James E. Clyburn
Representative for South Carolina · Democratic · United States
“His commitment to public service and the people he represented will remain an enduring part of his legacy. I shall never forget playing a round of golf with Lindsey Graham in one of South Carolina's many beautiful golf courses, and I raised an issue with him that I thought was very significant.”
“Mr. Speaker, I, like many others, were shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, who served in this body from 1995 to 2003, when he left to begin serving in the Senate. I wrote in the introduction to my memoir that I am a child of blessed experiences, generally southern, proudly Black.”
“I said to him: You are not taking it. I am giving it to you. Then he said: I don't know if I understand what it is all about. I said to him: When the bill is called, invite me to speak on it, and he did. South Carolina got that heritage corridor.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E368-E369] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRIBUTE TO REVEREND KENNETH F. HODGES ______ HON. JAMES E.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E368-E369] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRIBUTE TO REVEREND KENNETH F. HODGES ______ HON. JAMES E.”
“His work consistently reflected a commitment to empowerment, equity, and cultural preservation. Reverend Hodges was a devoted husband to Patricia A. Few and a proud father to three daughters--Kendrea, Kenyatta, and Kenithea.”
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Every one of 64 lines we hold for James E. Clyburn, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 2.
“When Albert Sabin finished his professional career at the Medical University of South Carolina because Albert Sabin discovered how that little drop of serum on a lump of sugar would help eradicate polio. I was proud of that. I know Jonas Salk had one too, but I like Albert Sabin better because Jonas Salk was a shot in the arm. Albert Sabin was a little lump of sugar. Who would rather get a shot in the arm than a lump of sugar? I was proud of Albert Sabin finishing his career at the Medical University of South Carolina. I don't mind telling people about him. I don't mind teaching about him. What is wrong with teaching about Charles Drew, an African American who discovered the method by which we can refrigerate blood and save it until we would need it. What would we have done without that discovery?”
“Then I am hearing from this administration that there is something wrong, uncomfortable about children learning about Lewis Latimer. Well, it is not uncomfortable for me to teach about Thomas Edison, why should it be uncomfortable for you to learn about Lewis Latimer because together they made the lightbulb work? Why should we leave Lewis Latimer out of the textbooks and keep Thomas Edison in? That is what this administration is facilitating. That is why I saw on the front page of The Washington Post--I think it was this morning; it might have been yesterday--it was a big story about Harriet Tubman checking her stuff out of Federal facilities. What is this about? Why is it that it is uncomfortable for people to learn about that? It is not uncomfortable for me. I was very proud of Albert Sabin.”
“We all know what DEI is. We have been having trouble with these lights all day. I hope I am more than a silhouette back to my constituents tonight. We celebrate Thomas Edison as the most prolific inventor of American history. Why? Because we said he invited the lightbulb and that is true. I taught that when I was teaching history that Edison invented the lightbulb. I am proud of that. However, what was not in those textbooks that I was teaching from, and I had to go to my own book to teach my children properly, because Thomas Edison couldn't get the lightbulb to work properly. It was not until Thomas Edison sat down with Lewis Latimer who had invented a filament. Lewis Latimer's filament is what made Thomas Edison's lightbulb work.”
“We had the big celebration there in Camden, South Carolina, where I graduated from high school, this cannon was fired just about six blocks from the school I graduated from. The bill I worked on for 20 years finally became law. We took about 100 pictures that day. Look at this picture. The Congressman from the Fifth District you can see him standing there in the center. The Congressman from the Seventh District standing there in the center. Where is the guy from the Sixth Congressional District whose bill this was? Well, let me show you where he is. If you can see through this guy, you can see me. Why is that? It is called DEI. They are saying the person who is in charge of taking the picture decided who he wanted to have credit for it. That is what DEI is all about. I don't know what this gentleman is talking about.”
