July 22, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 129 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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REPLACING BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 129
(House of Representatives - July 22, 2020)
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[Pages H3658-H3666] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] REPLACING BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7573) to direct the Architect of the Capitol to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol with a bust of Thurgood Marshall to be obtained by the Joint Committee on the Library and to remove certain statues from areas of the United States Capitol which are accessible to the public, to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from display in the United States Capitol, and for other purposes, as amended. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 7573 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. REPLACEMENT OF BUST OF ROGER BROOKE TANEY WITH BUST OF THURGOOD MARSHALL. (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following: (1) While sitting in the United States Capitol, the Supreme Court issued the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on March 6, 1857. Written by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, whose bust sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol, this opinion declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts. This decision further declared that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. (2) Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's authorship of Dred Scott v. Sandford, the effects of which would only be overturned years later by the ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, renders a bust of his likeness unsuitable for the honor of display to the many visitors to the United States Capitol. (3) As Frederick Douglass said of this decision in May 1857, ``This infamous decision of the Slaveholding wing of the Supreme Court maintains that slaves are within the contemplation of the Constitution of the United States, property; that slaves are property in the same sense that horses, sheep, and swine are property; that the old doctrine that slavery is a creature of local law is false; that the right of the slaveholder to his slave does not depend upon the local law, but is secured wherever the Constitution of the United States extends; that Congress has no right to prohibit slavery anywhere; that slavery may go in safety anywhere under the star-spangled banner; that colored persons of African descent have no rights that white men are bound to respect; that colored men of African descent are not and cannot be citizens of the United States.''. (4) While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's bust from the United States Capitol does not relieve the Congress of the historical wrongs it committed to protect the institution of slavery, it expresses Congress's recognition of one of the most notorious wrongs to have ever taken place in one of its rooms, that of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. (b) Removal of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney.--Not later than 45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee on the Library shall remove the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol. (c) Replacement With Bust of Thurgood Marshall.-- (1) Obtaining bust.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee on the Library shall enter into an agreement to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall, under such terms and conditions as the Joint Committee considers appropriate consistent with applicable law. (2) Placement.--The Joint Committee on the Library shall place the bust obtained under paragraph (1) in the location in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol where the bust of Roger Brooke Taney was located prior to removal by the Architect of the Capitol under subsection (b). SEC. 2. REMOVAL OF CERTAIN STATUES AND BUST. (a) Removal.--Not later than 45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Joint Committee on the Library shall remove the statue of Charles Brantley Aycock, the statue of John Caldwell Calhoun, the statue of James Paul Clarke, and the bust of John Cabell Breckinridge from any area of the United States Capitol which is accessible to the public. (b) Storage of Statues.--The Architect of the Capitol shall keep any statue and bust removed under subsection (a) in storage until the Architect and the State which provided the statue or bust arrange for the return of the statue or bust to the State. SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS AND REMOVAL PROCEDURES FOR STATUES IN NATIONAL STATUARY HALL. (a) Requirements.--Section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131) is amended by inserting ``(other than persons who served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate States of America or of the military forces or government of a State while the State was in rebellion against the United States)'' after ``military services''. (b) Statue Removal Procedures.-- (1) In general.-- (A) Identification by architect of the capitol.--The Architect of the Capitol shall identify all statues on display in the United States Capitol that do not meet the requirements of section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131), as amended by subsection (a); and (B) Removal by joint committee on the library.--The Joint Committee on the Library shall arrange for the removal of each statue identified by the Architect of the Capitol under subparagraph (B) from the Capitol by not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act. (2) Removal and return of statues.-- (A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (C), the Architect of the Capitol shall arrange to transfer and deliver any statue that is removed under this subsection to the Smithsonian Institution. (B) Storage or display of statues.--The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution shall follow the policies and procedures of the Smithsonian Institution, as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act, regarding the storage and display of any statue transferred under subparagraph (A). (C) State requests.--A statue provided for display by a State that is removed under this subsection shall be returned to the State, and the ownership of the statue transferred to the State, if the State so requests and agrees to pay any costs related to the transportation of the statue to the State. (3) Replacement of statues.--A State that has a statue removed under this subsection shall be able to replace such statue in accordance with the requirements and procedures of section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131) and section 311 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2001 (2 U.S.C. 2132). (4) Authorization and appropriations.-- (A) In general.--There are appropriated for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $5,000,000 to carry out this section, including the costs related to the removal, transfer, security, storage, and display of the statues described in paragraph (1)(A), of which-- (i) $2,000,000 shall be made available to the Architect of the Capitol; and (ii) $3,000,000 shall be made available to the Smithsonian Institution. (B) Availability.--Amounts appropriated under subparagraph (A) shall remain available until expended. SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. In addition to the amounts appropriated under section 3(b)(4), there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act, and any amounts so appropriated shall remain available until expended. SEC. 5. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis) each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina. General Leave Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from North Carolina? There was no objection. