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[Pages H3591-H3592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PEACEFUL PROTEST IS THE BEST PROTEST
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise.
I rise here in the House of Representatives because many persons made
great sacrifices so that I would have this opportunity to stand and
speak today.
Many of these persons were the persons who protested. They faced Bull
Connor's dogs and Jim Crow's laws. They know what a billy club hurts
like. They know what losing a loved one to a cause feels like. These
were the protestors that made it possible.
I can only imagine what would have happened had the Honorable John
Lewis, Hosea Williams, and Jimmy Lee Jackson, those persons who
protested--Jimmy Lee Jackson lost his life; Reverend C. T. Vivian was
there on the Edmund Pettus Bridge--if they had assaulted the police, if
they had confronted the police and met them with force, would I be
standing here today? I think not.
[[Page H3592]]
I believe that peaceful protest has made it possible for a good many
Members of Congress to be here. Not all of us are here because we are
so smart. A good many of us are here because others made great
sacrifice so that we would have these opportunities.
This is why I stand here today to say that we can peacefully protest;
we can be disruptive without being destructive.
If you are being destructive, you are not helping the cause.
Peaceful protest is the best protest. It is what has made a
difference for so many of us in so many ways: We have integrated
facilities because of peaceful protest; labor laws have been changed
because of peaceful protest; persons have the right to vote because of
peaceful protest.
Peaceful protest is the best protest, and it has made a difference in
the lives of a good many people in this country.
So I absolutely salute those who peacefully protest, and I do not
condone those who protest otherwise.
Now, with reference to the constabulary, there have been unidentified
persons, Federal agents, who have been policing the streets of American
cities. They do not have the right to pick people up indiscriminately.
They do not have the right to take people away and hold them and then
drop them off at some location. They are not within the law when they
do this, and officers of the law should not break the law. These are
unidentified Federal agents, and they must be stopped. This is not the
American way.
I support the law as it relates to the protestors; I support the law
as it relates to the Federal agents. All should obey the law.
Now, you say to me: ``Well, how is it that you went to jail?'' Well,
I went to jail, and I was willing to suffer the consequences. I was
protesting. I was in the middle of the street, as a matter of fact,
here in Washington, D.C., when I went to jail once. I was there, and I
suffered my consequences.
Dr. King wrote his ``Letter from Birmingham Jail'' from the
Birmingham Jail.
It is disruptive action, not destructive action. This was a
disruption that we created in the streets. It was a disruption that
caused Dr. King to go to jail. It was not destruction.
If you destroy things, you are not within the law. Do not break the
law in the sense that you are going to destroy things. Destruction is
not the way to protest. Disruption is how we get it done.
And with reference to the constabulary: follow the law. We cannot
have law enforcement officers breaking the law under the guise of
trying to protect statues and other things from destruction. Neither of
these two groups can bring about the kind of justice that we are
looking for.
We are protesting now because of the brutality that many people have
suffered, and some have lost their lives at the hands of the
constabulary.
But we are also protesting because we are being discriminated as it
relates to lending. When people don't get the loans that they qualify
for, their livelihoods are being stolen from them, their opportunities
are being stolen from them. So we are protesting discrimination in
lending.
We are protesting discrimination in hiring and promotions. There is
this notion that we should have kitchen table issues discussed. Well,
discrimination in hiring is a kitchen table issue. Those who believe
that jobs without discrimination as a conversation is not a kitchen
table issue, you are wrong. People discuss these things, and we should.
We have to make sure that every person is treated equally under the
law in the United States of America.
Peaceful protest is the best protest. Law enforcement officers must
follow the law.
The protestation exceeds what is happening with the constabulary. It
moves into the banks; it moves into our homes; it moves into our lives.
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