Bridging the Divide: Observations on Race and Justice in America

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my classmate and colleagues for
hosting us this evening for the Congressional Black Caucus Special
Order hour.

Mr. Speaker, during the past month, we honored the great achievements
and rich history of African Americans and the African American
community. We reflected on an unfortunate journey through slavery and
segregation, prejudices and discrimination. Though we bring Black
History Month to a close, the Congressional Black Caucus will continue
to fight for justice. Tonight our Special Order hour is Bridging the
Divide: Observations on Race and Justice in America.

Our attention to the divides in our society, however, does not end
because we entered a new month. We must remain focused on how we can
bridge the divides in our society and how we can bring our Nation
closer together. The divides are striking, and we know them all too
well: the school-to-prison pipeline, education disparities, health
disparities, the injustices in our justice system.

It is well established in fact that students of color face harsher
punishments in schools than their White peers, leading to a higher
number of youth of color in detention, suspension, and, yes, expelled.
Mr. Speaker, African American students are arrested far more often than
their White classmates. Black and Hispanic students represent more than
70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to
law enforcement. Currently, African Americans make up two-fifths and
Hispanics one-fifth of confined youth today.

Disparities are found not only in how we punish behavior in schools,
but also how we fund education. Mr. Speaker, this is true in K-12. It
is also true in higher education. And we know that a college degree is
a path to a middle class life. As African American students graduate
with more debt than their White classmates, the cuts to Pell grants are
threatening African American access to a better education. Without the
Pell grant program, hundreds of thousands of young African Americans
would not be able to afford college.

The disparities in access to health coverage are startling. The
infant mortality rate among African Americans is 2.3 times that of non-
Hispanic Whites, and African American infants are four times more
likely than non-Hispanic White infants to die, mostly due to
complications related to birth weight.

Mr. Speaker, we must confront these prejudices and these injustices
in our Nation head-on. The Congressional Black Caucus is committed to
resolving these challenges. The Congressional Black Caucus has fought
to ensure funding the Pell grant. Pell grants are contained in each
year's appropriations bills. We have worked hard to make sure that the
maternity and newborn care are part of health care plans under the
Affordable Care Act. Over 390,000 African American women in the
individual market alone are projected to gain maternity coverage
thanks--yes, thanks--to the Affordable Care Act. Our task force on the
elimination of sentencing disparities is moving the ball on how Black
men and women are treated in the judicial system.

As we have been working here in Congress, our partners, the Deltas,
my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, held their annual Delta Days
in the Nation's Capital today with thousands of women from across this
Nation gathering and advocating for these same disparities and
injustices.

As Deltas were uniting in their efforts today in our Nation's
Capital, my sorors and I were also uniting for one of our very own--
nominee Loretta Lynch. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted
12-8 to approve the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as the next United
States Attorney General, bringing her confirmation to the full Senate
for consideration.

I remember it all too well a couple weeks before that when we were in
that hearing room. It looked like a sea of red as Deltas marched in and
lined up one after another wearing our colors, crimson and cream.
Deltas lined the outside of the hearing room. Mr. Speaker, we did that
because, prior to entering that room, media and some of my colleagues
on the other side had tried to make it a bad thing that she organized
and was a founder of her college chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

What we were able to do was to show them when we work together,
whether that is Democrats and Republicans or sorority members or
nonsorority members, when it is the right thing to do, we can make a
difference.

I was so proud last week to sit there on the front row with my other
colleagues--with our chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
Congressman G.K. Butterfield; with the 100th woman sworn into the
United States Congress, Congresswoman Alma Adams; to be there with the
21st national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Congresswoman
Marcia Fudge.

We sat there next to Loretta Lynch's father, Reverend Lorenzo Lynch
of North Carolina, while the Judiciary Committee favorably reported the
nomination on a vote that was closer than it needed to be.

Ms. Lynch's nomination is well deserved and historic. Ms. Lynch
testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for nearly 8 hours, and
she responded to nearly 900 written questions, which is unprecedented.
Many of the written questions, Mr. Speaker, were from Senators who had
already declared their opposition to her nomination.

Ms. Lynch's nomination has now been pending far longer than any
recent Attorney General's nomination which, in my opinion, Mr. Speaker,
is shameful. She deserves to be voted our next Attorney General. If
Senators have a reason to vote against her nomination, they should make
their case public. Yes, hiding behind procedural tactics does not help our Nation.

As the Senate has an opportunity to unite behind a well-qualified
nominee for a critical position, Congress Members will have an
opportunity to be united this weekend when Democrats and Republicans
will travel to Alabama to march to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
the Selma marches.

Fifty years ago, people marched for equal voting rights. Out of those
marches, we got the Voting Rights Act. However, disparities remain, and
the Voting Rights Act has been eroded.

We can end this divide, Mr. Speaker, of who votes if my Republican
colleagues would bring up the Voting Rights Amendment Act, H.R. 885.
Let me say that again, Mr. Speaker. We can end the divide of who can
vote if my Republican colleagues would bring up the Voting Rights
Amendment Act, H.R. 885.

How long will it take? How long must we wait to have equal rights and
justice? It is well past time that we deliver to all Americans what
they deserve.

Like we did 50 years ago in Selma, we must do so again today and
stand united arm in arm, as my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues
and I did recently in Ferguson and as we will do tomorrow and tomorrow
and tomorrow.

Together, united, we can bring an end to the disparities that hold
our hardworking families back from achieving the middle class dreams
and the dreams of all Americans: that we should be equal.

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