Jim Clyburn

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a dear friend, legendary faith leader, consummate community activist and astute political observer. Bishop Frederick C. James, a stalwart of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) and civil rights activities, will celebrate his 100th birthday on April 7, 2022. He was born in Prosperity, South Carolina, to Rosa Lee Gray and Edward James in 1922. His father, a mechanic with a 7th grade education, died when he was just 10 years old, and his mother, instilled in him the desire to see the good in everyone. Bishop James graduated from Drayton Street High School in Newberry, South Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and English from Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina in 1943 and answered a call to the ministry at an early age. In 1947 he graduated from the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C. and furthered his studies at Dickerson Theological Seminary in Columbia and Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York. Bishop James began his ministerial career as pastor of Friendship AME Church in 1945 and Bishop Memorial AME Church in 1946, both in Columbia, and added Wayman AME Church in Winnsboro South Carolina to his charge in 1947. In 1949, James became Dean of Dickerson Theological Seminary and pastor of Chappelle Memorial AME Church in Columbia in 1950. In 1953, Bishop James moved to my hometown of Sumter, South Carolina, to become pastor of Mt. Pisgah AME Church, which is when I came to know him. He was very active in the activities that led to Briggs v. Elliott the initial federal court case that resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. I was serving as President of the NAACP Youth Council at the time, and we went on to have a lifelong friendship and close bond. In 1960, James was elected director of social action for the AME Church, and became close with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His career was dedicated to faith and social activism, and he rose to great heights in both arenas. Beloved among those in the AME movement, he was elected the 93rd Bishop of the AME Church in 1972. He served the 18th and 15th Episcopal Districts from 1972 to 1976, the 12th from 1976 to 1984, the 7th from 1984 to 1992, and the 2nd from 1993 to 1996. Among his many accomplishments, Bishop James led AME-sponsored colleges Shorter College, in Little Rock, Arkansas to full accreditation in 1981 and Allen University to full accreditation in 1992. He also served as Ecumenical Bishop and Chaplaincy Endorsement Officer of the AME Church in 1992. In 1996, Bishop James retired from leadership in the AME Church. Bishop James' interest in civic engagement began while he was very young. He joined the NAACP as a teenager and actively became involved in voter registration efforts. He was very active in the student movement while on the campus of Allen University. While living in Sumter, he helped organize and chair the Sumter Citizens Committee. He also served as president of the Effective Sumter Movement, These groups organized demonstrations, raised bail to get protestors out of jail, and met with local white organizations and government officials in the effort to change hearts and minds. In addition to his civil rights activism, Bishop James served as chair of Allen University's Board of Trustees and of the Howard Junior High School Center in Prosperity, South Carolina. He was also a board member of the Columbia Housing Authority. In 1994, Bishop James was selected by his good friend, President Bill Clinton, to serve as a member of the delegation to attend the inauguration of South African President Nelson Mandela. Bishop James is a former member of the White House Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and of the U.S. State Department's Advisory Board on Religious Freedom and served as National Vice President of the Interfaith Alliance. Bishop James is a life member of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and is a 33rd degree Mason. He was also the first African American to serve on the board of directors at the National Bank of South Carolina and as a member of the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce. Among his many honors, Bishop James holds an honorary doctorate of humanities from Monrovia College in Liberia. He received South Carolina's highest honor, the Order of the Palmetto, in 2003. In 2020, Bishop James received the Leon A. Love Lifetime Achievement Award from the South Carolina African American Heritage Foundation and ``Columbia SC 63: Our Story Matters.'' He has been inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame and the Columbia Housing Authority Wall of Fame. Bishop James married Theressa Gregg on December 30, 1944, and the couple enjoyed 76 years of marriage before she passed away on January 25, 2021. Madam Speaker, I ask you and our colleagues to join me in celebrating the centennial anniversary of Bishop Fred James' birth. He was a mentor to me and so many others as he preached the gospel and the need for equality and justice for all. This important milestone, is a good time to let Bishop James know that we all feel blessed by his efforts to fulfill the charge of Micah to, ``act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.''

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a mother, grandmother, homemaker, dedicated church goer, and longtime resident of South Carolina. On Saturday, April 2nd family and friends of Mrs. Cleo Jackson Williams, will gather to celebrate her 100th birthday. Mrs. Jackson Williams was born on April 5, 1922 in the Centreville Community of Hartsville, to Mr. and Mrs. Boykin Jackson, Sr. A jewel in the Hartsville community for nearly a Century, Mrs. Williams graduated from Hartsville Butler High School. She later married the late Hercules Williams, with whom she shared three children: Carolyn, Ted, and Doris. Although Mrs. Williams was unable to attend college, she recognized the importance of education. She made every effort to set her children on a path towards higher education, providing opportunities for Carolyn to study nursing, Ted to obtain a degree from Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina, and Doris to receive her degree from Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Mrs. Williams has always been the consummate homemaker. She took care of the children, prepared meals for the family and worked in her garden as her husband operated a farm. A woman with a benevolent heart, she would make sure that the people who worked on her husband's farm, located three miles outside of Hartsville at Lees Crossroads, were well fed. Mrs. Williams showed true strength and resilience when her husband's health began to fail, and he could no longer oversee the farm. She went to work at the Fifth Street Dry Cleaners and was later employed at Legg's Hosiery Corporation from which she retired after 20 years of dedicated service. Mrs. Williams is a woman of great faith, and the church plays an important part in her life. As a child, the entire Jackson family attended Centerville AME Church. After her marriage, she became a member of Kingsville United Methodist Church where she served on several ministries. She lives by the golden rule as Luke 6:31 instructs us, ``Do unto others as you would have them do to you.'' Mrs. Williams is known by family and friends for her delicious sweet potato pies; and is affectionately known as ``Mrs. Cleo,'' ``Aunt Cleo,'' ``Grandma Cleo,'' and ``Mother.'' She has five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Madam Speaker, I ask you and our colleagues to join me in wishing centenarian Mrs. Cleo Jackson Williams a heartfelt happy birthday. She has led a life of being an inspiration to her family and friends while serving many others in her community. I extend sincere congratulations on reaching this significant milestone and offer best wishes for many more happy and healthy days.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a dear friend and mentor who was a man of great faith. Elder Alonzo Middleton passed away on March 1, 2022, at the age of 91. Elder Middleton used his longevity in great service to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a proud lifetime member of my home congregation, Morris Brown AME Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was a graduate of Allen University, where he later served on the board of trustees. Elder Middleton was a pastor and presiding elder in the Seventh Episcopal District, which encompasses the entire State of South Carolina. He served as a delegate to multiple quadrennials of the AME Church's general conference and on its general board. He retired from active service as presiding elder of the Mount Pleasant District, one of the largest in the AME Church. One of his lasting accomplishments was engineering the merger of three small Charleston congregations to create a single church renamed the Greater Middleton Chapel AME Church. Elder Middleton was a mentor for many generations of AME clergy and laymen. He will be sorely missed.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern.) January 6 Wounds Must Heal

