Defending Voting Rights

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the State of Florida, the Honorable Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.

There are too many people who believe that what happened in Selma is about the past, when really it is about the future. That city, this movement, and perhaps most of all, this dedication to freedom, to equity, and equality, is not, nor has it ever been merely a moment in time.

Let us be very clear: We do not go to Selma every year to remember. There is nothing wrong with remembering. In fact, America would be a better place if she was willing to get over her historical amnesia.

There is a place in the body politic of this Nation for the act of remembering; no doubt about it. But what happened in Selma on this date, it is not some fossilized moment in American history.

What happened there was that ordinary people decided that they wanted their country to be a better place. They decided to dig again the wells of democracy which had been severely tampered with by racism, sexism, poverty, anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, and everything else that made America woeful in the eyes of the marginalized and the oppressed.

The Founding Fathers had their role and their place, but everyone could not drink from their wells. Those were privileged wells. The wells that they dug had pretty stones, but the water was muddy.

What happened in Selma is that an entire generation decided to clean up the well. They decided to dig deeper wells. The people who marched there were of the opinion that everybody has a right to drink from the great springs of democracy.

They fundamentally believed that if you are a citizen of this country, then no one has the right to tell you that you don't have access to the constitutional ideals that make democracy worth the trouble of being democratic.

Amelia Boynton and Jimmy Lee Jackson took democracy in America in their own hands and saved America from Americanism.

My father is famous for saying that hands that used to pick cotton are now picking Presidents, and he is absolutely right. But today we need to understand that those same hands are the only reason that democracy survives in this country.

Do you think the insurrection of January 6 was the first time democracy was in trouble in this country?

As the Bible says, be not deceived.

When women are not safe, and Black people cannot vote, and Jewish people are put upon, and poor people are denied dignity and resources, the fact of the matter is this: Democracy in this country was already on life support, and has been so for a long a time.

But in 1965, ordinary people pumped life back into this democracy. Reverend Martin Luther King worked on the heart. Reverend Howard Thurman and Reverend Benjamin Mays worked on the minds. Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash worked on its bones.

Everyday people, before those names, some of which you don't know, breathed life back into the American experience and, in a manner of speaking, told Lazarus to rise up from that grave.

The Selma movement took an emaciated commitment to its constitution and anemic political system and dared to put meat on the bone.

In 2023, the fight for democracy is not over. As of January 25, at least 150 proposed restrictive voting bills have been introduced in 32 States, threatening to disenfranchise millions of voters.

In Texas, five election interference bills have already been introduced this year alone, and in North Carolina, the Supreme Court of the U.S. has heard disturbing arguments in the Moore v. Harper case. This case seeks to establish the ``independent state legislature'' theory, which would prohibit State supreme courts from interpreting whether laws passed by the State legislature are constitutional under their constitutions.

These efforts to limit access to the ballot box and undermine the will of the people underscore the commitment, the importance of continuing the fight for democracy and upholding the values that we were defending in Selma.

When we go to Selma, we go not simply to show up to remember, we go every year to renew our commitment to the America that was created by freedom fighters.

The America created not in the purity of a hall in Philadelphia, but on a bridge in Alabama dripping with blood.

We show up every year to let it be known that we are not going back.

We are going annually to leave no room for doubt.

This is our country. We were born here, and until all of us are free, none of us can make a claim for freedom.

We go to Selma every year so that the bigots and the racists, and the sexists, and the supremacists will know that we will not be moved.

We don't show up in Selma every year for Reverend Martin Luther King. We come for our children, and our grandchildren, and our great- grandchildren, and generations yet unborn.

We go to Selma to make it clear that as long as we have anything to say about it, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and for all the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on this day, March 7, I would like to also share reflections that I have had with the House regarding Mrs. Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, a resident of the First Congressional District of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege, better than 3 weeks ago, to attend the screening of the ``Till'' movie in the White House under the Presidency of Joseph R. Biden.

My remarks are as follows: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give special recognition to Mr. Andy Jassy, chief executive officer of Amazon, for his inspiring contribution to the making of the major motion picture ``Till,'' a movie about the life and martyrdom of Emmett Till.

Mr. Jassy's participation is of special importance to me, not only as an African American but as a Representative of the First Congressional District of Illinois.

Emmett Till lived and is now buried in the First Congressional District. Were he alive today, I very well could be his constituent in the First District or he could have been mine.

Sadly, we live in a world where the prospects of Black life continue to diminish. Emmett Till never got to live out his days in peace. He never got to pursue the best of what he had to offer the world.

It is important that we remember that Emmett Till was actually a human being.

Emmett Till was not, first and foremost, a victim, nor was he merely a symbol of racial antipathy in America. Emmett Till was a young man of tremendous compassion--a compassion not just for his family, but for his community as well.

Emmett dreamed of becoming a motorcycle policeman. It is said by those who knew him well, that Emmett had a joy for life, an infectious personality, and a remarkable sense of humor. In the eyes of those who loved him, Emmett was a boy who knew no limitations. He was what we should be and what we should value in all children in America, namely limitless.

There is nothing more tragic than such a bright light should be needlessly extinguished, that such a treasure should be buried in the ground, and that such a crime against humanity should have taken place.