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I bring this legislation to the floor today on behalf of the Committee on House Administration. I thank our chair, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, for her leadership. I thank Ranking Member Rodney Davis for his friendship and leadership on our committee. I thank Mr. Davis, and as I said to him privately, I thank him for the spirit in which he has approached this important but delicate issue. [[Page H3659]] Recognizing the issue of removing Confederate statues from the Capitol has been simmering for years. Since I recognize that, I will now approach the issue today with the utmost respect for those who are opposed to the goal of the legislation. But I ask the dissenters to consider that America has been a divided nation since its founding, and it is past time for us to close this chapter of American history by removing statues that depict an era that caused enormous pain to African-American citizens. Mr. Speaker, as you, I grew up in the rural, segregated South. Commonplace were Confederate flags and monuments on public property, honoring Confederate soldiers and the Confederacy. Many Southern jurisdictions are now voluntarily removing these statues. President Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 general election by winning 18 of 29 States. The 11 States that Lincoln failed to carry were slaveholding States. These States were fearful that Lincoln would find a way to end slavery and deprive slave owners of their so-called property. Eleven Southern States, after Lincoln was elected, immediately seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The CSA elected its leadership. They printed a currency and stood up a military. At Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the Confederate States of America took military action against the United States of America. For the following 4 years, more than 600,000 Americans lost their lives on the battlefield, including, I might say, African-American soldiers who fought for the Union. This was not a war between the States; it was a war against the United States of America by 11 Southern States. When the Union finally won the war, and both sides buried their dead, 4 million slaves were granted their freedom by the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the 13th Amendment. {time} 1415 In 1864, each State was granted the privilege to donate two statues of deceased persons to be displayed in the Capitol that depict the history of their State. These statues are now known as the National Statuary Hall Collection. Approximately 10 of these statues depict men who volunteered to fight against the United States in the Civil War. All of these statues were donated many decades after the Civil War. Like many other statues around the country honoring members of the CSA, and particularly those erected in the South, these 10 statues were not donated and installed in the Capitol until the 1900s, during the height of Jim Crow. Many Americans see these statues and the timing of their placement as a means to intimidate African Americans and to perpetuate the notion of white supremacy. We must not continue to honor these combatants by allowing their images to be on display in the Capitol. The bill before us today also identifies several other statues for removal or replacement that are not part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, including the bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who authored the 1857 Supreme Court decision of Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled that slaves could not be considered citizens and that Congress did not have the ability to ban slavery. This opinion, Mr. Speaker, is regarded as possibly the Supreme Court's worst decision of all time, and the 7-2 decision was a major factor contributing to the war. Another bust not part of the collection is of Vice President John Breckinridge, 1857 to 1861. In 1860, Mr. Speaker, Breckinridge ran for President on the Southern Democratic ticket and he lost. During the Civil War, Breckinridge served in the United States Senate from Kentucky but became a traitor and enlisted in the Confederate military, and he was assigned to the army of Mississippi stationed in Jackson, Mississippi, achieving the rank of major general. He was expelled from the Senate. Jefferson Davis then appointed him as Secretary of War. After the war, he fled the country for several years. So I ask my colleagues, I ask America: Does this bust deserve to stand outside of the Senate Chamber? I would hope that your answer to that question will be no. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to answer the summons of our time by voting to remove all of these offensive statues from the Capitol of the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House. Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership in bringing us together today, along with our distinguished leader, Mr. Hoyer; our distinguished whip, Mr. Jim Clyburn; Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass; Chairman Bennie Thompson; Congresswoman Barbara Lee; and Mr. Butterfield. I thank Mr. Butterfield for leading this critical effort, so important. Mr. Speaker, as our country knows, nearly 2 months after the murder of George Floyd, America remains gripped by anguish as racial injustice continues to kill hundreds of Black Americans and tear apart the soul of our country. Last month, inspired by the activism of the American people and led by the Congressional Black Caucus, the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to fundamentally transform the culture of policing, to address systemic racism, curb police brutality, deliver accountability, and save lives. On Juneteenth, I had the privilege as Speaker of the House, by my authority as Speaker of the House, to remove four paintings of Speakers of the House who were in the Speaker's lobby, to remove them because they were part of the Confederacy, three of them before they came to the Congress and one who came after his participation in the Confederacy. It was long overdue. When we were checking out the statues, we found out about the paintings, and on Juneteenth we said good-bye to those four. Now in Congress and in the country, we must maintain a drumbeat to ensure that this moment of anguish continues to be transformed into action. That is why, today, the House is proud to pass legislation to remove from the U.S. Capitol the 12 statues of Confederate officials and four other statues honoring persons who similarly exemplify bigotry and hate. Mr. Speaker, again I thank Leader Hoyer, Whip Clyburn, CBC Chair Karen Bass, Chairman Bennie Thompson, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and Chairman G.K. Butterfield for leading this effort. As I have said before, the Halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy. The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and what we aspire to as a nation. Monuments to men who advocated barbarism and racism are a grotesque affront to those ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. Among the Confederate statues in the Capitol--can you believe this?