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to discuss some other theories and to honor this month, Black History Month, with first an announcement. Last year, the Governor of Kentucky wrote President Biden asking him to promote Colonel Charles Young to brigadier general. Charles Young is not a name that most people in the country probably recognize. Charles was a ``buffalo soldier.'' He was the third African American to graduate from West Point. And stories are legendary as to what Charles went through. Charles was born a son of slaves back in 1864 in Kentucky, but he rose and went into the military at the urging of his father and performed heroically. However, for obvious reasons, he was stuck at lieutenant colonel and never got the promotion which he deserved. So, posthumously, last week, the Defense Department, upon the request of the Governor of Kentucky--and I was pleased to write a letter to the President in support of that request--Charles was promoted to general. I thank the Defense Department for repairing that fault. Now, Mr. Speaker, Black History Month started out back in 1926. It was started by Dr. Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Now, Dr. Woodson is known by most of us as the father of Black history. Dr. Woodson had some strong feelings about the contributions that African Americans were making to this great country that were going untold and intentionally ignored. So Dr. Woodson and the association lobbied for a week to focus the country's attention on the contributions of Black Americans. He was successful, and as I said, in 1926, the week was established. Now, back in the sixties, many college campuses had a lot of activity going on on those campuses, and I am very familiar with some of them, but one of the things that came up was this focus on the contributions of African Americans. And so a movement started on these campuses. They decided--in fact, quite frankly, I believe Kent University was the first university that decided--that it would just celebrate and focus on African-American history for the entire month of February, that a week was not enough. Now, we hear a lot of stories about February being the shortest month of the year and why that was set aside for the study of Black history. Well, the fact of the matter is, the number of days in the month had nothing to do with it. It was all about 2 days in the month of February. When the agreement was made to celebrate Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson and the association picked February because February 12 was the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, and February 14 was the birthday of Frederick Douglass. So to embrace both of those birthdays, they picked a week in February that encompassed the two days. That is how it got to be February. And then, of course, with the agitation on the college campuses, they started a tradition of celebrating the whole month. And, of course, in 1969 the activity took place up at Kent, and in 1976 President Gerald Ford decided to officially recognize the month of February as Black History Month. That is how we got to this point. And every President since has followed suit. Now, today, the teaching of Black history has taken on a new meaning in this polarized country that we are currently experiencing. The publication, Education Week, reports that since January 2021--so 13 months--14 States led by Republican Governors, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho have all imposed restrictions or bans on teaching about racial issues. And legislation is currently pending in another 23 States. Black History Month, as I just indicated, was established officially by a Republican President, Gerald Ford, but we have become so polarized and this has become so politicized that in the last 13 months, 14 States led by Republican Governors have imposed restrictions or bans on teaching about racial issues. These States claim to be protecting the K-12 students from being taught critical race theory, or as we have seen in some publications, things that make White children uncomfortable. I would like to remind all of us, especially my friends on the other side of the aisle, that theory is part of the higher education experience and is not part of any curriculum in K-12. Instead, these students are being taught facts, what I call critical race facts. Now, all of us are aware of the contributions of people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, and none of us seem to be uncomfortable with knowing about these people. But, Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of other people of color who have made significant contributions to the growth and development of this great country that have been intentionally left out of our history books. And for some strange reason, people seem to feel that students will be uncomfortable learning about those contributions. It is important to the full development of all children to be taught exactly what this country is all about. Let me offer a few examples of what I am talking about here. In fact, I opened up Black History Month this year speaking to students over at Gonzaga High School. And in that speech, as I have done on this floor, I looked up at the lights, and I talked to those students a little bit about the person that history records as responsible for the light bulb: Thomas Edison. Nobody argues with that. We are very comfortable with knowing that, reading about that in the history books, and studying about Thomas Edison that many of us call ``the greatest inventor of all times.'' But the fact of the matter is that Thomas Edison did invent the light bulb, but a very critical, unknown fact to most people is that he could not get the light bulb to work. He could get it to come on, but he couldn't get it to stay on. And it was not until someone told Thomas Edison about an African American, a young man, the son of former slaves--his parents had escaped from slavery, and they were living up in Massachusetts--this young man was totally different from Thomas Edison; his name was Lewis Latimer. Thomas Edison was informed that this light bulb that he couldn't get to stay on, this guy up in Massachusetts might be able to solve his problem, if he could just step outside of his comfort zone. Oh, it may be uncomfortable, but if you can step outside of your comfort zone and sit down with Lewis Latimer, this man has invented a filament that might make your light bulb work. Thomas Edison decided to do that. He wanted to light the world. He was having problems. For some reason he could not get it done. So he went up to Massachusetts and he sat down with Lewis Latimer. And sure enough, Lewis Latimer's filament, when put inside of Thomas Edison's light bulb, it worked. And together, they lit the world. It should not be uncomfortable for people to know about Lewis Latimer. That is not critical race theory. That is a critical racial fact that ought to be known by all children and adults. And what is wrong with teaching that in the classrooms? For some strange reason, a lot of people feel that would be uncomfortable for children to learn. There are plenty other examples like that. I think today of another one, the steam engine. Nobody will argue about how important the steam engine was and still is to the industrial revolution. And if you ask people, most people from the books they have learned, who invented the steam engine, they will tell you Thomas Savery. And they would be correct. But when Thomas Savery invented the steam engine, it would overheat and they would have to cut the engine off. And sometimes in order to keep from cutting it off, they would employ a person they called an oiler. And that person's job was to pour oil on this engine so it would keep running. They would not have to shut it down. And it was a very dangerous job; some lost their limbs carrying out their duties. But there was a