John Lewis

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), the ranking member, for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight in support of H.R. 3491, the National African American Museum History and Culture Act. First I would like to thank all of my colleagues who have labored long days, weeks, months, and even years to help realize a dream deferred for nearly 100 years, the establishment of a national museum that documents the significant contributions of African Americans. It has been my honor and pleasure to work with the gentleman from the State of Georgia (Mr. Kingston), my dear friend, but tonight in addition to thanking the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), I also want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Ney) for not giving up, for not giving in, for not giving out. And I thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), ranking member, for his commitment to making the National African American Museum a reality. I want to commend the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman LaTourette) and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), ranking member, for all of their help. It is important to thank Senator Brownback and Senator Dodd for championing this legislation in the other body. Tonight I also want to thank our former colleague, Congressman J.C. Watts for his effort on this bill. The effort to create a National African American Museum has not been easy. It has been a long, hard, and tedious journey. We are here today because Members, staff, and many supporters really never gave up. They did not give out. They did not give in. I want to thank my staff, Tammy Boyd and others, who worked so hard. When we began this journey, we often said that we must pace ourselves for the long haul and we must keep the faith. We paced ourselves for the journey. We diligently planted our seeds and tilled a sometimes hardened soil. And now the many supporters of the African American Museum can and will finally see the fruit of their labor. The passage of this legislation will send a powerful message to supporters of the museum that we must organize and mobilize our effort to raise the necessary money to build a National African American Museum. During every session of the Congress for the past 15 years, I have introduced legislation to establish a National African American Museum. This bill was passed in the Senate but not in the House in 1992, and another bill was passed in the House but not in the Senate in 1994. Today the bill will pass both Houses of Congress. This bill will be signed by the President of the United States into law, and we will build the National African American Museum. The African American story must be told, and a National African American Museum in Washington, D.C. is critical to telling that story. African American history is the story of hundreds, thousands, and millions of ordinary men, women, and children struggling to survive in a land where they were denied the fundamental rights, dignity, and respect that belong to all human beings. This is the story that we must tell. We have come a long way in our quest to become one Nation and one people. We have made such tremendous strides that the young people today cannot imagine living in a country where they could not eat where they wanted to eat or sit where they wanted to sit. They cannot imagine a country where they could be beaten, shot, or even lynched because of the color of their skin. Yet, this was the country that I grew up in, and this is the history that we must tell. The time is long overdue to recognize the contribution of one of the members of our American family. Mr. Speaker, the time is always right to reright, the cause is just, and the time is now. Let it be done on our watch. Let us create a National Museum of African American history and Culture. Again, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), the chairman, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), the ranking member, and all of the staff for bringing us to this point. I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 3491, a National African American Museum.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands for those kind remarks and also for yielding to me time to speak about H.R. 1616, the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site Land Exchange Act. I also want to thank my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), for bringing this legislation before us. Madam Speaker, H.R. 1616 is a good bill. It authorizes the exchange of land owned by the National Park Service for land of equal or greater value from the City of Atlanta. The National Park Service and the City of Atlanta have already agreed to the land swapping. However, this cannot be done without authorization from Congress, and H.R. 1616 completes the deal. This legislation is so important because the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Visitor Center and Museum is landlocked and has no emergency access, making it virtually impossible for firefighting equipment to reach the facility. In fact, if there were a fire at the visitor center, the Atlanta Fire Department would have to walk at least 150 to 200 yards in order to reach the center. Luckily, we have not been faced with such an outcome. However, we must be prepared. Furthermore, Madam Speaker, with heightened security concerns at our Nation's monuments and parks, emergency access is critical. Passage of H.R. 1616 will allow the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site to create an emergency access road to and from the site. As the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands already stated, this bill is a win-win for all parties. The acquisition of city-owned property would enable the National Park Service to establish easy street access to the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Visitor Center and Museum and would benefit the City of Atlanta by exchanging a piece of property that the city could develop into a viable commercial center. Madam Speaker, Atlanta is the heart of the South and home to progressive residential and business communities. