On the recordJuly 9, 2015
Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to speak about the importance of our acting now to do the right thing in regard to the Confederate flag. Many of you may not know, but this year marks 100 years of the viewing and the premiere of the film that really sparked the re- emergence of the Confederate flag, ``The Birth of a Nation.'' We know that film was bigger than ``Star Wars'' and ``Jaws'' and any major blockbuster motion picture. That is what ``The Birth of a Nation'' was. It revived the Confederate flag. It made the Confederate flag the symbol of hate that it is today. It actually helped the re-emergence of the second Ku Klux Klan in this country. We know that that is what the Confederate flag ultimately stands for. It doesn't have anything to do with the Civil War and with the battle, like Mr. Clyburn had pointed out earlier, because that was a completely different flag. It has to do with segregation and keeping us in the past. We need to be able to move past it, Mr. Speaker. I would ask that my Republican colleagues do the right thing and join us in moving forward and in letting the past be the past.
