Supreme Court Decision on Affirmative Action Will Have Devastating Effects

Floor Speech

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Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from Florida for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to lend my voice to the chorus of those who are mortified and offended by the recent and misguided Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions.

Today, I stand in unity with the thousands of Black and Brown families I represent in the First Congressional District of Illinois and the millions across this Nation who have personally endured the harsh realities of racism in America and deserve to be respectfully heard on this significant matter.

What the Supreme Court has done flies in the face of what African Americans have been working to achieve in this country for over 250 years.

Black people in America have never asked this country for special treatment, but what we have rightly asked for and demanded is that there be policies put in place that do not intentionally and unrepentantly exclude us from participating in the benefits of the American Dream.

Affirmative action was not a way for Black people to be given special privileges but was rather a very conservative solution to attempt to atone for the legacy of generational bigotry and systemic injustice.

I dare anybody to justify the logic that would compel someone to believe that giving people who have been excluded from the game an opportunity to get on the field is somehow racist or an affront to White people.

If the game were fair, we wouldn't need affirmative action in America. If the rules were transparent, we would not need affirmative action in America. And if the playing field was even, and everybody was judged by their character and merit, we would not need affirmative action in America.

But when has this ever been the case? And it is not the case today. There has never been a time in this Nation when favoritism didn't tip the scales at the expense of other equally deserving individuals.

You see, this formation of the middle class in the United States is not a tale of self-made success alone, but a story profoundly influenced by government policy.

It is a narrative indelibly marked by historical reality: The U.S. Government, through a combination of Federal programs, played a pivotal role in creating an exclusively White middle class.

Beginning with the Homestead Act, followed by the G.I. Bill, and the provisions of the Federal Housing Administration and VA loans, a triad of Federal programs was established. These programs were instrumental in allowing Whites to extricate themselves from poverty and achieve a modicum of the American Dream. It is crucial to understand that middle class White Americans did not solely pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The G.I. Bill emerged as an historic opportunity for wealth creation, unprecedented in world history.

Homeownership, once an elusive dream for many, became a reachable goal. Car financing expanded its reach. Higher education became a feasible ambition for a broader population.

The government acknowledged that empowering people to be self-reliant is not the same as bestowing unearned advantages. These programs systematically excluded African Americans from reaping the legal benefits that they had rightfully earned through their military service and their ancestors' enslavement. Thus, while these programs shaped a burgeoning White middle class, they simultaneously perpetuated an insidious racial wealth gap.

During our previous Memorial Day commemoration, I stood here and recounted the stark reality of how earlier administrations diligently undermined the legal rights of Black veterans. The number of Black individuals granted land or qualifying for the Homestead Act was woefully low, even though their ancestors were promised 40 acres and a mule--a promise explicitly made, endorsed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America, yet a promise unfulfilled.

While Black Americans descended deeper into poverty, the White middle class began to flourish.

Now the Supreme Court would like us to believe that after 50 years of trying to level the playing field, that somehow miraculously and fundamentally our Nation has been transformed. The Supreme Court would like for us to believe that what took 300 years to destroy has now been completely resurrected in 50 years.

Show me a single instance where reconstruction outpaces destruction. To make matters worse, the Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment, an amendment that was designed to ensure equality, to strike down a Federal program that permitted race as an acceptable consideration for admission opportunities.

Does anyone else perceive the irony?

The very amendment utilized to reach this flawed decision was designed to incorporate race as a lasting constitutional consideration at every level of American life.

How can one justify using a law created to safeguard a certain race as the basis for undermining fundamental aspects of their protection?

But what this decision shows us is that conservative members of the Supreme Court are not strict constructionists, as they would like us to believe. What this decision shows us is that the Supreme Court doesn't actually believe in the furtherance of a meritocracy in America. We know this because while the Court eliminated race as a viable consideration, it did not, however, do anything about legacy admissions.

According to Forbes Magazine, approximately 42 percent of the applicants accepted into Harvard University, our Nation's oldest private institution, founded in 1636, were donor-related applicants, while another 34 percent of the admissions were legacy.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleagues on the other side to explain to me how this qualifies as meritocracy.

Plainly stated, it does not. If you are wealthy, if your family has a legacy of attending a certain school, you will be given favorable attention with respect to the consideration of your application.

What the Supreme Court has told us is that money and nepotism are completely acceptable for choosing who should be educated at the selective enrollment universities.