guy working in a similar situation who came up with an automatic oil pan. He designed a way for the engine to self- lubricate so he would not have to turn it off and lose production, so he would not have to employ a person who could lose a limb. That man's name was Elijah McCoy, who also--according to my research--was the son of slaves. He was a prolific inventor. This was just one of the things that he invented. In fact, Elijah McCoy's genius was so well-thought of and highly respected, and he had invented so many things to make life better, to make production more profitable, to make this country a better place. And out of respect for his genius, the stories are told that whenever anybody came up with some gadget or something to make life easier, the question was asked often, ``Is this a real McCoy?'' It is very comfortable for people, even today, to use that phrase, ask that question: Is that the real McCoy? Are you the real McCoy? Why would it be so uncomfortable for children in the classroom to know that that iconic phrase came about as a result of the significant contribution to the human spirt, to the greatness of America by an African American named Elijah McCoy. Why is that to be uncomfortable? There is nothing that should be uncomfortable about that. I also think today about another African American, Garrett A. Morgan. Now, all of us marvel at the gas mask. I remember as a child, the first time I saw one and experimented with how it worked, I had no idea of the origin of it at the time. In fact, if I were to read the books that were published, I still would not have known the real origin, because in the books, they would tell you that John Haldane, a Scottish inventor who came to this country, and supposedly during World War I, invented the first gas mask. But the critical fact is World War I started in 1914; ended in 1918. But in 1911 or thereabouts, a man named Garrett Morgan, also from Kentucky, he was born to a mother who was Native American and a father who was African American, who was also a former slave. Morgan, in 1914, at the beginning of World War I, invented the gas mask. And that gas mask was used in 1916 in New York City to save the lives of over 500 people caught in some kind of an accident. Now, if you look at the calendar, this was done before John Haldane, whatever contraption he may have developed. Now the story of Garrett Morgan is kind of interesting and a little bit--maybe to some, I know to me--uncomfortable to think about. Because Garrett Morgan experienced a lot of difficulty trying to sell his gas mask. And people wanted to use it for a big event in Cleveland, Ohio, people wanted the gas mask, but they wouldn't buy it from him because of his color. So Garrett Morgan hired a White actor to pose as the inventor. And he went along with the inventor and he put the gas mask, the hood, on to demonstrate it and, of course, to hide who he really was. That is how he was able to sell his gas mask. As effective as it was, as good of an invention that it was, they would not buy it from him simply because of his skin color. Now, that might have disappointed him, and it certainly should have, but he didn't let that deter him. He went on with other inventions. And some know that it is Garrett A. Morgan that is credited with being the inventor of the traffic light. So these inventions that made life easier for people, made industrial plants more productive, made our streets safer, made our existence much more pleasant and much more conducive to reading, to getting around, all by African Americans. What is uncomfortable about teaching this in our classrooms? What is so bad about children knowing this? Why shouldn't the descendants of all three of these people, why shouldn't their descendants be made to feel proud of the contributions of their great, great, great--maybe more greats--grandfather or great uncle or aunt. Why would anybody be uncomfortable with that? Mr. Speaker, that is not the only field this is in. I often talk about Charles Drew. When I was growing up, polio visited my neighborhood twice, leaving one of my playmates dead and another one crippled for life. And along came Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, two men who happen to have been born white, two men who had a certain genius, who did significant research. Because of their genius and because of their great research, they were able to unlock some secrets. And together, they virtually eliminated polio from the face of the Earth. There is nothing uncomfortable about talking about that and people learning about that. So why would it be uncomfortable for the guy who was able to unlock some secrets of the blood cells, Charles Drew, an African American, born right here in Washington, D.C., who because of his research, he was able to figure out how to store blood, save it until it was needed. Blood spoils once it leaves the human body, but Charles Drew opened up the secrets and figured out how to store blood and save it until it was needed. Now, he has a pretty interesting history, also. Charles Drew headed up the blood bank. He went off to Europe to head up the blood bank, and his genius was recognized. It is kind of interesting because he resigned from the job. Why? Because they insisted that the blood coming from Black people had to be stored separately from the blood coming from White people. It sounds a little bit silly today, but that is what they did. Soldiers were dying on the battlefield because of the loss of blood. You have to take the time to figure out: Wait a minute. This is a Black soldier, so we have to find some blood from a Black person. Scientifically, it has been proven forever that there ain't no difference in the blood. Today, we don't separate the blood anymore because we learned better. We have a little saying in the neighborhood I grew up in: When a person learns better, a person will do better. Well, I am hoping that we will take a little time to learn better about the history of African Americans. Maybe if we did, we will do better. Now, I don't want to leave here without bringing up another incident because this is one that bugs me a little bit. I keep some busts around my home, and of course, I have one of Charles Drew and Matthew Henson, but I also have one of Daniel Hale Williams, who few people know. Daniel Hale Williams was an African American. If you look in the books and they ask the question: Who is the father of open-heart surgery? You will get the name of Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who was White. He is credited in all the books with performing the first open-heart surgery. He just passed away in 1999. His surgery was performed in 1952. But that is not the real history. Why would it be uncomfortable for you to know that Daniel Hale Williams, who was a doctor and who founded the Provident Hospital up in Chicago, one day, back in 1893, had someone come to that hospital with a stab wound in the chest? The guy happened to have been White, but Daniel Hale Williams, the Black guy, performed open-heart surgery and saved the man's life, and he lived 20 years afterward. The textbooks don't record that. They decided to wait almost 100 years to give somebody else credit. That is what happened, and that is why we look at this week. Now, I think that Carter Woodson was very concerned about what seemed to be going on today, people leaving out facts, ignoring facts, lowering their level of respect for people. I can't tell you how many times I have been engaged in conversation with people who, out of their ignorance, say things that they really believe that indicate there can be found no significant contributions to this great country from people of color. I have had it said to me. It is not their fault. They believe that because that is what they have seen in the books or have not seen. If we teach these facts, then I think Black history will take on a new meaning, and Black History Month would not be so uncomfortable for anybody to celebrate. Next month, we will celebrate Women's History Month simply because so many of the contributions of women have been left out and ignored. So, we take the month of March to focus on those things, and that is why it is so important for us. Mr. Speaker, I did not look at the clock. How much time do I have left?

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of time. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), who wanted to participate in this hour. I assure you, Mr. Speaker, 23 minutes may not be enough for Ms. Jackson Lee, but that is all we have left.

