On the recordJuly 15, 2015
I thank the gentlemen for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join his call for justice for the sailors and their families who suffered in the discriminatory and callous response to the Port Chicago Naval Magazine tragedy. This is of particular importance to me because I have the honor of representing the district that the alleged leader of that protest, Joseph Randolph Small, had called home. It is also important because of where we are in the arc of history. The events of the past couple months have forced our Nation to do quite a bit of soul-searching on the topic of race and the enduring injustices felt by men and women of color. From the seemingly inexplicable use of force against unarmed people of color in cases like those of Walter Scott in South Carolina and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, to the explicit and disturbing hate crime committed at Mother Emanuel, we know that the bias and discrimination that occurred at Port Chicago is not isolated to the past. But, Mr. Speaker, if there is any positive outcome to these tragedies, it is in the opportunity to heal long buried but never bandaged wounds. Recognizing one such wound, South Carolina recently voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of its statehouse. Exonerating the sailors who were unfairly punished simply for seeking safer working conditions would help heal yet another. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague already described, in 1944, a segregated U.S.…
