Rep. Cori Bush gave an impassioned speech about the history of the country on the House floor as a large photo depicting a lynching stood behind her. Bush launched into a history lesson for Republican policymakers who have been attempting to downplay the current and present displays of racism in the United States, The Independent reports.
"St Louis and I rise today because if America's students are not taught the truth in school, we can at least make the House of Representatives their classroom," the Missouri Democrat said.
If teaching the truth about Black history is being banned from schools, we can make the floor of the House of Representatives our classroom.
Here's a Black history lesson for my colleagues and our country.
No matter how hard they try to deny it, this is American history. pic.twitter.com/rDgGsINg43
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) February 8, 2022
Despite the censorship of American history by white Republications across the nation who are against the teaching of Critical Race Theory, Bush defiantly spoke about the realities of her existence and how her family acquired their last names.
"We're going to tell the truth today," Bush said. "Black adults and Black children enslaved and forced to endure being tormented, being tortured, being raped by white slave owners on slave ships and on the plantations."
"Our presidents owned, our presidents sold, our presidents enslaved Black people," she continued. "The image behind me, this image is the truth of our country's history that our students are denied. This is what lynching in America — this is what it looks like."
The lawmaker also referenced the graphic photo behind her to illustrate how white Americans used lynching to terrorize and control Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to the NAACP.
"When our students don't learn about these lynchings in school, it's not just to deny us our justice, it's because racist policymakers don't want white children to know that that may be great-grandpa, smiling in the picture and pointing up at our ancestors dangling as strange fruit," she said alluding to the song "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holliday that spotlighted the lynchings occurring in the South.
Bush continued making her points, adding that "too many racist lawmakers want to prevent our students from learning."
"So to young white people, this is your history. The atrocities perpetrated against Black people for generations were committed by your ancestors. Not all of you. But many of you," Bush said pointedly.
She concluded her speech by imploring white American students to repair the damage done by their ancestors.
"And if your history books do not teach this history, question the book," she said. "Talk to your school district. Tell them we don't want to whitewash history. We want and deserve the truth."
Bush became a community activist after the shooting of Michael Brown by Missouri police officer Darren Wilson in 2014.