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who was a committed educator and public servant, who lived by the Biblical teaching to ``act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.'' He also happened to be a very dear friend for more than 40 years, Dr. David E. Rivers transitioned from this life on February 4, 2022, and he will be sorely missed by all who had the honor of knowing him. Dr. Rivers was born on June 7, 1943, in Fayetteville, Georgia. He was the second of five children born to Joseph and Lorine Rivers. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in urban affairs, political science and public administration at Georgia State University. He went on to graduate from the National Urban Fellows Program in Public Administration at Yale University and the Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Program at Furman University. He was also a charter member of Georgia State University's first Black Greek organization, Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Incorporated, which was chartered in 1968. Before beginning his professional career, Dr. Rivers, served three years in the U.S. Army. He became Atlanta's first African American Commissioner of Budget and Planning under Mayor Maynard Jackson. He held leadership positions on the Atlanta Regional Commission, at Georgia State University, the U.S. Department off Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Energy and headed the Public Health Department in the District of Columbia Government under Mayor Marion Barry. All of these experiences were a precursor to his extraordinary career at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He joined MUSC's faculty in 1995, and served in many distinguished capacities, promoting partnerships between academic institutions, government agencies, elected officials, business industry, faith-based groups, and community activists to build healthier communities. At the time of his death, Dr. Rivers was the Director of the Public Information and Community Outreach Initiative (PICO) at MUSC, a program he founded. Dr. Rivers served as Principal Investigator, administering over $20 million in sponsored funding during his career, and was a collaborator in securing funding for over $100 million in national, state, and local programs during his career. Under his leadership, the PICO Initiative conducted nationwide Community Leaders Institutes to address the impact of health disparities and environmental justice issues in low-income, ethnic minority communities and other underserved populations. South Carolina Educational Television produced his award-winning Community Leaders Institute programs, which were televised to national audiences. In recognition of his work on climate change and its impact across the United States, Dr. Rivers received multiple nominations and won a Bronze Telly Award and the highest viewership of a televised program produced by Educational Television. Dr. Rivers led the planning and execution of the National Conference on Health Disparities for nearly two decades, which provided a national dialogue to share progress in building healthy communities from 2007 through 2021. He also organized and led the Environmental Justice Braintrust at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.'s Annual Legislative Conference. The Braintrust recommended strategies to help policy makers address environmental issues by fostering a relationship between environmental protection, human health, environmental justice, and economic development. In 2009, Dr. Rivers became the first African American to hold a citywide elected office in Charleston, SC. He served as a Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Charleston since 2009, where he also served as Vice Chairman and Chairman, He was re-elected unopposed in 2015 and 2021. Dr. Rivers served as Chairman of the National Urban Fellows and the James E. Clyburn Research and Scholarship Foundation boards. He was President of the Jonathan Green Foundation, and he was Vice Chairman of the Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Corporation. He was a member of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, American Water Works Association, and Water Environment Federation. He also served on the Boards of the South Carolina Aquarium, My Brother's Keeper, and the 100 Black Men of Charleston, SC. He was also a member of the National Council of La Raza, California State University Center for Latino Community Health in Monterey Bay, California; Allen University Board of Trustees; the Congressional Black Caucus Institute's 21st Century Council, Executive Committee; the Advisory Board of Charleston's First Reliance Bank, and the Trident Urban League. He also served as a Board Member of Trident Unban League, the Community Foundation, and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. Madam Speaker, I ask you and our colleagues to join me in celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. David Rivers. His impact can be felt across this country in so many communities that are addressing environmental justice and health disparities, and his work will continue through the initiatives he developed and nurtured throughout his career. Dr. Rivers led a life of purpose driven by passion. May he rest in power.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I am not aware of a date, but I would hope that if we do not get an omnibus there will be a short term CR because as the gentleman knows that getting the omnibus is very, very important to our constituents back home so that people can plan their lives sufficiently. We both are very concerned about the effectiveness of our representation of our constituents.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I appreciate him letting me stand in today for the majority leader. I have talked to the majority leader this week, and I understand he is doing very well, and I hope that he will rejoin you at this desk next week. Madam Speaker, before I go to the schedule, I also thank the gentleman for joining me yesterday for an historic occasion, the dedication of H-150 on the first floor of this building, which happens to be part of his office. That building has been designated the Joseph H. Rainey Room. As you know, Rainey was elected to the United States Congress from South Carolina this past December 12, 150 years ago. None of us really realized it at the time but H-150, now a part of the Republican whip's office, was an Indian Affairs room back when Rainey was here. And Rainey was on that committee, so it is fitting and proper for that room to carry his name. I thank the gentleman for being so kind yesterday and being part of that.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, as the gentleman occupies one of the offices that he served in, I am proud to now be representing many of the communities that he represented here in this body. Thank you so much. Now, for the schedule for next week. On Monday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and 12 p.m. for legislative business. On Wednesday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. The House will consider H.R. 4445, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, introduced by Representative Cheri Bustos, which would end forced arbitration in cases relating to sexual assault and harassment, providing survivors with legal recourse to seek justice in court against their assailants. The House will also consider H.R. 3485, the Global Respect Act, introduced by Representative David Cicilline, which furthers our Nation's commitment to LGBTQ rights around the world by sanctioning foreign individuals found to be complicit in violating the human rights of LGBTQ people. Additionally, the House will consider Representative Carolyn Maloney's bill, H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act. This bipartisan bill would strengthen the financial position of the United States Postal Service and ensure it continues to successfully carry out its mandate to the deliver mail to every household and business in the country. Lastly, the House stands ready to act on the Build Back Better Act, as well as the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, should the Senate amend them. Of course, we will act on appropriations, hopefully on an omnibus bill, but we will not allow the government to shut down. Additional items may be possible in our view.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, yes, we have heard all of those discussions. We are hopeful that something will come forward next week in the form of an omnibus, but if not, we will respond appropriately when we get to that point.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I know that the Speaker is in consultation with the attending physician on what the protocol for this year might be. In the weeks ahead as we approach the date, the attending physician will make recommendations based on the current state of the pandemic. I think, as all of us are very pleased with what we are hearing about the pandemic, it is moving in a very favorable direction, and I am sure the attending physician will take all of that into account when he establishes the protocol for the State of the Union address.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I, like the gentleman, witnessed those games over the weekend. I don't know why you want to remind me of the last time you and I shared a stadium with Joe Burrow, but I do want you to know that I was pulling for him over the weekend. That is tough for this Clemson guy to do. I enjoyed those games. I am sure that all the people who attended them enjoyed those games. Now, what I am sure the attending physician will be taking into account is he will probably get the reports from the aftermath of those games and will be guided by that. I am sure that if the day or two following the games everybody was well, he will take that into account. He will look and see how people faired the next day and the day after that to establish the protocol, and I am perfectly willing to wait to hear from him.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, you are absolutely correct, I agree with you. The number that was announced previously was based upon the situation as it stood at that moment. I suspect that if things change dramatically in the next week or two or three that number may go down, everything else may get back close to normal. I come from a pretty red State and the reviews are pretty mixed as it relates to even school children. Some schools are doing well, other schools aren't. It is not just what State you may be from, but a lot depends on what community that you live in. We have a community here that we all enjoy living and working in. I am sure that the attending physician will take into account things that exist in and around this community in making his decision as to how we should conduct ourselves during the State of the Union.