-- are Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, president and vice president, respectively, of the Confederacy, both of whom were charged with treason against America. Both were charged with treason against America, and they have statues in the Capitol. Now, think of this about Stephens--I hate to even use his words, but it may be important for people to know why the statues have to go in clearer terms. The infamous words of Stephens make as clear today as they did in 1861 the aims of the Confederacy. In his so-called Cornerstone Speech, Stephens asserted that the ``prevailing ideas'' relied upon by the Framers included ``the assumption of the equality of races. This was in error,'' says Mr. Stephens. Instead, he laid out in blunt and simple terms the awful truth of the Confederacy. He said: ``Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea.'' Imagine, exactly the opposite idea of equality of races. ``Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth''--and these are his words; I hate to even use them, but we have to face this reality--``the Negro is not equal to the White man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.'' He has got a statue in the Capitol of the United States. How can we seek to end the scourge of racism in America when we allow [[Page H3660]] the worst perpetrators of that racism to be lauded in the Halls of Congress? This bill also removes the statue of John Calhoun, the unapologetic leader of the Senate's pro-slavery faction, who, on the Senate floor, celebrated slavery as a ``positive good.'' Mr. Speaker, I know Mr. Clyburn supports removing this South Carolinian. On the floor, John C. Calhoun made this vile assertion that ``in few countries is so much left to the share of the laborer, and so little exacted from him, or more kind attention paid to him in sickness or infirmities of age.'' What could he have been talking about? It removes from the old Supreme Court Chamber the bust of Justice Roger Taney. And this is because of the persistent leadership of Mr. Hoyer, who has been on this case for a long time. Justice Taney was the author of the Dred Scott ruling, which Mr. Butterfield very clearly laid out as probably one of the worst decisions of the Supreme Court ever, certainly a horrific stain on the history of our country, and certainly on the Court. How fitting it is that the Taney bust will be replaced with a bust of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a towering champion of equality and justice in America. Mr. Clyburn, as well as Mr. Hoyer, has been working on this. Mr. Hoyer is a Marylander. I am a Baltimorean. As we all know, the airport in Baltimore is named for Thurgood Marshall. So as one who was born and raised there, I take pride in his leadership and service to the country. Let us recall Justice Marshall's words spoken nearly 30 years ago but as true today. Justice Marshall said: ``Democracy cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent, because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.'' How much our great Elijah Cummings reflected the words of Thurgood Marshall, two Baltimoreans. The Congress now has a sacred opportunity and obligation to do better, to make meaningful change to ensure that the halls of the U.S. Capitol reflect the highest ideals as Americans. Mr. Hoyer, as our distinguished floor leader, had this planned for awhile that everybody would work together and bring this composite bill to the floor at this time. Little did we know when those plans were being made that, at the same time, we would be mourning the loss of our darling John Lewis. It is a death in the family for us in the Congress. But he knew that this was in the works, and he is up there looking down on us to make sure it happens in the most bipartisan way. Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for this important step for justice, reconciliation, and progress in America. As far as our John Lewis is concerned: Thank you. Thank you for bringing us to this place. May you rest in peace. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, at this time, it looks like I am going to be here on the floor with many of our colleagues who are going to offer remarks on this legislation, so I will give my opening remarks after I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, the Confederacy was a fundamental attack on our Constitution and the founding principles of our Nation, and it should never be romanticized or lauded. I have got no problems with removing, lawfully, any monument that specifically honors this rebellion, but that is not what this bill does. Rather, it begins by removing the bust of Roger Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber. Now, it is true he wrote the absolutely worst decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court, the Dred Scott decision, but let's not forget he also presided over and joined in one of its better decisions, the Amistad slave case. If we remove memorials to every person in this building who ever made a bad decision--and his was the worst--well, this will be a very barren place, indeed. It is only by the bad things in our history that we can truly measure all of the good things in our history. Now, this bill also removes the statues of Confederate sympathizers sent to the Capitol by the States. Well, that is not our decision. That is a decision that has always belonged to the individual States, and several of them are already making these decisions. We should let them. The only other one is John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, who is honored not for his service to the Confederacy but, rather, for his service as Vice President of the United States. And, granted, we have had some absolutely terrible Vice Presidents through our history, and I am sure we will in the future, but if we are going to start down that road, we are going to be swapping out statues like trading cards at the whim of the moment. Our Nation's history should be made of sterner stuff. Perhaps we would all be better advised to practice a little temporal humility and heed the wisdom of Omar Khayyam: ``The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.'' Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the Democratic whip, the gentleman representing the Sixth Congressional District of South Carolina, the State where the Civil War began, who is a national expert on American history, having been a former history teacher, as I recall. {time} 1430 Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding me the time, and for his leadership and his management of this significant piece of legislation. I want to thank Mr. Davis and the other Members on the other side for their tremendous cooperation in trying to help us move to a more perfect Union. Mr. Speaker, 7 years ago, I stood on this floor and I referred to this Chamber, this great Hall, as America's classroom. And it is in that spirit that I think of this building as America's schoolhouse. And what is taught in this building, what is experienced by the people who visit this building ought to be about the uplifting of this great Nation. What people see when they come here, who people see lauded, glorified, and honored when they visit this building ought to be people who are uplifting to history and the human spirit. It is in that light that I recall the writings of one great writer who wrote that if we fail to learn the lessons of history--I think it was George Santiano--we are bound to repeat them. