Benjamin Gilman: “I rise in honor of Black History Month for 1998. I would like to thank the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes] for…”

“I rise in honor of Black History Month for 1998. I would like to thank the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stokes] for arranging this special order. It is appropriate at this time that we call to mind the outstanding black men and women who have contributed so much to our national prosperity. Many of these men and women are yet to be properly recognized in history texts, and as we approach the next millennium we must continually work towards correcting this great injustice, and towards acknowledging the role African Americans have played in making America the great nation that it is today. For example, Crispus Attucks, a free black man of Boston, Mass., was the first American to die for the revolutionary cause. After we achieved our national independence, a black man by the name of Benjamin Banneker was an integral planner in the lay-out of the Capital city, working to assist and expand upon the ideas of Pierre L'Enfant. In our nation's fight to achieve civil rights and equality black men and women always took a leadership role. In the late nineteenth century--when our nation stood divided, and many black slaves were being massacred as examples to their peers--heroes such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth organized the underground railroad, leading thousands of black men and women to freedom, and ensuring that the lives of those murdered were not spent in vain.”