The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“COMMEMORATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E296-E297 on March 6, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
COMMEMORATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
______
speech of
HON. NICK J. RAHALL II
of west virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 28, 1996
Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, I am as proud as a father today, to have this opportunity to pay tribute to Vicky L. Bandy, of Beckley, WV, during Black History Month. For more than a decade, Ms. Bandy served as my executive assistant here in Washington, and Ms. Bandy was ever as loyal and dedicated as she was a professional, at all times and in all situations. I knew that I could depend upon her in all things.
Mr. Speaker, on February 24, 1996, Ms. Bandy gave a speech at the Beckley Federal Correctional Institution's Black Affairs Banquet, as part of its celebration of Black History Month.
I am privileged to place in the Record at this point, Ms. Bandy's stirring words as she encouraged and surely inspired her sisters as she spoke eloquently about their theme: African-American Women: Past, Present and Future. Mr. Speaker, I commend Ms. Bandy's remarks to my colleagues for their reading and their remembrance.
African-American Women: Past, Present and Future
(By Vicky L. Bandy)
``Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died.''
Today, we gather 370 years after the first African American landed at Jamestown, Virginia, 133 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and 31 years after the Enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave African Americans power at the Ballot Box.
Last October, the African American Community pledged itself to pursue a bold new course with the success of the Million Man March.
The success of the effort is still being felt. But today, ladies, it is our turn. The Theme for the 1996 observance of Black History Month is: African American Women: Past, Present and Future.
As I thought about what I would say, I thought about how far we as African Americans have come. I thought of the stories that were told to me by my Grandmother, Ella Bandy. I recall stories about how this Strong Black Woman worked hard in the fields of Alabama. She would leave her babies in a wagon under a shade tree, while she worked the long rows of the fields. At the end of each row, she would run back to check on her babies. Grandmama was a strong African American Woman. She never gave up, she was a woman of principle; and she never gave in. Grandmama's hands, hard and calloused from toiling in the hot Alabama Sun, so that her children and grandchildren could have a better way of life.
Earlier this week, I witnessed the Swearing-In ceremony of Congressman Kweisi Mfume, as President and CEO of the NAACP, an event that was attended by a very small but elite group of people, among them being the President and Vice President of the United States. I reflected back to the point in time when I would ride in the car with my grandfather on election day--a day that I equated to Thomas `n Joyland carnival coming to town.
Grand daddy's car windows held many campaign signs belonging to various politicians, seeking a vote in the Black community. I suppose it never occurred to Grand daddy that his granddaughter would grow up to become a part of the Political Process. He did not know that he was molding me for a successful career with your Congressman Nick J. Rahall. Well, Grand daddy did not live to see the end results of the many rides we shared on Election Day, but I will always be grateful to him. For I did not meet the normal standards. Ladies and Gentlemen, you see, I never attended an Ivy League school. I was educated in a four room schoolhouse. My parents were not politically connected, nor did they contribute to a campaign committee. The one thing that they did, was to teach me how to seize an opportunity.
That same lesson is equally important today. Too many of us today let opportunity pass us by, because we look for it in a pretty package, delivered to our doors by Federal Express or priority Mail. Often times, when we do seize the opportunity, we take all of the credit and forget that the way was paved by someone else, who labored and toiled in the fields from sun up to sun down.
``Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod''. I've got mine and you get yours, never offering to lend a hand to help another. Well, I heard the songwriter say ``The only time you should look down on a man, is when you are picking him up''. Imagine Harriet Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad, not reaching back, after seizing the opportunity to become a freed slave. Where would we be had it not been for Sojourner Truth, who traveled the country to proclaim to others the truth about slavery. Would we be able to sit in any seat on a bus today, had it not been for Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus, when Coloreds were not allowed to ride in the front.
African American women; past, present, and future. What about Dr. Mae Jamison, first African American female Astronaut? What about Elizabeth Drewey, first African American Woman elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates? What about Carol Moseley Braun, the first female African American U.S. Senator, and my boss, Hazel R. O'Leary, the first African American and female African American to become Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, one who has opened many doors to expose Minority Students to the world of Science. What about your mother and my mother, strong and courageous African American Women, who made tremendous sacrifices and stood firm, despite the obstacles they faced--despite society's denial; despite low paying jobs; despite prejudice and racism--women who because of their determination, paved the way for you and me.
``We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, we have come treading our path thru the blood of the slaughtered.'' But, I would ask you today, what profit a person to gain, if he or she does not reach back to help another? Now that we have arrived, what are we doing to ensure that we will have famous African American Women in the future?
There are young women in our own neighborhoods who need to know that there is a way off of Welfare and on to Faring Well. Each of you today has a Special Gift to give back, so that others can realize their dreams, their hopes, their goals. I challenge you to stir up your gifts, to lift up somebody, to respect each other, to love yourself and to never stop striving to reach for your goals, never give up--don't give in.
We are African American women, marching on till victory is won. Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, come to the place for which our fathers signed? African American women; past, present, and future.
Poet Maya Angelou sums it up by saying: ``You may write me down in history, with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise''. We will rise. African American women, past, present, and future.
____________________