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site is adjacent to one of Atlanta's most preserved districts. It is a gathering place where people from all over the world travel to and from to learn our Nation's history. Furthermore the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site is central to the growth and prosperity of the surrounding community. Madam Speaker, we must do all that we can to preserve this important tale of history. H.R. 1616 plays a small, but important, role in achieving this responsibility. Again, I would like to thank the Committee on Resources for supporting this bill, and I urge its immediate passage.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, in good conscience I cannot and will not support President Bush's misled, failed policy. I did not vote for going to war, I did not vote to put our young people in harm's way, and I will not be a party to financing this war. This administration has been hell bent from day one to have a war with Iraq, and they have stopped at nothing to get it. Their record on Iraq is one of secrecy, deceit, and fear-mongering. They deceived Members of Congress, the American people, and the community of nations. They told us that Saddam had ties to al Qaeda, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that oil from Iraq would pay to rebuild Iraq. I am sick and tired of lies, and I am sick and tired of war and killing and hatred and violence. People are dying. For what? And while our troops and their families sacrifice, corporate America is getting rich. These war profiteers are making money off the blood and toil of our soldiers and the people of Iraq. Halliburton. Bechtel Jacobs. It is time to stop the madness. It is time to hold President Bush accountable for his words and his deeds. I cannot and will not be a party to this war. I will not vote for $87 billion for more violence, for more killing, for more war.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman indicated that he intends to begin debate on the Iraq supplemental bill on Thursday. Our side would like to know if it would be possible for us to begin that debate, since we are going to be here, on Wednesday, so that every Member, every Member of the Congress will have an opportunity to participate in this debate? I take particular notice of the fact that when we debated the force resolution that every Member of the Congress, all of us, had an opportunity to participate in that debate.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for those comments, and I will continue to yield to the majority for a response, but I noticed the gentleman mentioned several conference reports coming up next week and that the military construction and interior appropriation bills are the most likely. Would those be the business for next Friday; since the gentleman indicated that he does expect to be in on Friday, possibly late Friday night?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to my colleague and friend, the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I must say to my colleague that I think the Members on this side, and all Members, want to be supportive of our men and women in uniform in Iraq. At the same time, I think all of us need to know very soon whether we are going to have an opportunity to engage in a full, candid, and open discussion when we speak of $87 billion.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to inquire of the majority regarding the schedule for next week.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, on that note, let me thank the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, continuing to yield to my friend from Virginia with regard to the process for floor debate next week, we were told that an open rule is anticipated. However, as the gentleman knows, that does not guarantee that we will have the full debate this serious matter demands. The American people deserve to have a full, serious, open and candid discussion. Therefore, we expect that the rule would grant whatever waivers are necessary so that Members would be allowed to have a full debate and the ability to offer substantial amendments. What assurance, what guarantee can the gentleman provide in this regard?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for yielding the time. I also, Mr. Speaker, want to thank my good friend and colleague from the State of Georgia (Mr. Bishop) for bringing this resolution to the floor. I think it is so fitting and appropriate to pause and take note of the march on Washington 40 years later. 250,000 Americans gathered on the Mall and listened to Martin Luther King, Jr. say, I have a dream, a dream today that is deeply rooted in the American dream. This speech, this march, created the climate to make our Nation a better place. We have come a great distance since that time. Forty years ago, in much of the American South, racial segregation was alive and well. Blacks could not attend the same schools as whites. We could not eat at the same restaurants. We could see the signs that divide our Nation: White men, Colored men. White women, Colored women. White waiting, Colored waiting. In the spring and summer of 1963, as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) said, people were being beaten, jailed and even killed for participating in nonviolent protest. Millions of Americans could not register to vote because of the color of their skin. In Birmingham, Alabama, the commissioner of police, Eugene Bull Connor, used attacks dogs