The Supreme Court would have us believe that racism has ended, and everybody is equal. However, if you are fortunate to come from wealth and your family has a tradition of attending a specific school, you can receive preferential treatment.

This was not a decision based upon precedent. This was not a decision based upon history. Nor was this decision rooted in the current realities of America. Yet, we will not be deterred by this setback. We will not quietly allow the victories of our past to fade into the obscurity of the night or let the spark of our conviction be extinguished.

We refuse to watch helplessly as the new America, the America that Dr. Martin Luther dreamed of and indeed gave his life to birth, becomes threatened.

The scales of justice have tipped in favor of those with privilege for too long. It is high time we redress this imbalance.

Mr. Speaker, I implore my colleagues: Let us rise to the occasion. It is not enough to express outrage; we must challenge it into action. Let us wield the power vested in us by the people to enact legislation that ensures liberty, justice, and equal access to education for all.

This is not an insurmountable task, but a duty we owe to our constituents, and indeed, to the generations to come after us. Let us strive to create an America that truly stands as a beacon of justice and equality, an America that fulfills its promise to all of its citizens, not just a privileged few.

Only then can we truly say that we have honored the legacy of those who fought for equality and justice before us. Only then can we ensure that their struggle was not in vain. Only then can we look into the eyes of our children and promise them a brighter and fairer future. This is about the kind of Nation we want to be and the kind of future we want to leave for those who come after us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as both a representative of the people and a humble servant in the enduring journey toward equality, justice, and civil rights.

Today, I stand in this chamber, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision on overturning affirmative action, a fundamental pillar of our relentless pursuit of racial equity.

Over a century ago, on this very day in 1905, an assembly took place near the precipice of Niagara Falls, Ontario. But it wasn't convened to marvel at the natural wonder of Niagara Falls. Instead, it was driven by the pressing issue of civil rights for all, irrespective of skin color.

This assembly was led by none other than W.E.B. Du Bois and the esteemed journalist William Monroe Trotter. The group of more than 50 African American men gathered on the Canadian side of the falls after a white hotel proprietor refused them lodging. Their meeting birthed the Niagara Movement, the precursor to the enduring organization we know today as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP.

The members of the Niagara Movement developed a Declaration of Principles. This declaration called for ``every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social,'' and they vowed that ``until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.''

Today, the words in the Declaration of Principles resonate with even more urgency in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision on affirmative action. Three principles outlined in the declaration particularly underline the issue at hand:

First, Economic Opportunity: The Niagara Movement members decried the denial of equal opportunities, particularly in economic life. They understood as we do today, that systemic discrimination in the economic sphere can amount to a form of modern peonage, crushing the aspirations and potentials of minority communities.

Second, Education: The Niagara Movement championed universal and compulsory common school education, and access to high school training for all, and opposed the monopolization of college training by any class or race. They pushed for federal education aid, particularly in the South, and an increase in public high school facilities. They advocated for trade and technical schools for training artisans, emphasizing the necessity of higher education. These principles echo the aims of affirmative action--to level the playing field, ensuring that every American, regardless of race or, class, has access to the same opportunities.

Third, the Courts: The Niagara Movement called for upright judges in courts, the abolition of color-based jury selection, equal punishment, and equal reform efforts for both black and white offenders. Now, we find ourselves in a moment when these principles seem to reverberate with even more urgency, as our Supreme Court appears to have lost its compass with a conservative-leaning and recent scandals of corruption. This decision on affirmative action serves as a sobering reminder of our Nation's ongoing struggle for racial justice and equality, and the urgent need for our institutions to uphold the very principles our Nation was built upon.

Rather than surrender to this setback, we must draw strength from our past and press forward. We must reaffirm our commitment to equality, continue our struggle for justice, and remember that the purpose of affirmative action always has been, and must remain, to mitigate the disadvantages that systemic discrimination imposes on our citizens. The quest for equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of their race, is a battle that we must not abandon.

Indeed, our fight is formidable, and the road to equality can often seem daunting. But as we stand here today, honoring our past, we must remember--we are not the first to undertake this mission, and we certainly won't be the last. The struggle for civil rights, equality, and justice, represents our collective pursuit to form a more perfect union.

Let us find fortitude in our history and the legacy of movements and individuals that fought before us. From the courageous voices of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP to pioneers like W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter, we find our inspiration. Armed with their legacy, let's continue their work, imbued with hope and resilience, to ensure our journey toward justice remains unyielding.

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