September 10, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 144 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1121-E1122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ``400 ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST SLAVE ARRIVING IN AMERICA''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 10, 2019

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congresswoman 
Barbara Lee for anchoring this Special Order recognizing the 400th 
anniversary of the first slave arriving in America.
  Four hundred years ago the first slave arrived in America, ships set 
sail from the west coast of Africa and in the process, began one of 
mankind's most inhumane practices: human bondage and slavery.
  For two centuries, human beings--full of hopes and fears, dreams and 
concerns, ambition and anguish--were transported onto ships like 
chattel, and the lives of many forever changed.
  The reverberations from this horrific series of acts--a transatlantic 
slave trade that touched the shores of a colony that came to be known 
as America, and later a democratic republic known as the United States 
of America--are unknown and worthy of exploration.
  Approximately 4,000,000 Africans and their descendants were enslaved 
in the United States and colonies that became the United States from 
1619 to 1865.
  The institution of slavery was constitutionally and statutorily 
sanctioned by the Government of the United States from 1789 through 
1865.
  American Slavery is our country's original sin and its existence at 
the birth of our nation is a permanent scar on our country's founding 
documents, and on the venerated authors of those documents, and it is a 
legacy that continued well into the last century.
  While it is nearly impossible to determine how the lives touched by 
slavery could have flourished in the absence of bondage, we have 
certain datum that permits us to examine how a subset of Americans--
African Americans--have been affected by the callousness of involuntary 
servitude.
  We know that in almost every segment of society--education, 
healthcare, jobs and wealth--the inequities that persist in America are 
more acutely and disproportionately felt in Black America.
  This historic discrimination continues: African-Americans continue to 
suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships 
including but not limited to having nearly 1,000,000 black people 
incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current white 
unemployment rate; and an average of less than \1/16\ of the wealth of 
white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.
  A closer look at the statistics reveals the stark disparity in these 
areas.
  Black household wealth is less than one fifth of the national 
average.
  The median black household had a net worth of just $17,600 in 2016. 
Yet in that same year, the median white household held $171,000 in 
wealth while the national household median was $97,300.
  The black unemployment rate is 6.6 percent more than double the 
national unemployment rate.
  Approximately 31 percent of black children live in poverty, compared 
to 11 percent of white children. The national average is 18 percent, 
which suggests that the percentage of black children living in poverty 
is more than 150 percent of the national average.
  In the healthcare domain, the disparities suffered by African 
Americans is also troubling.
  Over 20 percent of African Americans do not have health insurance, 
compared to a national average between 8.8 percent and 9.1 percent.
  One in four African American women are uninsured.
  Compared to the national average, African American adults are 20 
percent more likely to suffer from asthma and three times more likely 
to die from it.
  Black adults are 72 percent more likely to suffer from diabetes than 
average.
  Black women are four times more likely to die from pregnancy related 
causes, such as embolisms, and pregnancy-related hypertension, than any 
other racial group.
  In our nation, among children aged 19-35 months, black children were 
vaccinated at rates lower than white children: 68 percent versus 78 
percent, respectively.
  Education has often been called the key to unlocking social mobility.
  African American students are less likely than white students to have 
access to college-ready courses.
  In fact, in 2011-12, only 57 percent of black students had access to 
a full range of math and science courses necessary for college 
readiness, compared to with 81 percent of Asian American students and 
71 percent of white students.
  Black students spend less time in the classroom due to discipline, 
which further hinders their access to a quality education.
  Black students are nearly two times as likely to be suspended without 
educational services as white students.
  Black students are also 3.8 times as likely to receive one or more 
out-of-school suspensions as white students.
  In addition, black children represent 19 percent of the nation's pre-
school population, yet 47 percent of those receiving more than one out-
of-school suspension.
  School districts with the most students of color, on average, receive 
15 percent less per student in state and local funding than the whitest 
districts.
  And, of course, we cannot consider the disparities between black and 
white in America without considering the intersection of African 
Americans and the Criminal Justice system.
  There are more Black men in bondage today who are incarcerated or 
under correctional control, than there were black men who were enslaved 
in the 1800s.
  The United States locks up African American males at a rate 5.8 times 
higher than the most openly racist country in the world ever did:
  South Africa under apartheid (1993), African American males: 851 per 
100,000
  United States (2006), African American males: 4,789 per 100,000
  Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment. For example, 
incarceration rates in the United States by race were:

[[Page E1122]]

