Charles Rangel: “Let me thank my friend and colleague from the great Borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, and my colleagues, for coming…”

“Let me thank my friend and colleague from the great Borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, and my colleagues, for coming down to the floor. Mr. Speaker, when we started the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, I guess most people said: Why do you need a Black Caucus? Thirteen of you of color have been able to break the walls of racism and discrimination to reach the Halls of the United States Congress. Obviously, you don't have to say that you're Black. What we tried to do then, and I guess we are still involved in that struggle, is to try to make certain that there's absolutely no need for any group of people to have to identify themselves for protection and for aggressiveness on programs because of their color. I tell the gentleman from New York--I guess you were about born when we started the Caucus--I wish by the time you got here and you were looking for the Congressional Black Caucus, I would be able to say: Hakeem, that's all over. That's when we were not treated as full Americans. That's ancient times, the same way I had thought that poll taxes and things of that nature that the late--my predecessor--Adam Clayton Powell had been able to overcome. So now comes the question where people feel so awkward to say race was a factor in the killing of young Mr. Martin. Why would they feel so awkward?…”