Mr. CLYBURN. No, I don't have any idea and have not been informed as to what date that decision will be made. I am sure it will be made and we will be given enough time for us to conduct ourselves accordingly.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I have nothing else.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated community servant, mentor, and advocate for social justice and economic empowerment. Cheryl A. Hickmon, the 27th National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., transitioned from this life on January 20, 2022. She left a legacy that enriched the lives of women and girls globally and uplifted African American communities particularly. Cheryl A. Hickmon, was a native of Hartford, Connecticut. She was born on May 11, 1962, to the late Dr. Ned Hickmon and Consuella Anderson Hickmon. She was a graduate of my alma mater, South Carolina State University, where her leadership journey in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. began when she was initiated through the Alpha Xi Chapter in 1982. She became president of the Alpha Xi. Chapter (1983 to 1984) and South Atlantic Regional Representative (1984 to 1986). After graduating from South Carolina State, Cheryl Hickmon returned to her hometown, where she joined the Hartford Alumnae Chapter and eventually became Chapter President (2009 to 2013). She remained actively involved in the Sorority for 39 years and held numerous elected and appointed positions at the national, regional, and local levels; most recently being elected as National President and Chair of the Board of Directors of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Professionally, Cheryl Hickmon was a licensed Clinical Laboratory. Technologist and worked in the Reproductive Medical Laboratory for more than 30 years. She was most recently employed at Montefiore's Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Health in Hartsdale, New York, a division of the Montefiore Medical Center and a teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein: College of Medicine. She supervised the In Vitro Fertilization Laboratories for Andrology and Endocrinology. Cheryl Hickmon was highly skilled and experienced in the specialties of Andrology and Endocrinology. One of her greatest joys was assisting couples with the gift of children. Cheryl Hickmon served her community in various ways; the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, the National Brotherhood of Skiers, and was a member of St. Monica's Episcopal Church. She was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Outstanding Accomplishments and Achievement Award from South Carolina State, the ``100 Most Influential African Americans in the State of Connecticut'' by the Connecticut Chapters of the NAACP, and the Citizen of the Year Award from the Tau Iota Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. She is survived by her older brothers Ned and David Hickmon, a host of other family and friends, and the entire membership of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Those who had the pleasure of knowing Cheryl Hickmon agree that she embodied integrity, grace, and an unselfish, giving spirit. Madam Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in commemorating the life of Cheryl A. Hickmon, a woman who led with humility and lived by the motto, ``Don't measure life by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.''

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam 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 subject of my Special Order.

Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I first got interested in and started studying history as an 8-year-old. I grew up in a parsonage where my brothers and I were required, every morning before breakfast, to recite a Bible verse and, every evening before retiring to bed, we had to share with our parents a current event. We didn't have television. Therefore, in order to carry out that rule, we had to read the newspapers. It was delivered to our home every afternoon. Today, those who are living down in my hometown of Sumter, you get the Sumter Daily Item in the morning. Back then it was an afternoon paper. It was my interest in the Presidential campaign of Harry Truman that attracted me to politics. Harry Truman ascended to the Presidency from the Vice Presidency. Of course, no one gave him a chance to get elected on his own. He did not have, according to conventional wisdom, what it took, and he was going to be up against this scion, this big-time prosecutor from New York, Thomas Dewey. In fact, one Chicago newspaper was so assured of the outcome, they didn't bother to wait on the results to write the headlines for their newspapers the day after the election. All of us remember that headline: ``Dewey Wins.'' When the votes were counted, all the votes were counted, Truman had been elected President. That always intrigued me, this man of limited educational background, a disability, without any of all of the trappings of what would make one a big-time leader. Of course, when Truman left office, he was not very popular with a lot of people. In fact, his popularity was pretty low. But as we look back on history, and people continue to write about history, they keep upgrading Truman. Most places I see now, he is in the top ten. In my opinion, he is in the top five. I consider myself, to this day, a Truman Democrat. After studying history, I went on to teach it. I became a firm believer in George Santayana's admonition that those who cannot remember history--of course, he said ``the past''--are condemned to repeat it. That is what brings me to this floor today. It has been a long, long time since I have stayed here on what we call getaway day to address this body during what we call Special Orders. I listened intently today as we debated the legislation that was a vehicle by which we would send two pieces of legislation: The Freedom to Vote Act, a bill that was proposed by Senator Joe Manchin, and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that this body approved and sent over to the Senate as H.R. 4. Upon John Lewis' death, I came to this floor and asked and received unanimous consent to change the name of H.R. 4, to rename it in honor of John Lewis, and this body granted unanimous consent for that to happen. Now, John Lewis and I first met as 19-year-old college students. I was in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He was down in Nashville, Tennessee. We met on the campus of Morehouse College, where the Vice President was on the day before yesterday, I think it was. It was also the weekend when I first met Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, as is often the case--and we saw quite a bit of it today--a disagreement cropped up between us so-called Young Turks, those of us who were in SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee--in fact, this was the second organizational meeting of SNCC--and SCLC, which was being run by Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and others. We asked Dr. King to come and meet with us so we could try to reconcile our differences. Dr. King came and agreed to a 1-hour meeting. That meeting convened at 10 p.m. in the evening. It was not over until 4 a.m. the next morning. I always refer to that evening and that meeting as my Saul-to-Paul transformation. I came out of that meeting a changed man--well, I guess, boy. I have never been the same. I started reading everything I could about Dr. King. I went back to my campus, and I got his book, his first book, ``Stride Toward Freedom,'' and, of course, all the way down through his last book, ``Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community.'' I interacted with him several times over the years. After the 1965 Voting Rights Act, one of Dr. King's first trips was to the little town of Kingstree, South Carolina, a rural town in Williamsburg County that is currently in my district. When he came that day, he came to talk to us about all the marches we were having. I was living in Charleston at the time. My late wife and I got in our little Falcon and drove to Kingstree to be a part of that meeting. Dr. King talked that day about marching. We had marched to integrate lunch counters. We had marched to get off the back of the bus. We had marched for a lot of social things. But he said to us on that day: It is time to march to the ballot boxes. He put a new definition on what marching was all about. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. In fact, not long ago, the local community decided to have a 50th anniversary celebration of that event and called me and asked would I attend. I told them I would be glad to attend. Of course, I later got a phone call from a reporter who asked me what I was going to say at this 50th anniversary. I told the reporter, I said: Well, I think I will reminisce a little bit about that day and the speech he gave. And he says: Well, did you see it on television? How do you know about the speech? I said: I was there. The reporter didn't quite believe that I was there, and of course, he questioned me, wanting to know what I remembered most about that day. I said to him: The thing I remember most about that day was that there was a very big storm. In fact, the storm was so bad that, on our way there, we had to stop and wait it out. When I got there, I was sure that we were not going to have a celebration, but the sun came out, and Dr. King came. But there was so much rain in that cow pasture, I told him, that we were in, it was not very conducive for the convention. The reporter was kind of quiet, and he hung up. A few days later, the reporter called me back. The reporter had gone to the Weather Bureau to check out my story about that day and sheepishly reported to me that he had checked it out and that my description of that day was pretty accurate. I said: Well, I lived through it. The things you live through are the kinds of things you remember most, and you remember them best. I have lived through a lot, growing up in South Carolina. I remember the conversations I had with my parents. My mother was a beautician. As you can imagine, a lot of conversations go on in the beauty shop. So when my mother would sit down with me, we would often have discussions about information that flowed throughout the beauty shop. In fact, I wrote about one day, coming home from school. One of the rules we had was that we had to stop by the beauty shop to report in after school every day to make sure that things had gone okay. On this particular day, when I went into the beauty shop to make my report, there was a lady there that had grown up with my mother in the cotton field adjacent to the one that she grew up in over in Lee County, South Carolina. When I walked in, I spoke, and this lady turned to me and says: My, my, how much you have grown since I last saw you. My goodness, she said, your voice is beginning to change. Then she asked me a question, what it is that you want to be when you grow up. That question was asked of us very often back then. I began to tell her how proud I was of that background that I had developed since 1948 studying Harry Truman and how I had developed this interest in politics and government. I told her I wanted to grow up to be a Member of the United States Congress. That lady looked at me and very sternly said: Son, don't you let anybody else hear you say that again. That lady was not throwing cold water on my dreams. She just felt that a little Black boy in Sumter, South Carolina, should not have those kinds of dreams and aspirations. It was not safe for a little Black boy to have those kinds of dreams. My mother never said anything that day, but that night, when she closed the beauty shop, she came into the house and called me to the kitchen table, and she sat me down. She said: Now, James, don't you let what that lady said to you today ruin your dreams. You stay in school, you study hard, you stay out of trouble, and you will be able to live out your dreams and your aspirations. My mom did not live to see me get elected to Congress. She died in 1971. I didn't get here until 1992. But I think about her almost every time I come into this Chamber, how right she was. So, today, looking back on that history, I recall from my studies that the first civil rights bill passed by this Congress was passed in 1866, giving the former slaves the right of citizenship. Of course, following that 1866 law, South Carolina held a constitutional convention in 1868. That was a very interesting constitutional convention. I would like to share with you some of what took place in that convention. There are two things kind of interesting about the convention to me. Number one is the majority of the attendees at that convention were Black. It is kind of interesting. The second one is there was an attendee at that convention, Robert Smalls, who was there in 1868. Robert Smalls had been a slave until 1862. Just think about that. He was a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention and would go on to serve 10 years in the South Carolina legislature and another 10 years here in the United States Congress--a former slave. Now, I don't know how Robert Smalls felt about slavery. He didn't like it. If he did, he would not have engineered the escape. He would not have stolen the Planter and taken his whole family and friends and delivered the Planter to the Union Army and got his freedom and $1,500 for having done so. And he turned that $1,500 into great wealth and had become a great soldier in the Union Army. Now, back then, Robert Smalls, a former slave, had not gone to school. He didn't have a high school education, and therefore, though he wanted to be, they would not have taken him into the Navy. He was actually inducted into the Army and assigned to a Navy ship. That is why you see some ships now named for Robert Smalls. It was my great honor to be in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Baltimore harbor to speak for the christening of the USS Robert Smalls. Now, however Robert Smalls may have felt, after Robert Smalls gained wealth, he went back to Beaufort, South Carolina, where he was born and raised and where he had been a slave. He bought the house that he had been a slave in. The McKee family that owned him legally, when they got back, Mr. McKee, John McKee--I think John was his first name--had passed away, and his wife was living in poor health and no wealth. Robert Smalls went and got her and brought her to that house that she had been the head of and he had been a slave in, and he nursed her, kept her there until her death. He forgave, but Robert Smalls never forgot. He died in 1915, basically of a broken heart. Why? Because Robert Smalls, who had been in that 1868 convention as a delegate, was also a delegate in the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention. Now, in 1868, January 14, 1868, is when he got his State rights as a full-fledged American citizen, and then in 1895, Robert Smalls was in that convention. It was in that convention, September 10, 1895, that Robert Smalls got all of his rights taken away. As I said earlier today on this floor, any rights given by the State, in this instance the United States, can be taken away by the States, in this instance the United States. That is why I am fearful of what is taking place, most especially in the other body. What we did here today, sending those two bills to protect the voting rights of people of color, is being threatened by the other body with a filibuster. I have been saying for some time now that I believe very strongly that constitutional rights ought not be subjected to the filibustering whims of any one person. We don't allow that for our budget matters. We call it reconciliation when it comes to doing the budget so that you can pass it. If everything in this bill applies to the budget, we can have a simple majority to pass it. When the full faith and credit of the United States was put at risk a couple of weeks ago, we worked around the filibuster in order to raise the debt limit so as not to ruin the full faith and credit of the United States of America. And you are telling me that the same should not apply to basic constitutional rights? As I said here on the floor today, as a result of that 1895 convention that took all of those rights away, in 1897, George Washington Murray left the United States House of Representatives, being the last Black person. At one point, of the four Black Representatives in this House, three were from South Carolina. The very first Black person ever elected to the United States Congress--I want to clean that up because a lot of times I say that and people start sending me pictures of Hiram Revels, and what's his name down there in Louisiana. Look, they were Senators, and they were sent to this Congress by their legislative bodies. It was not until, what, 1913 when we changed the Constitution in 1913 to allow for the popular election of Senators. So the first person of color, the first Black person to be elected to the United States Congress was Joseph Rainey. We just named a room on the first floor of this Capitol in his honor. It just so happens it was on the 150th anniversary of his election, which I think was