  African Americans: 2,468 per 100,000
  Latinos: 1,038 per 100,000
  Whites: 409 per 100,000
  African American offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent 
longer than white offenders for the same crimes and are 21 percent more 
likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants 
according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
  Looking at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on 
even clearer:
  For White males ages 25-29: 1,685 per 100,000.
  For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,912 per 100,000.
  For African American males ages 25-29: 11,695 per 100,000. (That's 
11.7 percent of Black men in their late 20s.)
  Overall, one in 50 murders is ruled justified--but when the killer is 
white and the victim is a black man, the figure climbs to one in six.
  A handgun homicide is nine times more likely to be found justified--
when the killer is white and the victim is a black man.
  Handgun killings with a white shooter and a black male victim exhibit 
an even more dramatic bias: one in four is found justified.
  But then again, we knew these inequities existed because for many 
Black Americans, these disparities are just a part of daily life.
  This is why, in 1989, my predecessor as the most senior African 
American on this September Judiciary Committee, the honorable John 
Conyers, a past Chairman of this Committee introduced H.R. 40, 
legislation that would establish a commission to study and develop 
proposals attendant to reparations.
  Though many thought it a lost cause, John Conyers believed that a day 
would come when our nation would need to account for the brutal 
mistreatment of African-Americans during chattel slavery, Jim Crow 
segregation and the enduring structural racism endemic to our society.
  I would like to take this moment to personally thank the estimable 
John Conyers for his work on this legislation for the last thirty 
years.
  With the rise and normalization of white supremacist expression 
during the Trump administration, the discussion of H.R. 40 and the 
concept of restorative justice have gained more urgency, garnering the 
attention of mainstream commentator, and illustrating the need for a 
national reckoning.
  H.R. 40 is intended to create the framework for a national discussion 
on the enduring impact of slavery and its complex legacy to begin that 
necessary process of atonement.
  The designation of this legislation as H.R. 40 is intended to 
memorialize the promise made by General William T. Sherman, in his 1865 
Special Field Order No. 15, to redistribute 400,000 acres of formerly 
Confederate owned coastal land in South Carolina and Florida, 
subdivided into 40 acre plots.
  Since its introduction, H.R. 40 has acted to spur some governmental 
acknowledgement of the sin of slavery, but most often the response has 
taken the form of an apology.
  However, even the well intentioned commitments to examine the 
historical and modern day implications of slavery by the Clinton 
administration fell short of the mark and failed to inspire substantive 
pubic discourse.
  Since my reintroduction of H.R. 40 at the beginning of this Congress, 
both the legislation and concept of reparations have become the focus 
of national debate.
  For many, it is apparent that the success of the Obama administration 
has unleashed a backlash of racism and intolerance that is an echo of 
America's dark past which has yet to be exorcised from the national 
consciousness.
  Commentators have turned to H.R. 40 as a response to formally begin 
the process of analyzing, confronting and atoning for these dark 
chapters of American history.
  Even conservative voices, like that of New York Times columnist David 
Brooks, are starting to give the reparations cause the hearing it 
deserves, observing that ``Reparations are a drastic policy and hard to 
execute, but the very act of talking and designing them heals a wound 
and opens a new story.''
  Similarly, a majority of the Democratic presidential contenders have 
turned to H.R. 40 as a tool for reconciliation, with 17 cosponsoring or 
claiming they would sign the bill into law if elected.
  Though critics have argued that the idea of reparations is unworkable 
politically or financially, their focus on money misses the point of 
the H.R. 40 commission's mandate.
  The goal of these historical investigations is to bring American 
society to a new reckoning with how our past affects the current 
conditions of African-Americans and to make America a better place by 
helping the truly disadvantaged.
  Consequently, the reparations movement does not focus on payments to 
individuals, but to remedies that can be created in as many forms 
necessary to equitably address the many kinds of injuries sustained 
from chattel slavery and its continuing vestiges.
  To merely focus on finance is an empty gesture and betrays a lack of 
understanding of the depth of the unaddressed moral issues that 
continue to haunt this nation.
  While it might be convenient to assume that we can address the 
current divisive racial and political climate in our nation through 
race neutral means, experience shows that we have not escaped our 
history.
  By passing H.R. 40, Congress can start a movement toward the national 
reckoning we need to bridge racial divides.
  Reparations are ultimately about respect and reconciliation--and the 
hope that one day, all Americans can walk together toward a more just 
future.
  We owe it to those who were ripped from their homes those many years 
ago an ocean away; we owe it to the millions of Americans--yes they 
were Americans--who were born into bondage, knew a life of servitude, 
and died anonymous deaths, as prisoners of this system.
  We owe it to the millions of descendants of these slaves, for they 
are the heirs to a society of inequities and indignities that naturally 
filled the vacuum after slavery was formally abolished 154 years ago.
  And let me end as I began, noting that this year is the 400th 
commemoration of the 1619 arrival of the first captive Africans in 
English North America, at Point Comfort, Virginia.
  Let us proceed with the cause of this morning with a full heart, with 
the knowledge that this work will take time and trust.
  Let us also do with the spirit of reconciliation and understanding 
that this bill represents.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to help address the harm that 
slavery has had on our nation by supporting H.R. 40.

                          ____________________