and fire hoses on peaceful, nonviolent protestors. In the State of Mississippi, NAACP leader Medgar Evers was assassinated. We had come to Washington to say to the President and Members of Congress that America must change. We had to do something to dramatize the sense of urgency. Mr. Speaker, I can never, and I will never, forget that day as I stood and looked out on the Mall and saw a sea of humanity. It was a feeling that America was going to change and change forever. Back in 1963 we did not have a fax machine, a Web site, a cellular telephone. We did not even have a computer. We stood on the Constitution, on the Bill of Rights. We used our feet, and we put our bodies on the line. We live in a different country, in a much better country because of the march on Washington. I say today, 40 years later, we must recall the passion and spirit of that march. We must recapture the spirit as a Nation and a people. We must make this spirit part of our thoughts, our action and our lives. If we do this, we can make Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream come true. We can build what we call the Beloved Community, a true interracial community, a community at peace with itself. All of us, 40 years later, black and white, Hispanic, Asian and Native American, must pull together for the common good. This was our mission then. This is our mission, and this is our calling now. If we reach the Beloved Community, where we are one Nation, one people, one house and one family, we would come to the end of a march that our Nation started some 40 years ago. In closing, Mr. Speaker, there was so much hope, there was so much optimism when we left Washington 40 years ago, but 18 days after the march on Washington some of that hope, some of that optimism was shattered. Forty years ago yesterday, September 15, 1963, was a terrible bombing of a church in Birmingham where four little girls were killed while attending Sunday school on Sunday morning. We did not give up. We did not give in. We did not give out. We did not become bitter. We did not get lost in a sea of despair. We kept fighting, we kept pushing, and we kept pulling to make our democracy better, to open up our democracy and let all of our people come in. I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I will further yield to my friend from Ohio. What about the charitable choice tax bill, what type of rule might we expect on this bill? Will amendments or a substitute be allowed?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend and colleague from Ohio (Mr. Portman) for being so forthcoming.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me just ask my friend maybe in closing, why is there a need for us to be here late next Thursday night? The gentleman says as a possibility.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will further yield to inquire, is there any other bill possible? What about the Labor-HHS-Education bill, does the gentleman expect we will move to go to conference on this bill next week?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will not continue to keep my colleague long, but I would like to know, and I will yield, will the FAA conference report be on the floor next week? If so, which day?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to yield in order for the gentleman to clarify which appropriation bills we expect to move or he expects to move to go to conference on next Tuesday. We are hearing that the DOD, Military Construction and Legislative branch bills are possible.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to yield to the majority to inquire about the schedule for next week. I am pleased to yield to my friend the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman.)

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to yield to inquire, the gentleman suggested that there may be other conference reports. Can we expect to have any other conference report on the floor next week? If so, which conference reports might we have?

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great contributor to civil rights and to the empowerment of people in this country. Peter Smith has worked for almost forty years to promote civil rights and to provide legal services to those who have traditionally been denied such access--African Americans and other minorities, the poor, juveniles, and those with disabilities. In his Cornell Law School graduating class, he was one of the very few who chose to turn their backs on the prestige and financial rewards that would come to those who entered private law practice. In a period of our history where the fashion was ``me first'', Mr. Smith has without exception put ``you first.'' And for four decades, the ``you'' was individuals who for reasons of race, poverty, age or disability were denied equal access. In 1964, having worked there earlier during law school, Mr. Smith joined the staff of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice. As a member of the small and elite Appeals and Research Section, he wrote and argued appeals in some of the most significant cases in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and played a role in drafting the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1966, again breaking new ground, Peter Smith joined the first legal services appellate section in the nation. He argued before the Supreme Court of the United States the landmark case that brought an end to welfare residence requirements. The work that he did in public housing and welfare reform continues to this day to promote the quality of lives of those people who are dependent upon government policy for their very survival. After five years of working to deliver legal services to those who, because they were poor or minorities, were denied access to such services, Mr. Smith concluded that the