Madam Speaker, February is Black History Month, a time that we have set aside to honor the contributions that African Americans have made to this Nation. Some question the continuing need for a month-long celebration; others see it as a poor substitute for concerted national action to address the needs of African Americans. But Black History Month remains a time for reflection on the progress of our national journey towards a truly equal and just society.
America has traveled a long way in the last few decades, but we have a
long way yet to go. We have seen the promise of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of a colorblind America, but its reality lies in too many ways still beyond our grasps.
In some respects, this is a historic moment for this country, and historians may look back on this period as the true beginning of a post-civil rights era, a time in which the statutory gains made by an earlier generation are bearing fruit as a new generation fully realizes its dream for themselves and their children.
The current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and her predecessor, Colin Powell, are black. One of the front-runners in the Democratic Party's 2008 Presidential contest, Barack Obama, is African American.
In 1974, Boston was the scene of protracted racial violence as the result of a court-ordered busing to integrate the city's schools. Last month, Massachusetts inaugurated its first black Governor, Deval Patrick.
Here in the House of Representatives, the Chair of the Democratic Caucus is African American, and five committees are chaired by black Members: Homeland Security, Judiciary, Ways and Means, Government Administration, and the Ethics Committee. Last Sunday for the first time two black head coaches faced each other in the Super Bowl.
It would be easy to look at these examples of African Americans who have made it to the summit of our national life and conclude that the shackles of oppression and prejudice have finally been released, but that is not the case. And even as we honor those who have risen, we cannot neglect the millions more who are still trying, including many whose lives were shattered by Hurricane Katrina only a year and a half ago. As Senator Obama has said, things are better, but better is not good enough.
It would be easy to look at the achievements of Dr. David Satcher, who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1998 to 2002, or Dr. Keith Black, the chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai in L.A., and conclude that African Americans are well represented among the Nation's physicians. Unfortunately, while blacks make up 12 percent of the population, they comprise only 3.6 percent of the Nation's doctors. This paucity of African American doctors is one reason why blacks lag behind whites in a host of crucial medical indicators.
White women in the United States can expect to live more than 4 years longer than black women, and white men have a life expectancy that is over 6 years longer than African American men.
African Americans in the U.S. also have higher mortality rates than Caucasians for many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS. Nationwide, the infant mortality rate for blacks is double that, double that of the white population.
Or we could look with optimism on the achievements of black business professionals, who are increasingly found in the upper management of American corporations and who are starting their own businesses at an ever-increasing rate. African Americans who own businesses increased by nearly a third in the 5 years from 1997 to 2002 and now number more than half a million nationwide. But these numbers cannot compensate for the fact that only four of the Nation's Fortune 500 companies are led by African Americans.
More generally, the median income for white households is $48,000, while that of black households is only $31,000. More telling, nearly one in four African Americans live in poverty, while fewer than one in ten whites do.
It would be easy to look at the achievements of Neil de Grasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, and Dr. Stephen Mayo, an associate professor of biology and chemistry at CalTech and think that the burden of inferior schools has been lifted from the shoulders of African Americans. Sadly, that is not the case.
At every level of education, blacks are disadvantaged in the classroom. According to the NAACP, far less money is spent on black pupils than on white pupils, more than $1,400 less per student in most impoverished areas. This inequality means that black children do not get access to the technology and other resources that white kids have.
More importantly, the quality of teachers in predominantly African American schools is not equal to that of teachers in white schools. These schools have the least experienced teachers, the highest percentage of out-of-field teachers, the highest teacher mobility rates, the greatest incidence of teachers who leave the profession. The consequences are predictable: profound gaps in reading and math that emerge in early elementary school and persist through high school, and much lower high school graduation rates.
So, Madam Speaker, even as we celebrate the many and profound gifts that African Americans have made to our country, we cannot lose sight of the urgent need for all of us to do more to rededicate ourselves to achieving the equality that is the cornerstone of American democracy. Things are better, but better is not good enough.