Claudia Tenney: “I thank the gentleman so much for yielding. It is just an honor to serve with you and also to serve with our great…”

“I thank the gentleman so much for yielding. It is just an honor to serve with you and also to serve with our great colleague, Byron Donalds from Florida. I thank the gentleman for hosting this very important Special Order to celebrate and recognize Black History Month. Upstate New York has a strong abolitionist history, and I am honored to highlight the stories of our region's abolitionist heroes today. These individuals played a pivotal role in bringing our Nation's founding ideals to fruition following the brutal failure of slavery in our early days. Not many people outside New York realize just how rich our history is within the abolitionist movement. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to visit a few of these sites with Congressman Owens back in October which we later recalled and memorialized on the House floor in January in another Special Order. Many of these sites, such as the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, are located in the heart of my district in Peterboro, Madison County, New York. The Gerrit Smith Estate is named for Gerrit Smith, a wealthy New York landowner and one-term Member of the House of Representatives, who, coincidentally, represented the 26th District, as I do now. Smith put his wealth to good use by fervently supporting the abolitionist movement.…”