I remember having been with Mrs. Rosa Parks, and my father Reverend Jackson asked her: Why did she not get up off of that bus in 1955?

She said that it was because she saw Emmett's picture and could not go back.

That indeed laid a foundation of a resurgence of a civil rights era.

I should also mention that the First Congressional District is not only where Emmett lived his life, but it is also the place where his mother kept sleepless sentinel over the memory and body of her son in a way most reminiscent of Antigone.

Mamie Till courageously fought for accountability and justice not just for her child alone. After the murder of her son, Mamie Till lived her life dedicated to the proposition that all children have a right to be safe and protected.

Without title or position, the mother of Emmett Till committed herself to the eradication of hatred in America, the kind of hatred that killed her son and the kind of hatred that continues to limit the horizons of millions of Blacks because of the color of their skin.

Mamie Till not only was a resident of the First Congressional District, she was the conscience of the community. Having already taken a moral stand, Mrs. Till was the quintessential American mother: Fearless and tenacious and yet somehow endowed with a generosity of spirit that not even the most sullen of hearts could resist her light. To meet her was to meet someone so singularly dedicated to equality that one could not be in her presence without being fundamentally transformed.

I am particularly proud to say that Mamie Till was a close friend of my family, and I have known her all of my life. Both my mother and father loved and admired her, and she must never be forgotten.

This is why the contribution of Mr. Jesse Williams is so significant. The murder and martyrdom of Emmett Till was not only tragic in its own right, but it points the way to a larger and fundamental truth of the American experience. From the years 1882 until 1968, approximately 4,742 people were lynched in America. Most of them were African Americans. The overwhelming majority were innocent, murdered without provocation, and perhaps, most importantly, all of them American citizens trying to secure for themselves the benefits of America.

But because we live in a nation dangerously preoccupied with the impediments of race, over 4,000 of its citizens--Emmett Till being one of them--lost their lives in the unintelligent and uncompromising shadows of hatred. This is why the film sponsored by Mr. Jesse and Amazon is of such critical importance in this era.

Given the fact that we are living in a time when government institutions are trying to erase uncomfortable and inconvenient aspects of American history, cultural artifacts must be rendered beyond reach of state sanctions and curriculum.

Mr. Faulkner said long ago that the center must hold, the truth must be preserved, and everything else is a lie. Nations that build their tomorrows on a cacophony of falsehoods are not worthy of the future they presume. But when we tell the truth, when we tell our story, then we are in the moment a better nation.

This is why what Mr. Jesse has done. This is what all of the makers of the movie ``Till'' have collaborated to create. They, much like the best of the Nation's creative forces, have given us something to consider, something to think about, and something to make us remember lest we fall victim to the most egregious historical infraction: the very act of forgetting.

While it is true that no company is without spot or blemish and since there are no immaculate corporations, it is no less the case, however, that Mr. Jesse's commitment to the making of this important cultural artifact is a watershed moment not only because of the movie's artistic content, but also because it raises the bar on how we might judge the value of corporate citizenship.

Fifty years ago, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that in some situations, cowardice will ask: Is it safe?

Expedience will ask: Is it popular?

But conscience must ask: Is it right?

Prayerfully, I long for the day when we might look back upon the significant corporate and cultural collaboration and the emergence of a new American corporate consciousness. I think it is not a stretch to suggest that more American companies need to publicly align themselves with the truth of American history.

Mr. Jesse has certainly done that. He has reminded us that despite the inherent value of selling, we must put aside selling items sometimes to make a profit in order to do what is right for our Nation and the world.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we honored and commemorated the memory of Emmett Till. I had the pleasure of attending the White House screening of the movie `Till.' Emmett Till was only 14 years old when he was brutally beaten, shot, and dumped into the Tallahatchie River. It was horrific tragedy that sent shockwaves across the Nation, exposing the deep-seated racism and hatred that existed in the South during that time.

But it was also a pivotal moment that helped to galvanize a generation of civil rights activists, including my father and countless others, who were determined to fight for equality and justice for all.

I find it significant to mention that Emmett Till was born the same year as my father. As a son of the civil rights movement, I know that Till's murder touched the hearts of many and inspired them to take action. One of those people was Rosa Parks, who attended a rally in Alabama in 1955, where she heard Mississippi activist Dr. T.R.M. Howard speak about Till. Years later, my father asked Rosa Parks why she refused to move to the back of the bus, and she replied, ``I thought of Emmett Till and I couldn't go back.''

Thank you, President Biden for hosting this screening of `Till' at the White House. Your decision to share this important story with the country demonstrates your commitment to the fight for racial justice and your understanding of the importance of educating the public on the history of our Nation. Additionally, I want to thank Congress and the President for signing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law, which makes lynching a federal crime. This historic legislation sends a clear message that the United States will no longer tolerate the senseless and brutal acts of racial violence that have scarred our Nation for too long.

Emmett Till's story is a painful reminder of the injustices and violence that Black people have endured for centuries in this country. But it is also a testament to the courage a resilience of those who fought for justice, and a call to action for all of us to continue that fight.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source