Women's History Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. ELFRETH. Mr. Speaker, Commander Janie L. Mines was the first African-American woman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980.

Commander Kristine Holderied, a Howard County native, was the first woman to graduate as valedictorian not only from the Naval Academy but from any service academy, in 1984.

Midshipman Kristen Dickmann, a Naval Academy freshman and volleyball player, tragically passed away at the age of 19 in 2008. Her memory is now honored every single year, for over the last decade, via a tournament in her honor.

Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber, the Naval Academy's first African-American female brigade commander, earned that honor not even 5 years ago, in 2020.

I share these names and stories because these are women and women of color who are an integral part of the rich history of the United States Naval Academy that I have the privilege of representing. It is not just the Naval Academy. They represent our military and, proudly, our Nation.

I want to be clear that this administration's unrelenting and reckless attack on the stories and the history of persistence, diversity, and opportunity only serves to set us back.

When faculty at our five world-class service academies are told to avoid divisive concepts like racism and sexism, that only threatens to erase the stories and experiences of these brave women who just wanted to serve our great Nation.

I strongly believe that we should have a Navy and Marine Corps that look like our country, where our midshipmen receive an education that teaches the accurate and full history of this Nation, where the stories of women and people of color aren't skipped over because they are inconvenient.

This is all critical to our national security and strong democratic principles that we embody abroad. It is for these women and the hundreds of thousands of women serving our Nation at home and abroad that I am here today.

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