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from history. I study it every day. Hardly a day goes by when I don't spend some time looking at some facet of American history. We did not come to this floor with this legislation to get rid of that history. A lot of it we don't like; a lot of it we do like. And I think that what we need to do is discern between what should be honored and what should be relegated to the museums and to other places to commemorate that history. That is not eradicating history. That is putting history in its proper place. And for those who did not do what I think they should have done, they have got a place in the history books, but it is not to be honored, and it is not to be glorified. It ought to be put in its proper perspective. So I don't have a problem with the fact that one of the statues in here, John C. Calhoun--he was a historical figure. He died in 1850, if my memory serves, 10 years before the war broke out. So we aren't talking about John C. Calhoun as a Confederate. We are talking about John C. Calhoun as one of the Nation's biggest proponents of slavery and the relegation of human beings. I want to thank my home State of South Carolina, because the people of Charleston, Mayor Tecklenburg and the city council in Charleston, decided several weeks ago, the John C. Calhoun statue should be taken down, and they did it. [[Page H3661]] Clemson University--Calhoun, one of the great founders of that university--is one of the original land grant schools. Clemson University decided that they would take John C. Calhoun's name off of their honors college. So if the State of South Carolina, where he was from sees that, why is it that we are going to laud him in this building? I am asking my colleagues to do for John C. Calhoun what his home State is doing for him, putting him in his proper place, not a place of honor. They didn't tear down his statue; they very meticulously took it down to retire to his proper place. Mr. Speaker, you and I spoke last night about one other gentleman whose statue is in this building, Wade Hampton. Wade Hampton, he was not a Confederate, but he was a perseverer. There were three Wade Hamptons, senior, and the third. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from South Carolina an additional 1 minute. Mr. CLYBURN. But Wade Hampton's history should not be glorified. I don't know what my State's going to do about him, but what I would like to see us do here is put him in his proper place. So those two statues that are here representing the State of South Carolina need to be removed from their places of honor and, at some point, I would hope the State would bring them back home and put them in their proper place. So, I would like to say here today that I am not for destroying any statue. I am not here for burning down any building. I am here to ask my colleagues to return these people very properly and lawfully to their proper place. Put them where they can be studied. Put them where people will know exactly who and what they were. But do not honor them. Do not glorify them. Take them out of this great schoolhouse so that the people who visit here can be uplifted by what this country is all about. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to follow Whip Clyburn and the historical context of being a history teacher, and also the historical context of serving this institution and what it means. So I thank Whip Clyburn for his leadership. I thank my good friend, Mr. Butterfield, for his leadership on this issue. We are going to work together today to make sure that we are sending a message to the American people that it is Republicans and Democrats standing together. Now, I have a unique district in central Illinois. I am from the Land of Lincoln. As a matter of fact, Abe, himself, lived in my district. I represent Lincoln's Tomb, Lincoln's Home. The old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln delivered his ``House Divided'' speech in 1858 is in my Congressional District. It was there when Lincoln not only spoke out against slavery and, specifically, the Dred Scott decision, but stood unequivocally in support of a free country, famously saying: ``A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.'' While Lincoln and many others who stood for freedom are represented throughout this Capitol, there are others that symbolize the opposite. While we cannot erase our past and should do everything we can--as Whip Clyburn just stated--we should do everything we can to learn from it instead. The statues in the U.S. Capitol represent to visitors throughout the world what we stand for as a Nation. I support this important discussion about which statues belong in the U.S. Capitol and, also, the goal of this legislation. Before we began debating this piece of legislation, my friend, Mr. Butterfield, and I had a discussion, a discussion about the 13th Amendment. And I invite all Members of this institution to come to my district, to come to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library, where I can show you an original copy of the 13th Amendment; also, one of the first copies of the Emancipation Proclamation. This institution is not just an extended classroom. Where Lincoln lived, where Lincoln is honored, the 13th District of Illinois, that I am truly blessed to represent, is also a living classroom of the good things in our Nation's history. Now, we also have to remember that the National Statuary Hall Collection was created in 1864 to commemorate States and their contributions to this country. And many statues being discussed today were donated by States to the collection nearly 100 years ago. And as my colleagues earlier said, many States are already working to remove them. While I support their removal, I believe the better route would have been to have some more hearings in the Committee on House Administration. But today, today, is not about politics. Today is about coming together as an institution. And today is a day that I can say I proudly am blessed to be a Member of Congress. Our country, right now, is facing a very difficult time, and Abraham Lincoln's spirit of unity is desperately needed. ``A house divided against itself cannot stand.'' As leaders, we need to come together to show there is much more that unites us Americans than divides us, and lead this country, together, Republicans and Democrats, through this difficult time. I hope this legislation today, the bipartisanship that we will see, is a shining example to the rest of the country of what we can build together. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me thank the gentleman from Illinois. I am just delighted that he mentioned that his home State, the State of Illinois, was, in fact, the home of Abraham Lincoln. I am a student of history and love to read that portion of our history, and I recall that many people believe that it was the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1 of 1863 that legally ended slavery in America. The Emancipation Proclamation, as great as it was, was an executive order. It was the 13th Amendment, as the gentleman mentioned, that legally ended slavery in America; thereby freeing 4 million slaves, most of whom lived in the South. Mr. Speaker, you should know, and to my friend from Illinois, that it was on January 31, 1865, a few days after Lincoln's re-election, that this body, this body, the House of Representatives, passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. It required the ratification of 27 States. The gentleman from Illinois' home State was the first State, on February 1, 1865 to ratify the 13th Amendment. My State of North Carolina was the 26th State, and the State of Georgia was the final State to ratify the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the State which is the home of both Chief Justice Taney and the first African American Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honorable Thurgood Marshall. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina, the former Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, for yielding. I am glad that I was on the floor to hear the remarks of the ranking member, Mr. Davis. I am going to bring up a quote. I won't get it soon enough to read right now, but I will read it. David Brooks wrote a column in the New York Times and he said we were facing five crises in America. One, of course, the pandemic. He said the second crisis was the crisis of confronting racism and the history of racism and slavery and segregation in our country. The observation he made was that Americans, post-George Floyd, have been riveted on the recognition of our past and the recognition of our present, and how we need to improve the treatment and the reality of equality in America. {time} 1445 I think Brooks' observation will be proved today on the floor, Mr. Speaker, as we come together not in partisan [[Page H3662]] disagreement but in unity of purpose, recognizing that our conscience and the conscience of America has also been pricked by the loss of John Lewis, who all his life fought for equality. Mr. Speaker, the Capitol Building is a sacred space for our American democracy. It is where we write our laws, inaugurate our Presidents, and say a somber farewell to great Americans who earned our respect, like Dwight Eisenhower, other Presidents, and Rosa Parks. Mr. Speaker, we cannot erase the difficult history and painful truth that this temple to liberty was built using the labor of enslaved people. But we can, Mr. Speaker, do everything in our power to ensure that how we use the Capitol today reflects our commitment to equality and justice for all. For too long, we have greeted visitors from here and abroad with the statues of those who denigrated these values by championing sedition, slavery, segregation, and inequality. As a Marylander, I have always been uncomfortable that the Old Supreme Court Chamber prominently displays a bust of former Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who was from my district, as a matter of fact, the county across the river from my house, Calvert County. Taney, of course, was the son of slaveholders and the author of the 1857 Dred Scott ruling that upheld slavery and said that African Americans could not be citizens. This was a man, Mr. Speaker, who, in his zeal to protect the interests of slaveholders and uphold a system of white supremacy, wrote an opinion that twisted the very meaning of America's founding. After quoting the Declaration of Independence, ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,'' Taney wrote this: ``The general words above quoted would seem to embrace the whole human family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day,'' meaning 1857, ``would be so understood.'' He went on to say: ``But it is too clear for dispute that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration.'' Of course, neither did women. In short, Mr. Speaker, Taney argued that, in his day, in 1857, people of African descent had come to be seen as human beings, but because our Founders in 1776 did not view them as such, Black people could never truly be citizens of the United States. What he was saying, Mr. Speaker, was that Black lives did not matter. And so, Mr. Speaker, when we hear that phrase today, that Black lives matter, it is fundamental to what America is and has become. Sadly, Roger Brooke Taney--respected in his time, the attorney general of my State, the Attorney General of the United States, the Acting Secretary of the Treasury--could not extricate himself from the false premises of the past. Abraham Lincoln was, as Mr. Davis pointed out, outraged at the decision he wrote, arguably, as my friend the Justice said earlier today, the worst case in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States. In short, Taney argued that people of African descent had come to be seen as human beings, but because our Founders did not view them as such, Black people could never truly be citizens of our country. Think of that, the blindness and schizophrenia of 1787 repeated 80 years later in 1857. One of the great facets of America is that we can grow. We change, and we can accommodate to better knowledge, better insight, and better inclinations. The past, Taney argued, bound those in the present to follow the errors of their forebears in perpetuity. Let us reject that premise out of hand lest the more perfect Union will never be attainable. What he could not or would not accept is that the passage of time allows us the space to grow as individuals, as States, and as a country so that we may see our faults and correct them, not repeat them. In Maryland, we have grappled with that difficult history of our State with regard to slavery and the Civil War. While our State did not secede from the Union, many Marylanders sympathized with slavery in the South and fought for the Confederacy. Mr. Speaker, I represent what was the largest slaveholding area of the State of Maryland. We grew tobacco and some cotton, but mainly tobacco. Early Maryland was built on the profits of slavery, and it sent individuals like Taney to serve in America's earliest institutions. Indeed, in his infamous decision, he drew on his home State's ban of interracial marriage as justification for his views. One of the ironies, Mr. Speaker, is that I was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1966, and one of my first votes in January 1967 as a Maryland State senator at the age of 27 was to vote to repeal the miscegenation statutes in my State. Of course, the Supreme Court had ruled on that before, but we still had not repealed it 110 years after Dred Scott. Maryland today, like other States where slavery and segregation had a long history, is not the same place that it was when Taney wrote his opinion, nor are these States today the same places they were when many of the statues and busts of Confederates and segregationists were sent here to our Capitol during a period of intense and racially charged sectionalism. In recent years, Maryland made the courageous and correct choice to remove a statue of Taney from the grounds of the statehouse in Annapolis. I strongly supported that decision, as did our Republican Governor, Mr. Hogan, and our Democratic legislature. Removing a statue--as my dear friend of over one-half century, Mr. Clyburn, observed on this floor--does not erase history. That act by itself will not make right what was so terribly wrong in the past. But the statues we choose to set in places of honor are a reflection of the present, not the past. They show our fellow American and foreign visitors what our values are today. Our decision to remove statues of seditionists, white supremacists, Confederates, and segregationists and replace them with defenders of justice and equality shows that, as a country, we are capable of critical introspection and growth. That is our strength. That is the glory of America: working toward a more perfect Union. That is why I introduced this bill along with Representative Lee, Whip Clyburn, Chairwoman Bass, and Chairman Thompson, who sits in the chair today. That itself is a historic demonstration of the change that we have wrought. Not only could a Black man from Mississippi be a Member of the Congress, but he can preside over the Congress. He matters, and his life matters. Taney was wrong because, in the 21st century, we must not be Roger Brooke Taney's America anymore, nor can we be Jim Crow's. Our bill removes the bust of Chief Justice Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber and replaces it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, a son of Baltimore. The irony is the Taney statue was on the east front of the Capitol, Mr. Speaker. If you turned around and went through the Capitol 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years, if you went through about 500 feet and walked out on the west front, you walked into Thurgood Marshall Memorial, as you would today. He was our first African- American Justice. How appropriate it is that we honor him in place of Roger Brooke Taney. Thurgood Marshall is the face of our Maryland in 2020, not Roger Taney. Second, our bill no longer allows States to display statues in the Capitol of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederacy against our Union during the Civil War. Let me just say as an aside that none of us are perfect. Our Founders weren't perfect, but what our Founders did was create a union. The statues we are removing tried to destroy a union. Third, there are three specific statues in the collection of individuals who did not serve in the Confederacy but whose careers were built on the perpetuation of White supremacy and segregation. Our bill would require those statues to be removed and replaced as well, as my friend, Jim