Frank Lautenberg: “I rise to recognize Black History Month and pay tribute to the enormous and varied contributions African Americans have…”

“I rise to recognize Black History Month and pay tribute to the enormous and varied contributions African Americans have made to our Nation. The other evening, on the final night of the Olympics, Tom Brokaw of NBC News did a story about an American soldier named Vernon Baker who fought in Italy in World War II. Mr. Baker is now 86 years old. He was just a young man on the day in 1945 when he wiped out three Nazi machine gun nests and took out an enemy observation post. Mr. Baker came home from the war without much fanfare. But like the 1.7 million other Black soldiers who served our Nation during World War II, he came home a changed man. After fighting on foreign soil against an enemy that claimed superiority to other races, these men could no longer accept second-class treatment in their own country. World War II was the catalyst that finally convinced a significant portion of the American people that segregation was wrong. It was the beginning of the end of segregation in our Nation. After World War II, 432 Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Not one of them was African American. Finally, in 1997, the Government bestowed our Nation's highest medal on six Black veterans of World War II. Vernon Baker was the only one of those men still alive to accept his award. Mr. Baker's story mirrors Black history in our Nation in the last half of the 20th century. It is a story of determination and hope.…”