December 12, I believe, in a special election, December 12, 1870. And it just so happened that on that day, none of us knew it, but when we got to the room that we named in his honor and we looked, guess what number was on the room? Room 150. It is now named for Joseph Rainey from Georgetown, South Carolina. He was the first one in 1870. In 1897 George Washington Murray left this Congress. And because of the Constitutional Convention, what they did in 1895, taking all the rights of Black people away, not another Black person got elected to this Congress from South Carolina until yours truly was elected in 1992: 95 years. And for most of that time, well, I hadn't really counted all the days and the years, but let me say this: For a major portion of that time, if not most of it, Black people were in the majority in the State of South Carolina. They were in the majority but had zero representation here in this Congress, zero representation in the legislature, and zero representation in governing bodies all over the State. I remember the first Black in South Carolina that got elected to the county council down in Beaufort, South Carolina. All of these things happened in my lifetime. And so what I am saying to this body today and what I am saying to this great country of ours is that what we are doing here today in allowing States to pass laws that take away voting rights and privileges, just think about this, a State, one of my neighboring States, Georgia, just passed a law that says not only are we going to suppress, throw up all these barriers to voting, we aren't just going to do that, but now if this line gets long and you are standing out here in the hot weather trying to cast a vote and someone decides to give you a bottle of water to quench your thirst, they just committed a criminal act. You can give a bottle of water to anybody walking out on the streets if they are thirsty, but if you give a bottle of water while someone is standing to vote in line, you have just committed a criminal act. I want the people of this country to think about that. I want my friends in the other body to think about that. And then it went even further. They have put into the law a mechanism and a little entity, about I think three people, and sent them up to be referees over whether or not the voting was to their liking, the results. And if they do not like the results of the vote, they can nullify the vote. That is what they just did. You got 19 States--and I want to hasten to add here all of them are not southern States--19 States, two of them up in the Northeast have passed 34 laws and have introduced over 400 to make it difficult for people to vote and to nullify the efforts of voters. That is Third World stuff. That is banana republic stuff. That is not the stuff of which America is made. And we are going to sit idly by and just watch this happen? Earlier today, one of my colleagues on the other side was upset because someone has compared--I think maybe upset with the President. In fact, one of my colleagues said as a southerner he was insulted by President Biden's speech. And the basis I understand of the insult is the fact that he called what these States are doing with these new laws Jim Crow 2.0. I am not into all of this IT stuff, so I don't know what that really means, but I know this: It sounds like I agree with him. I am not insulted by that. Because Jim Crow was not Jim Crow until it became Jim Crow. Reconstruction--one of the reasons I sort of correct some of my friends sometimes when they say it is because I don't want them to get things muddled. I hear people talk all the time about me being the first Black Congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction. That is not true. All nine of us, the eight before me and me, we are all since Reconstruction. Reconstruction didn't last but about 12 to 13 years based upon which date you want to use, it didn't last. Reconstruction was over in 1876, so Robert Smalls did not get elected until the 1880s. Robert Smalls got elected since Reconstruction. No. Reconstruction ended in 1876, and at the end of Reconstruction is when all these so-called Jim Crow laws went into place. The Black Codes went into place. Those things, those laws starting with the Supreme Court decision in 1872, the Crescent decision coming out of Louisiana, which is kind of interesting. But Plessy v. Ferguson came out of Louisiana. And I want to thank the Governor of Louisiana for having--after all these years--issued a pardon to Homer Plessy, who is a man who was arrested and fined $25 for riding in a forbidden car on the train that he had paid a first-class ticket for and he was arrested putting in place separate but equal, which was never equal. And so I want to read to you something that was said in the 1895 convention by Robert Smalls. It is real interesting. These are the words of a former slave: ``Since Reconstruction times'' and I am quoting Robert Smalls, ``53,000 Negroes have been killed in the South.'' Since Reconstruction. Remember now, Reconstruction ended in 1876. So somewhere between 1876 and 1895 when Robert Smalls made this speech he says: `` . . . 53,000 Negroes have been killed in the South, and not more than three White men have been convicted and''--he said ``hung'' here, though I want everybody to know that I am educated enough to know that should have been hanged--``for these crimes. I want you to be mindful of the fact that the good people of the north are watching this convention upon this subject. I hope you will make a Constitution that will stand the test. I hope that we may be able to say when our work is done that we have made as good a Constitution as the one we are doing away with.'' Just think about that. They were doing away with the Constitution of 1868 that gave Robert Smalls and other Blacks the right to vote, gave citizens those rights, and in 1895 he is saying, I'm hoping that when we finish here today we will have made a new Constitution that is as good as the one that we are getting rid of. I think Robert Smalls knew very well what was in the making. There is another gentleman in that Constitutional Convention with him who also served in the Congress, Thomas E. Miller, he had served in the Congress. And in order to get him to serve him in Congress, they made it attractive for him to be the first president of South Carolina State University where Joe Biden was a couple weeks ago and from which I graduated. Thomas Miller spoke on this issue, as well. But here is what I want you to understand. One of the things they were putting in this Constitution was in order to get the right to vote you had to be able to interpret sections of the Constitution of the United States. You can't get the right to vote until you interpret the Constitution. And now some of the sections are a little worse than that. In Alabama--we have all seen the stories--in order to get the right to vote you had to be able to tell whoever was standing there--somebody who probably couldn't even count, let alone understand the Constitution--how many jelly beans were in a jar. These were laws passed by States. And anybody who may think that that is silly to have to be able to count or guess how many jelly beans are in a jar in order to get the right to vote, that is no more silly than arresting somebody for giving a bottle of water to somebody standing in line in the hot sun. That is how stupid some of these laws they are passing are. And we in this body and my friends across the other side of this building are condoning that, saying that we can't change this process to get rid of that kind of silliness. But this is serious stuff. ``How can you expect an ordinary man to understand and explain any section of the Constitution, to correspond to the interpretation put upon it by the manager of an election.'' And I guarantee you, some of these people--I knew some of them--who were running these elections could not read the Constitution, much less interpret it. I want everybody to listen to this: When by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, composed of the most learned men in the State, two of them put one construction upon a section of the Constitution and the other justice put an entirely different construction upon it. How did we get 5-4 decisions in the United States Supreme Court? Because five people think one way; four people think the other. Which one of them would get the right to vote, interpreting the Constitution? This is the kind of silliness here. To embody such a provision in the election law would be, to me, that every White man would interpret it all right and every Negro would interpret it