Clyburn, said, not destroyed. We urge nobody to tear down statues--to remove them, yes; to destroy them, no. They do not reflect the diversity and inclusivity of our Nation today, nor do they comport with our values as a nation that has reached a greater understanding of the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, that all are created equal, and humankind, [[Page H3663]] Taney admitted in 1857, would have been the understanding of that phrase. There are still, sadly, a lot of people in our country in 2020 who do not understand that our diversity is our strength or recognize clearly that Black lives matter. Taney forcefully argued they did not. He was willfully wrong. They do, and they must. I believe that most Americans are deeply distressed by racial injustice and want to see the progress of the civil rights movement continue. They want our Nation and our democracy to grow, mature, and become more perfect. Part of that process is making it clear through our symbols and public displays of honor what our country stands for and, as importantly, what it must never stand for again. So, Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us not as an expression of partisan opinion but an expression of America's values to our citizens and to the world that we do not glorify racism, bigotry, and exclusion in the temple to liberty and in the land of the free. I hope our colleagues will join in making possible and making sure that all Americans, no matter their race, can come to this Capitol and know that they have an equal share in a government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. {time} 1500 Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the State of Michigan (Mr. Mitchell), my friend. Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't planning on speaking on this. It is an honor to speak after Mr. Hoyer. I heard Mr. Clyburn speak eloquently regarding the removal of statues, statues including that of former Chief Justice Taney, a statue honoring him for what we all agree was the most dreadful decision the Supreme Court has ever made in this country, not based upon the law but based upon his feelings that African Americans weren't people. I am speaking today not so much that it convinces anybody in this Chamber, but I am speaking about history, and I am speaking about my children, my children and my grandchildren, that they need to remember the history of this Nation. The history of this Nation is so fraught with racial division, with hatred, and the only way to overcome that is to recognize that, acknowledge it for what it is. Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution, and I support what Mr. Clyburn said: to remove statues such as that of Mr. Taney, to lawfully remove them--not tear them down, not destroy them--return them back to the States and places from which they came, and to study, to put them in the study of the history of this Nation, because it should not be lost. Tearing it down does not do justice to the history of this Nation and what our young people must understand. Mr. Speaker, what you have gone through in your life, Mr. Lewis did and others, we can't simply ignore it and say, because we tore down statues or we burn things, it is suddenly gone. No, we need to recognize those things as part of our history in order to move on beyond them. Because, as many have said, to not acknowledge, to recognize, to understand our history runs a very real risk of reliving it. And, my God, we can't continue to do that. Mr. Speaker, I support the resolution and support the removal of statues. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), a passionate advocate for underserved communities. Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman for yielding and for his tremendous leadership and constantly reminding us of the accurate accounting of the United States' history. Also, I thank our Speaker; our majority leader; our whip, Mr. Clyburn; Chairwoman Bass; Chairman Bennie Thompson; and, of course, Congressman Butterfield for moving this legislation forward with the urgency that it requires. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7573, which would remove shameful reminders of slavery and segregation from the United States Capitol. Now, in 2017, in the wake of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, I introduced the Confederate Monument Removal Act to remove all statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederacy from the Capitol building. So, thank you for including this in this current bill. Venerating those who took up arms against the United States to preserve slavery is an affront to the human dignity of all Americans. These painful symbols of bigotry and racism have no place in public places--certainly should not be enshrined in the United States Capitol. It is past time for Congress to stop glorifying the men who were traitors and committed treason against the United States in a concerted effort to keep African Americans in chains. The movement to honor Confederate soldiers was a deliberate act to rewrite the very history of the United States and humanize acts designed to dehumanize African Americans. They are symbols of hatred and defiance of Federal authority and should not be held in a place of honor in the United States Capitol. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California. Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I conclude by saying this: In this moment, the horrors of systemic racism are front and center, and the manifestations are before the public each and every day. The removal of the Confederate statues from the United States Capitol is an important step in dismantling the systems that hold us back. As a descendant of enslaved Americans from Galveston, Texas, and enslaved human beings, I thank you for this bill, and I ask for an ``aye'' vote. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time each side has remaining. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from North Carolina has 13\1/ 2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from Illinois has 21 minutes remaining. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), a member of the House Committee on Administration, a great constitutional scholar and friend. Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Butterfield for his really exemplary leadership here. Mr. Speaker, it is a proud day for Maryland as we move to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney with the bust of Thurgood Marshall. One Marylander wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision, hundreds of pages of argumentation about how the Constitution is and must forever be a White man's compact and that African Americans have no rights that White people have to respect. The other, Thurgood Marshall, whose bust will replace that of Justice Taney, argued Brown v. Board of Education, argued Shelley v. Kraemer, argued Smith v. Albright, became the first African-American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He made equal protection come alive in our country. So it is a proud day for Maryland. I was delighted to hear the gentleman from Illinois' remarks, but I was amazed to hear another colleague in the minority defending the bust of John C. Breckinridge on the grounds that we don't honor him for his service as secretary of war in the Confederacy but we, rather, honor him for what he did before that in his prior service as United States Senator and Vice President of the United States. Well, that is just precious. Think about that for a second. Breckinridge was serving as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky when he defected to the Confederacy, signed up to become their secretary of war, and betrayed the Union. And they still have his bust outside of the United States Senate saying ``Vice President'' on it, despite the fact that, on December 4, 1861, he was convicted of treason by the Senate and stripped of all of his titles--including Senator, President of the Senate, and Vice President. So we may as well put up a statue of Benedict Arnold to honor him for his service to the Continental Army before [[Page H3664]] he defected over to the British side and led British groups against America. So let's go all the way here. If there are statues of traitors and racist White supremacist supporters of the Confederacy up in the Capitol, then we need to get rid of them. This is our opportunity to remake the social contract as represented by the symbolism in this great House. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy). Mr. Speaker, before he speaks, the history that I have read over the years suggests to me that, on January 31, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was passed by this body, this Chamber, Mr. Kennedy, the gallery was full of White abolitionist women from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who waved handkerchiefs and cheered for a prolonged period of time, cheering the 13th Amendment. Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, 155 years ago, Senators from my home State of Massachusetts, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, knew that a bust of Roger Taney deserved no home in our government's highest institutions. Yet here we are, in 2020, and the bust of a man who tried to codify and protect our original sin remains only a few hundred feet away. Statues honoring traitors willing to destroy our Nation so that they could own Black men, women, and children litter our Capitol, and somehow we still need to have this debate. Let me be clear: Dismantling the symbols that glorify White supremacy is a bare minimum, but dismantling those symbols is no substitute for dismantling the system that those men created. This cannot be the end or the best of what we can offer the millions who took to our streets demanding justice. This cannot be the end of our work. This shouldn't even be considered the beginning of that work. It should have been done 150 years ago. Mr. Speaker, the Senate needs to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We need to dismantle and destroy White supremacy that exists everywhere, from our education system to our healthcare system, to our incarceration and juvenile justice systems and our financial institutions and our economy. That is where we need to be working, and that is what begins. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, a great warrior of many years, Mr. Bennie Thompson. Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) giving me an opportunity to speak. Mr. Speaker, for those of us who are sons of the South, for those of us who have endured hardship, discrimination, and a lot of things that are very difficult to even talk about, for this moment in time where we are today, where we are going to start the process of healing and setting the record straight as it relates to the real history of this country, it is fitting and proper that those individuals who fought to keep many of our ancestors enslaved should not have to be recognized in a place where people who do good expect to be recognized. This is not a way of erasing history. It is a way of correcting history so that those people who come and see it will see it in the manner for which it is presented. So, at the end of this debate, I hope we all will be on the same page. This notion that in America it is not your color, it is not your race, it is not your sex, we have to stand for something; our values should mean something as Americans. So this bill establishes what America stands for, and we should not recognize traitors in order just to say we are together. Traitors have a place, but not in a place of honor. My State recognizes the president of the Confederacy. If he had won the war as president, none of us of color would be in this institution today. But thank God he lost and the South lost and we are better because of it. Mr. Speaker, for that, I ask support of this legislation. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), from the 18th District of Texas, a senior member of the Committee on the Judiciary, Committee on Homeland Security, and the author of H.R. 40, Ms. Jackson Lee. Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager of this legislation for his leadership. Let me also acknowledge and thank Mr. Hoyer for his, as well, and to Mr. Clyburn, Ms. Bass, Mr. Thompson, and, as I indicated, Mr. Butterfield. Mr. Speaker, let me start as I did just a few minutes ago, ``In God we trust,'' and recognize that God has created, in many of our faiths, all of us equal as humans. We stand together dealing with the Confederacy that diminished and denied those descendants, those African slaves, their humanity. And yet, in a place of freedom, this place, we honor them. Mr. Speaker, I welcome H.R. 7573 and am glad to be joining as a staunch supporter, for, if Justice Taney viewed me as inhuman, then that means that those today, those babies yet unborn from descendants of enslaved African Americans, would be inhuman. This is needed not because we don't put it in the historical context, but because we need to unify America. Mr. Speaker, as we have lost a great warrior, John Lewis, and, as well, C. T. Vivian, I know they are looking down to say that we are not to honor those who voluntarily serve to deny us our humanity and to fight for the Confederacy and were treasonous. {time} 1515 Alexander Hamilton Stephens--it is interesting that he secured the name of Alexander Hamilton--has a statue in Statuary Hall. It says: I am not fearful of anything on Earth, I am not fearful of anything above, except to do something wrong. That is what Alexander Hamilton Stephens said. Well, this is wrong. It was wrong to enslave so many human beings and for that slavery to last over 200 years. I am delighted with the gentleman from Illinois for his congenial and historic moment today, and we do it in unity. I offer peace to this Nation and to this body that we remove these by bringing America together. I know the family of George Floyd, who struck a chord in the hearts of all Americans and Black Lives Matter, would welcome this magnificent decision today. Let us do it together, under this flag. In God we trust. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes time to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Mfume), my friend, who is not only the representative of a district in Maryland, but also the former national president of the NAACP. Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, 33 years ago, I stood near this spot and watched Thurgood Marshall come through these doors as a member of the Supreme Court at a State of the Union address. And as a Marylander and as a Baltimorean, I had a great sense of pride. I got to know Mr. Marshall. All he ever said by his eloquence and his example was this is how we ought to be as Supreme Court justices. I must tell you, I was dismayed, though, years earlier, to learn as a young student at Morgan State University the history of Roger B. Taney, who did just the opposite to my spirit and just the opposite, I think, to what we believe Supreme Court Justices should act like and how they conduct themselves. A gentleman from the other side earlier said that Mr. Taney rendered the worst Supreme Court decision ever. And he is exactly right. That decision said that Black people had no rights for which the White man must respect, and therefore that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his own benefit. It also said that Black people born in America, like Dred Scott, were not citizens and it eviscerated the Missouri Compromise of 1820. So replacing the statue of Taney with one instead of Thurgood Marshall [[Page H3665]] seems to me the way we ought to go as a Chamber. I hope in a bipartisan fashion, not only for ourselves, but to say to all the visitors that come through this building that we will continue to hold high real American heroes that sought to keep us together, and we will not honor those who sought to divide us. