a great job in the position.
  Normally, you get long terms for your service, and there was no 
indication that she had done anything wrong until Trump two came back, 
Trump 47, and they decided to fire her. They gave her a two-sentence 
letter that said, after all of your years in service, you are still 
terminated.
  It kicked up such a controversy, the White House Press Secretary, 
Karoline Leavitt, said there were quite concerning things that she had 
done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting 
inappropriate books in the Library for children.
  Keep in mind a couple of things. One is that the Library of Congress 
is not a lending library for the public, so there was no risk that any 
kids would be taking these books or any books from the Library of 
Congress.
  Secondly, the Library of Congress has over 178 million items. It is 
the repository for the United States Congress. The department that 
deals with copyright for books is under that, and the Congressional 
Research Service is under her authority, as well.

                              {time}  2020

  Mr. Speaker, that is why they have so many books, including books 
that you or I might not want to read or we might not agree with. The 
point is all of the books need to be there because we need that 
repository.
  By the way, it is the Library of Congress. Those of us here in 
Congress know this is a resource for us. There is absolutely no reason 
that the President of the United States should be meddling with our 
repository. It is really inappropriate and wrong. That is why it hadn't 
happened prior to that.
  Congressman Gerry Connolly made this observation about the firing of 
Ms. Hayden, the librarian. With this decision, Donald Trump continues 
his attempts to censor our history, bend our culture to his will, and 
interfere with the free flow of information among the American people. 
It is a national disgrace.
  I couldn't agree more. The reality is that, despite the executive 
order, this administration is actually making it more difficult for 
children and adults to learn about American history. They are slashing 
museum budgets by gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 
They are defunding public broadcasting and public television.
  The President does not decide what is worthy of being in a museum, 
and he shouldn't decide what is worthy of being in a library. He should 
not be deciding what our children learn in school, and he should not be 
afraid of American history.
  Knowing our history makes us stronger because knowledge is power. 
That power, the power of the truth, belongs to all Americans. It is the 
basis of our democracy. It is the key to our future.
  It is critical, as the United States moves forward, that we preserve 
our history, learn our history, and understand our history so that we 
don't repeat the negative aspects of our history.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues and the Congressional Black Caucus 
for their work on this matter.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is 
remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio has 4 minutes 
remaining.
  Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, as we talk about the importance of Black 
history tonight, I also want to highlight northeast Ohio's rich 
connection to Black history.

[[Page H2145]]

  In northeast Ohio, our Black history legacy stacks up against 
anyone's. In fact, one of the first places to celebrate Black History 
Month for a whole month was Kent State University. After decades as 
just a week-long event, Kent State made it a full month in 1970, 6 
years before the White House did.
  Northeast Ohio is also home to the great Jesse Owens who smashed the 
myth of white supremacy on a global stage, right under Hitler's nose at 
the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
  Northeast Ohio has shaped the life and stories of Nobel Prize-winning 
author Toni Morrison and the poet, Langston Hughes.
  Cleveland is where Larry Doby integrated the American League. Carl 
Stokes made history as the first Black mayor of a major city, and 
Garrett Morgan invented the traffic light.
  Black leadership from Cleveland also changed the calendar. In 1890, 
Ohio Representative John Patterson Green, the first Black-elected 
official in Cleveland, authored legislation to establish Labor Day as a 
State holiday 4 years before it became a Federal holiday.
  Frederick Douglass spoke in Cleveland multiple times, beginning in 
the 1840s, connecting us to the abolition movement nationwide.
  In 1851, Sojourner Truth delivered her famous speech, ``Ain't I a 
Woman?'' down the road in Akron; a landmark event in Black feminism.
  A century later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke frequently in 
Cleveland and lent his support for our local civil rights efforts.
  Northeast Ohio's Black history legacy includes three Representatives 
who came before me: Representatives Louis Stokes, Stephanie Tubbs 
Jones, and Marcia L. Fudge represented northeast Ohio for over 50 
years. They chaired committees and subcommittees and served on some of 
the House's most powerful committees.
  Congressman Stokes and Congresswoman Fudge both chaired the 
Congressional Black Caucus.
  In 2021, Congresswoman Fudge was confirmed as the Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development and the first Black woman to lead the 
agency since the 1970s.
  Mr. Speaker, it is important that we continue to celebrate Black 
leadership, Black achievement, and Black excellence because we have 
been so frequently ignored, erased, and minimized.
  Finally, Black history is American history and local history in Ohio 
and across the country. In 1967, Dr. King spoke at Glenville High 
School in Cleveland. Speaking that day, he talked about how our history 
isn't separate from the country's; it is part of it. He said: ``Abused 
and scorned as we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of 
America.''
  Speaking in Cleveland, Dr. King concluded with a simple message which 
should be our charge today: `` . . . we must keep moving, we must keep 
going.'' The goal of the Congressional Black Caucus is to keep us 
moving forward.
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues and I have highlighted over this past 
hour how this administration is intentionally attacking Black history, 
which is an attack on American history, we will not allow this attack 
to continue.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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