problems would never be solved unless the private bar was brought into the struggle. After much effort, he convinced an establishment Baltimore law firm to open a branch office in Baltimore's inner city that would deliver legal services to the underserved the same way the rest of the firm delivered legal services to the privileged. That office, under Smith's leadership, became a model for a number of other law firms in the country. In 1972, Mr. Smith joined the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Law and, almost immediately, created one of the first clinical legal education programs in the nation--a program with two parallel goals. The first goal was to change the way that law students were educated, by creating an opportunity for students to practice law, representing clients, while under very close supervision--a model that the medical community had long used. The second, and equally important goal was to deliver legal services to a class of people who ordinarily did not have access to such services--juveniles. Smith operated the Juvenile Law Clinic until 1979, representing many clients in administrative and judicial proceedings including before the Supreme Court of the United States where he helped to guarantee key legal rights for juveniles. Almost without exception, the students who went through his clinic consider that experience to be the most significant of their law school education. In 1979 he spent a sabbatical in England helping to develop clinical legal education there. In 1991, Smith returned to his childhood home in New Hampshire where he assumed a new challenge--to provide legal services to yet another segment of American society that traditionally had been denied that access--individuals with disabilities whose legal problems were related to their disability. For the last few years Mr. Smith has narrowed that focus even more, representing parents of children with disabilities in cases where the school district was not complying with federal law. Mr. Speaker, on April 27th, Peter Smith celebrated his 65th birthday. While he continues to actively practice law, delivering legal services to those who have so long been denied that access, I did not want this occasion to pass without acknowledging his long service promoting civil rights for minorities, the poor and the disabled.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of the resolution. As many of you know, I am a man of peace. During the 1960s, many of us involved in the Civil Rights movement were threatened with arrest for sitting in at lunch counters, standing in at segregated theaters, or marching for the right to vote; and sometimes we were arrested and jailed. We were charged with disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct, and we were very peaceful and we were orderly. I never thought that as a Member of Congress I would be threatened with arrest by sitting in the library of the Committee on Ways and Means. As a Member of Congress and as a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, I thought, I really believed that it was a safe place to meet and to discuss the business of the committee. It is unreal, it is unthinkable that another Member of Congress would threaten to have another arrested for carrying out his or her congressional duties. In another period of time, a few short years ago, some of us stood up to Bull Conner in Birmingham, Alabama, and we stood up to Sheriff Clark in Selma, Alabama. And I must say to the chairman of this committee, we will not be intimidated. We will not be immobilized. We live in a democracy and not a police state. What happened today in the Committee on Ways and Means should cause a sense of righteous indignation among all of us. As Democrats, as Members of this House, the People's House, we will not get lost in a sea of despair. We will continue to stand up and fight for what is right and for what is fair.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember, to honor and celebrate a great citizen and a dear friend, Maynard Jackson. Maynard Jackson's untimely death was shocking and is still unbelievable. I have known Maynard Jackson for more than 35 years; and, Mr. Speaker, I must tell my colleagues Maynard Jackson was a man who thought the impossible was possible. In 1973, he was the first African American to be elected mayor of the city of Atlanta. He served 12 years as mayor of the city. During his tenure as mayor of Atlanta, he began encouraging and fostering an interracial understanding, transforming the city into a new Atlanta, to the gateway to the South, the city that was too busy to hate. I truly believe that Maynard Jackson must be looked upon as one of the founding fathers of the new Atlanta, the new South and the new America. Maynard Jackson was a strong supporter of affirmative action, civil rights and expansion of social and economic gain for minorities. As our current mayor Shirley Franklin stated a few days ago, Maynard Jackson was a lion of a man. He was a champion of inclusion for all people and never wavered in his commitment to Atlanta. In fact, Mr. Speaker, Maynard Jackson helped create an Atlanta that we all could be proud of. He was not afraid or scared to do what was unpopular. He was not scared to take a chance. Maynard Jackson was not afraid to do the right thing. Because of his leadership, vision and dedication, our city, State and Nation will never be the same. We will miss you, Maynard. Atlanta will miss you, the Nation will miss you, but we would never, ever forget you. You have left your mark on each and every one of us. Thank you for your service. Thank you for giving your heart and your soul. As you take your passion and energy to the great beyond, again a grateful Nation, a grateful people and a grateful city say thank you. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).