Women's History Month

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McIVER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the fine gentlewoman of Virginia (Ms. McClellan) for anchoring tonight's Special Order hour to celebrate Women's History Month and to celebrate and speak truth tonight. I am glad to be standing here during Women's History Month right after Black History Month to celebrate specifically Black women.

Black women have always looked at this country and thought and asked: How can I make it better? They then fought for that ``better.''

When we weren't given a seat at the table, we made it our mission to bring a folding chair. We have always stood in the gaps. We have a long history of being first to take on the fights that others would not take on.

Looking at the pain and suffering among our families, neighbors, and friends, and deciding to step in to protect the vulnerable and speak out for the voiceless, especially when those in power won't fight for us. We fight for us.

We know our liberation is tied to the liberation of others: Black, Brown, immigrant, citizens, every race, every gender, all of us. We know that truth, and that is why there is continually so much effort put toward stopping us. Even if this very body in this very Chamber, Black women are under attack.

We are currently witnessing a coordinated and vicious assault on the foundations of our freedom and history. We are seeing the effects of reckless economic policies, forcing hundreds of thousands of Black women out of the workforce. We are watching Black women stripped of our healthcare and maternal care. With every statistic, there are real human costs behind them.

There are mornings that I wake up feeling exactly how they want us to feel: powerless, hopeless, angry, and tired. It is the example of the Black women leaders that came before me that remind me that we cannot back down. There is no progress through comfort.

Now is not the time to become complacent. Yes, we are tired. We are being pushed, but now is the moment for neck-deep courage.

Just last month I was in Selma for the remembrance of Bloody Sunday. A speaker referenced how in Exodus, Moses went neck-deep into the Red Sea before it was parted. He took the first step toward a raging ocean because he knew that his prayer to be liberated would manifest.

She spoke of how Harriet Tubman went neck-deep to wade in the water, facing the threat of death, because she knew that freedom was worth fighting for.

Mr. Speaker, the toughest fights to freedom require you to go neck- deep. Every generation must step up and ask: Are we neck-deep people? And one thing I know is that is who Black women truly are. I am saying it plain: Black women are under attack, but we are not going to be silenced or scared--not now, not ever.

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