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I will close. Mr. Speaker, it is great to follow our new colleague, Mr. Mfume. Because of COVID and the restrictions we have in getting together and getting to know each other like we did before this pandemic, I have not had a chance to meet you yet. Welcome to this institution. Thank you for your service here. Thank you for your service leading the NAACP. I don't know if Mr. Mfume is aware, but many say that the birthplace of the NAACP is also in Springfield, Illinois, because of the 1908 race riots that took place in my district. We are trying to honor those who suffered during that instance in our Nation's history, still centuries after we saw the scourge of slavery come to our shores. We still have a lot of work to do. But I welcome Mr. Mfume. Come to my district and see the artifacts from those race riots that have been dug up and displayed for all to see, to be honored. That is what education and history is. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Mfume). Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's kind and overly gracious remarks. I appreciate also his sense of history and for what I think today is being displayed as a bipartisan effort to draw attention to and to reconcile a very real problem. So I will be more than happy to do that. And Lincoln was one of my heroes in many respects, not just because he signed, as Mr. Butterfield said, an executive order in 1863, but that he reminded us of what we were supposed to be as a Nation. Was he flawed? Yes. Are we flawed? Yes. Do we increase our ability to grow together? The absolute answer is yes. So I do appreciate the gentleman's comments, and I appreciate him yielding. Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I will reclaim my time. That is exactly why we still, as a Nation, have so much to learn about each other. We have so much to learn as to why we live, and we are blessed to live in what I consider the greatest country on God's green Earth. The opportunity for every American to do what we do, to serve in this great institution, is something that should be cherished. Those issues that seemingly divide us more in a Nation of prosperity, we need to educate the youth, we need to educate America, and how we can come together, not just correcting some of the awful, evil parts of our Nation's history, but let's continue to correct the division that exists today, not just on this floor, but in this country. And if we can stand together in this instance, we can surely stand together and make this country, at a time and place of civil unrest, a better place for every single American in this country. With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank again all of my colleagues. I respect their opinions, their ideas. But today is a day of history. Today is a day that we are going to band together in a bipartisan way. And I commend my good friend and look forward to hosting him in Springfield, Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank all of the speakers for their eloquent words today. Mr. Davis, we have talked a lot about President Abraham Lincoln. There is one thing I failed to mention, and the other speakers failed to mention as well. And that was, before the ratification of the 13th Amendment, Lincoln was actually assassinated on April 14, as I recall, of 1865, and did not live to see the full ratification of the 13th Amendment, which was the culmination of a lot of his work. So I just wanted to put that into the Record. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased with the tone of this debate. I don't even want to call it a debate. I would call it a discussion for the last few minutes. I feel the bipartisanship in the air, and I thank Mr. Davis so very much. It is appreciated. History teaches us that there are times in our history where eras must be closed, and we must begin a new era in this great Nation. We need to continue to strive for a more perfect union, and today is a good example of that. I ask my colleagues to vote ``yea'' on this legislation. I ask for a unanimous vote. Hopefully, we can do this by voice vote. That is my prayer and that is my hope that we will show the world that we are united on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7573, as amended. H.R. 7573 directs the Joint Committee on the Library to remove the bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision in the Old Supreme Court Chamber with a bust of Justice Thurgood Marshall, and requires the Joint Committee on the Library to remove statues of Charles B. Aycock, James P. Clarke, and John C. Calhoun, as well as a bust of John C. Breckinridge. H.R. 7573 would also amend section 1814 of the Revised Statutes (2 U.S.C. 2131) to change the criteria for those eligible for inclusion to prohibit those who ``served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate States of America or of the military forces or government of a State while the State was in rebellion against the United States.'' The Architect of the Capitol would be charged with identifying those statues which do not meet the revised criteria and the Joint Committee on the Library would remove the statues and turn them over to the Smithsonian Institution or their respective states, if desired. As Chairperson of the House Fine Arts Board and the Vice Chairperson of the Joint Committee on the Library I am more than pleased to remove these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol. This has been a long time coming, and it is long past time to act. The United States Capitol is one of the most visible, and most visited, symbols of liberty, freedom and democracy in the entire world. Who we choose to honor in this space is uniquely indicative of our values and principles. Contrary to those who argue in opposition to this long overdue action, this action does not seek to erase history nor ask that we forget that history. We must never forget the shameful scar of slavery, segregation and racism. Instead this is about who we honor. When we think about the holocaust the words ``never forget'' admonish us to always remember the millions murdered by the Nazis. But we do not accomplish that by erecting a statue of Adolf Hitler to put in a place of honor. Those who violently rebelled against our government upon the belief, as Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens infamously said, ``that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition,'' and those who enabled and protected the practice of holding human beings as property deserve no place of honor in the halls of our nation's Capitol. Slavery is the ``original sin'' of our country, and its disastrous effects are felt to this day. It is long past time to remove these symbols of bigotry and cruelty from the halls of Congress, and it is long past time to repair the lasting damage their hatred and racism has visited on the fabric of this country. The removal of these symbols from the People's House is a necessary step in this long-overdue work, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 7573 and in working to right the wrongs of the past to better perfect the promises of our country. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thompson of Mississippi). The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 7573, as amended. The question was taken. The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it. Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3 of House Resolution 965, the yeas and nays are ordered. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. [[Page H3666]] ____________________
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