FINAL Black History Month Thread #12: "Did You Know?" (Bush II)

Maxine Waters

During the joint session of Congress to certify the 2000 Election Results, many African American members of Congress raised objections about the fraud and misconduct involved in the electoral process in Florida. Needing the signature of just one senator to open up debate on the results of the election, no senator came forward:

"Not a single Senator came to the aid of the African Americans in Congress. One after another they were told to sit down and shut up." - Michael Moore narrating Fahrenheit 9/11.

Rep. Maxine Waters' response on the floor:

"The objection is in writing and I don't CARE that it is not signed by a member of the Senate!" - Maxine Waters (D - CA), elected in November 2002 to her seventh term in the House of Representatives.

John Conyers Jr.

"On June 16, 2005, Rep. John Conyers (D - MI), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, hand-delivered petitions signed by more than 540,000 Americans (approximately 1 out of 440 adults in the country) and by 105 members of Congress to the White House, handing it to a White House aide, who stood on the opposite side of a White House gate of the White House. The petitions demanded that George W. Bush "provide a detailed response" to concerns raised by newly revealed documents from the British government of Tony Blair.

Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D - CA) was the lone dissenting vote in the 420-1 passage of the resolution authorizing to president to use force in Afghanistan. "Ms Lee said she was not opposed to the use of force, but (feared) that Congress was bestowing broad powers on President Bush without understanding what he intends to do with them."

Said Lee: "Let me tell you, I want to see justice done also, and I agonized, and I'm grieving like the rest of the country," she said. "But we have to sit back as members of Congress and think of the implications of using force... I don't believe we need to let this cycle of violence spiral out of control, and I believe when the dust settles people will understand that."

Other recent statements by Congresswoman Lee:

February 16, 2006 “It’s outrageous that six months since Katrina hit, the Federal government doesn’t have a recovery plan in place yet. We can’t afford to wait another six months."

February 07, 2006 "The CDC estimates that over one million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003. Although African Americans represent about 12 percent of the population, they account for nearly 50 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS. African American women are also disproportionately affected, accounting for over 60 percent of all infections among women."

Barack Obama (D - IL) is currently the only black senator serving, only the third black senator since Reconstruction, only the fifth in U.S. history, and only third to be popularly elected.