Congressional lions – Cummings and Conyers
4th November 2019 · 0 Comments
The recent passing of U.S. Rep. Elijah Eugene Cummings, 68, and retired Congressman John James Conyers Jr., 90, leaves a major void to be filled on Capitol Hill. Cummings passed on October 17, 2019 and Conyers departed this life on October 27, 2019. Conyers legislated for 54 years; Cummings for 23.
These ‘lions’ roared mightily in the U.S. House of Representatives, their loyalty to country and the Black community undergirded by their eyewitness to the struggles of Black people for civil and human rights in both the 20th and 21st centuries.
Both men not only witnessed the oppression and suppression of Blacks, they lived it. Both lived through American apartheid, aka, legal segregation and battled racism, voter suppression, mass incarceration, gerrymandering, and police brutality from their Congressional seats.
Cummings, at age 11, attempted to integrate a segregated swimming pool in Baltimore. He would go on to earn a law degree, serve in the Maryland House of Delegates and become “The Master of the House,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him.
As the Chair of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Cummings led investigations into Trump’s attempt to put a citizenship question on the Census and the occupant in the Oval Office’s policy of Family Separation at the Southern Border.
“We are better than that,” Cummings frequently said, when taking on corruption and wrongdoing in both his state and in Congress.
During the January 3, 2019 introduction of H.R.1 – For the People Act of 2019, the bill that addresses voter access, election integrity, election security, political spending, and ethics for the three branches of government, Cummings pledged to “fight to the death” in defense of voting and, thereby, democracy. The bill passed the House on March 3, 2019 and is on Mitch McConnell’s desk.
In 2019, the legislator sponsored or co-sponsored 259 bills, dealing with federal employees’ pensions and whistleblower protection legislation, among others. On 10/8/2019 his Family Asthma Act was introduced and on 10/28, Cummings’ Witness Security and Protection Grant Program Act of 2019 was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
Never one to be silent in the face of racism, when the movement to take down symbols of white supremacy spread from New Orleans to other states, Cummings said, “I applaud the folks in South Carolina for doing that (taking down the Confederate flag). I also applaud the governor of Alabama for doing what he’s done in taking down the flag. But that’s simply not enough. That is simply a symbol of bigotry, a symbol of racial hatred, a symbol of inequality for me and for so many others. Now we must begin to address racial disparities and inequalities themselves, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
Following the 2015 death of Freddie Gray from injuries suffered in Baltimore police custody, Cummings spoke at Gray’s funeral asking whether people “saw him” before he died. He called for “oceans of justice” and “rivers of fairness.” “For me, I am in the twilight years, but I am telling you we will not rest, we will not rest until we address this and see that justice is done,” Cummings said.
“It seems as if there are some police who believe that it is their job to not only arrest, but to convict and punish severely, unreasonably and unjustly at the scene of arrest defendants and suspects,” Cummings once commented about the epidemic of police brutality against Black people.
Cummings also addressed the need for the government to provide American youth with educational opportunities, he weighed in on health care, noting the high percentage of African-American women affected by AIDS and the need for families to be able to afford asthma medications and prescription drugs, war and peace, and issues big and small that diminished the quality of life for all Americans.
Cummings was a drum major for justice like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Many of these Americans who now are struggling to survive are Americans of color. We cannot allow it to be said by history that the difference between those who lived and those who died in the great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin color,” Cummings said of Hurricane Katrina survivors.
Cummings was ever aware of the preciousness of time and he worked every minute to make life better for his constituents and Americans. On his first day in office, he recited a Benjamin E. Mays poem:
Just A Minute
I only have a minute.
Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it,
But I know that I must use it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Suffer, if I lose it.
Only a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.
Cummings so embraced the Morehouse College President May’s philosophy about time, that reports are he continued to sign legislation on his death bed.
Cummings was the first African-American to lie in state in Statuary Hall, his casket resting on the Lincoln Catafalque, a platform of rough pine boards nailed together and covered with black cloth that was constructed in 1865 to support the casket of President Abraham Lincoln, while his body lay in state in the Rotunda following his assassination.
At press time, Conyers’ homegoing events included public visitation on November 3, at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and a church service on November 4 at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple.
After his active military service, Conyers earned both a bachelor’s degree and law degree. He worked on the staff of Congressman John Dingell; served as counsel to several Detroit-area labor union locals; and became one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. He was present in Selma, Alabama on October 7, 1963 for the voter registration drive known as Freedom Day. He employed Rosa Parks, who worked in Conyers’ Detroit office for 30 years and sponsored a bill to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.
Conyers was a founding member of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, the longest-serving African American in Congress and the Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned in 2017, amid allegations of sexual harassment by two female staffers. At the time, Conyers responded, “In our country, we strive to honor this fundamental principle that all are entitled to due process. In this case, I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me and continue to do so. My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we’re going through now, this, too, shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children.”
However, the allegations didn’t stop the U.S. House of Representatives from passing a resolution honoring Conyers on May 16, 2019, his 90th birthday. According to the resolution, Conyers was responsible for more than 100 bills, amendments, and resolutions being enacted, including 57 on which he was the overall lead sponsor, and 56 that he managed or was the lead Democratic sponsor. “He led many historic legislative efforts, including the Martin Luther King Holiday Act, reauthorizations of the Voting Rights Act, reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Pattern and Practice Enforcement Act, the USA Freedom Act, the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act, the Fair Sentencing Act, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (commonly known as the Motor Voter Act), and the Innocence Protection Act.
“Whereas John Conyers, Jr., is recognized as a champion of civil rights and civil liberties… Now, therefore, be it That the House of Representatives—honors retired Representative John Conyers, Jr., on the occasion of his 90th birthday; and extends congratulations and best wishes from the House of Representatives to Representative Conyers in celebration of a distinguished legislative career.”
However, to many in the African-American community, Conyers will be lauded for being a lion roaring in the wilderness for slavery reparations. He introduced House Resolution 40 in 1989 and proposed this act annually for 30 years.
“My bill does four things: It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; It studies the impact of those forces on today’s living African Americans; and The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans,” Conyers explained.
“Over 4 million Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and its colonies from 1619 to 1865, and as a result, the United States was able to begin its grand place as the most prosperous country in the free world… It is un-controverted that African slaves were not compensated for their labor. More unclear however, is what the effects and remnants of this relationship have had on African-Americans and our nation from the time of emancipation through today…
“I chose the number of the bill, 40, as a symbol of the forty acres and a mule that the United States initially promised freed slaves. This unfulfilled promise and the serious devastation that slavery had on African-American lives has never been officially recognized by the United States Government.”
So, how much is 40 acres and a mule worth today?
“It begins with a calculation that King made if America would stand by its promise of 40 acres and a mule, which is $20 a week since the late 1700s for 4 million slaves. The total was $800 billion, which in today’s dollars is $6.4 trillion,” the Atlanta Black Star reported.
Now that Cummings and Conyers are a part of history, the question remains: Who will carry out their legacies?
This article originally published in the November 4, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
