Confederate Flag Amendments

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, there are days in this House when morality and the values of our country, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of our country, summon us to vote as Americans, as moral representatives, and as representatives of the values of our country. Today is such a day, my colleagues.

Three Democratic amendments were adopted earlier in the consideration of the Interior bill that would end the practice of displaying or selling Confederate battle flags and flag merchandise in national parks and National Park Service cemeteries. Those amendments were adopted by voice vote. They reflect the strong consensus in this country and, hopefully, in this Congress, that a symbol of slavery, sedition, segregation, and secession has no place in our national parks or in the cemeteries whose grounds have been hallowed by the veterans who rest there after having served and given their lives in defense of freedom and justice and the values of our country.

Unbelievably, however, Mr. Speaker, several hours ago, in the dark of night, the chairman of the Interior Subcommittee offered an amendment on this floor that would effectively strike those amendments which surely reflect the values to which all of us have risen our hand and sworn to protect.

Today, on the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution--how ironic that we would meet this vote on this day--which enshrined the principle of equality for all Americans, we have this shameful Confederate battle flag amendment on our floor.

This amendment would keep in place a policy that allows Confederate battle flags in our national parks and National Park Service cemeteries, a symbol, as my colleague Jim Clyburn, the assistant leader and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and an extraordinary Representative in South Carolina, said yesterday was so offensive and hurtful to so many millions of our fellow citizens and our fellow colleagues in this body.

Even in South Carolina today, where the Confederacy was born, that flag is being taken down from the State capitol grounds after both Republican-controlled houses of that State's assembly voted to remove it.

Certainly--certainly--on this day we ought not to see a Republican-led Congress move in the opposite direction. My colleagues, together, not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans deeply committed to the values of equality and justice and opportunity for all, we ought to remove that flag from our national parks, the cemeteries where our veterans rest and, I would say further, all public places. That includes the United States Capitol.

And I support my friend Representative Thompson's resolution that sits now in the House Administration Committee that would remove the flag of Mississippi, which contains the Confederate battle flag, until such time as Mississippians, as South Carolinians did yesterday, make a statement and remove that from their flag.

I urge my colleagues, my fellow Americans, the 434 of my colleagues that have raised their hand and sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, I urge my colleagues, let us do the right thing and reject this amendment and send a powerful message about what America truly represents: equality, justice, respect for one another, freedom for all.

Let us make America--every American--proud of us this day and reject the amendment adopted in the dead of night.

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