wrong. And then Robert Smalls said, I appeal to the gentleman from Edgefield to realize that he is not making the law for one set of men. Robert Smalls said, ``Some morning, you may wake up to find that the bone and sinew of your country is gone . . . I tell you that the Negro is the bone and sinew of your country and you cannot do without him. I do not believe you want to get rid of the Negro, else why did you impose a high tax on immigration agents who might come here to get him to leave?'' That is very insightful, very insightful. Now, Thomas Miller, who had also served in Congress, and as I just said, became the first President of South Carolina State, Thomas Miller was a free-born attorney. He was a college graduate. And as I said, he, too, had served in the Congress. As I told you earlier, in 1868, the majority of the delegates were Black. In the 1895 convention, six Blacks, only six. Thomas Miller was one of the six. Tillman, Miller told the convention, condemned Reconstruction-era political corruption but had ``not found voice eloquent enough, nor pen exact enough to mention those imperishable gifts bestowed upon South Carolina . . . by Negro legislators.'' That is what he said. He said that ``We were 8 years in power. We had built schoolhouses, established charitable institutions, built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided for the education of the deaf and''--that is a colloquial term that is no longer used--to the deaf and mute--you can imagine what the other word is--and ``rebuilt the jails and courthouses . . . In short,'' he says, ``we had reconstructed the State.'' Now, the reason I point this out to you is because he was a majority Black legislator in South Carolina that passed a law that provided for free public education for everybody. Little old State of South Carolina was the first State in the Union to provide for free public education for everybody. Until that time throughout the South, only the elite were provided education. And as I said here, the school, the penitentiary system, the most modern penal system had been created in South Carolina by a majority of Black legislators; the school to educate the deaf and mute done by a majority of the Black legislators. And that is what Thomas Miller was talking about. Now, I want to say something about what Robert Smalls had to say about waking up and finding that the law you passed that was meant for me may one day apply to you. We just saw that last year in January when Georgia elected Senator Ossoff. Senator Ossoff ended up defeating an incumbent Senator. Now, that incumbent Senator was David Perdue. Now, let me tell you something interesting about that, and I think that people better start thinking. Georgia decided several years ago--I remember when it happened--that because there were so many Black people voting, they decided to set up--and you can go back, I won't go through it today, and read the debate that took place in the legislature. When Georgia decided in order to win a general election in Georgia, you had to have 50 percent plus 1. And man who proposed it argued on the floor that he was doing that in order to dilute, to nullify the effect of the Black vote, to make sure that you get to a 1-on-1 Black versus White runoff requirement. He felt that if there were three or four people in the general election and then the Black people voted in unison, they could get a Black person elected to the Senate. And that is not what he wanted to happen. So he wanted to make sure that if there were more than two people running and nobody gets 50 percent, then you have to have a runoff in the general election between those two. And if one was Black and the other was White, the White person was sure to win. Well, that tells you how shortsighted he was, because that is exactly what happened in that other election between Warnock and the incumbent Senator. Now, Warnock got a smaller vote than the person he was in the runoff with, but he didn't get 50 percent so they had to have a runoff. David Perdue got 49.8 percent of the vote, but it was not 50 percent. If they had not changed that law, David Perdue would have been reelected to the United States Senate on that day back in November. He never would have been in the runoff because he had 49.8 percent, but they put in the law that you got to get 50 percent. So now he has got to runoff. And he runs off against Ossoff and gets beat. He would have been elected if Georgia had not changed. Just like Robert Smalls told the people of South Carolina: You are not making this law just for me. You are going to wake up one day and this law is going to apply to you. Just ask David Perdue. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?

Mr. CLYBURN. On the other side, the gentleman was shortsighted in his debate in the legislature simply because Warnock was in this runoff. It was Black against White. But the people of Georgia decided they would elect a Black guy. So the Georgia legislature was wrong on both fronts when they put that law in place. The law that would have reelected Perdue was taken away and they put in place a law that was supposed to ensure his election, and he lost. And they lost on both fronts. So I say to my friends in the Senate, and I have been talking to them, and I am, quite frankly, very disappointed in my conversations and that is why I decided to come to this floor today. I want to say to them, they should be careful. They should be very, very careful because what may look like a good thing to do today, may not be such a good thing after it is operated for some time. Madam Speaker, I will give you back a few of these minutes. I could go on for some more. I have got some other things I probably should have said and I may have already said some things that I should not have said. But I did say I would say something interesting about that first Constitutional Convention in 1895. I just told you about free public schools, when in that Constitutional Convention, the guy that put up the resolution calling for free public schools was Robert Smalls. The penal system that they put in place, that was the envy of the world, done by the majority of Black legislators. I have talked about all that. But there was something else that they proposed that they couldn't get done. They had proposed in 1868 at that convention, the majority of Black people tried to give the vote to women--in 1868. Something that did not happen until the 19th amendment in the 1900s--whenever that was--1920-something. Just to let you know that skin color has nothing to do with the extent of progressive ideas or, what we might call, enlightened thought. Madam Speaker, I want to close with--I call it a poem. I used to quote it pretty often. A German theologian, Lutheran theologian named Martin--and I think I am pronouncing his last name right--Niemoller. It isn't quite spelled that way, but I am not that equipped in the German language but I think that is the way it is pronounced. And I close with his words: First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge passage of this legislation carrying the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to the Senate for immediate consideration to safeguard our most fundamental constitutional right, the right to vote. We took an oath to protect this country from all threats, foreign and domestic. Today, we face a domestic threat from those seeking to gain and hold power by suppressing votes and nullifying election results. Congress must combat this threat by ensuring equal and unencumbered access to the ballot box and ensuring an accurate vote count. It is time to choose. Will we uphold our oath and protect this fragile democracy, or will we subvert the Constitution and fetter the franchise? I want to remind the previous speaker that we did not have Jim Crow before there was Jim Crow, and we had it until 1954. I used to teach this stuff called history, and I will say to my colleagues: Anything that has happened before can happen again. It was the lack of the vote that had 95 years between George Washington Murray, who was the last African American to represent South Carolina here in this body, until I came along in 1992--95 years. Why? Because the right to vote was taken away and election results were nullified. We are not going back.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House of January 4, 2021, providing for morning-hour debate be extended for the remainder of the 117th Congress, except that House Resolution 863 shall supplant House Resolution 11.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. CLYBURN

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.