“He sent Nathanael Greene down to Charleston and Nathanael Greene took over, won the Battle of Charleston, and changed the direction of the Civil War. I love this kind of history. That is why way back in 2001, along with Congressman John Spratt, I authored a resolution to do a study of the Revolutionary War sites because I thought it was important for little children in the public schools of South Carolina to know what role our State played in the Revolutionary War. That was important to me because all they could see in their textbooks was what happened in the Civil War and that is all people knew about. It took me all the way to 2019 to introduce the legislation, and I think it got passed in 2022. Twenty years we worked on this and then we had the big celebration. I am getting to this DEI stuff here.”
“As you can tell, this picture is about the Revolutionary War. Now, a lot of people talk about Massachusetts and Virginia and what they did for the Revolutionary War. Let me tell you something, if you were really educated properly, you would know that some, if not the most important battles, of the Revolutionary War took place in South Carolina. If you talk to people today about a war in South Carolina, they can only talk about the Civil War. Yeah, it started there in the Charleston Harbor, but if you go back and look at the Battle of Charleston, that critical battle that we had lost twice, General Gates was not a good general, and then George Washington decided that he would get outside of his comfort zone. George Washington decided that he would not hold Nathanael Greene's background up in Rhode Island against him.”
“When the President closes the Department of Education and he then sends all of that back to the States, we will have people in one State getting a different quality of education than kids in another State. That is not what building a unified country is all about. E pluribus unum; Out of many, one. We ought to have out of many departments of education one Department of Education that would take on the responsibility of making sure that all of our children get the kind of education they deserve. I will speak just a little bit to what my colleague just talked about here about DEI. I will say a little bit about DEI here as it relates to education and to the all-important industry that we have in South Carolina. Now, this picture here is a picture that tells you a little bit about education and DEI.”
“When we see young people going to school, becoming educated, and trying to do the things that are necessary to prepare themselves for the future, we would do well as a government, a Federal Government, to reinforce the efforts of our States because when you give total educational responsibility to States, it means that the quality of education will be dependent upon the wealth of the State. South Carolina is becoming wealthy, but it is not a wealthy State. We have States in our country that will not be able to afford the investment in education that other States can. We should not have an educational system with 50 different kinds of educational levels for our children. We should have a unified process, and that is what we have been trying to do with the Department of Education.”
“Elliott when a Federal [[Page H1449]] judge, Waties Waring, himself a great-grandson of a Confederate soldier, Waties Waring decided that the time had come for us to put that kind of process behind us, and he wrote the dissenting opinion in Briggs v. Elliott that Earl Warren used to issue the majority opinion in Brown v. Board of Education getting that behind us. That is what this is all about, bringing people of different backgrounds and experiences together so that we can educate our children properly.”
“I grew up on a paved street. I walked three blocks to my elementary school, six blocks to my middle school, and I am a graduate of Mather Academy. We called it a boarding school in those days. So I didn't know what it was like to have to walk 2.5 miles to school. Then I reflected on those children in Clarendon County, South Carolina, who walked 9.5 miles to school every day, no bus. The White kids had buses and they had to walk. Why? Because the superintendent of education said that yours don't pay enough taxes for buses. That is what we have been trying to get over in this country. That is why we had Brown v. Board of Education, which started in that little town of Summerton, South Carolina, as Briggs v.”
“Is something wrong with Mignon? She said no. There is nothing wrong with Mignon. I just saw you on television and there is something wrong with you. Sit down and let me ``splain'' something to you. Now, it is one thing to get an explanation, but when the Gullah Geechee woman from South Carolina starts ``splaining,'' it is time to sit down, and I did. She told me about her experiences growing up in rural South Carolina when her class, her students did not have schoolbuses. They had to walk 2.5 miles to school every morning and 2.5 miles back home every afternoon. She told me that the White kids had buses. They would ride by them and throw urine-filled balloons as they walked. She said to me on that day, they were not against busing then and you best not be against busing now. I learned the difference in our backgrounds.”
“I was married to the same woman for 58 years. I remember when schools were first integrated and the courts demanded in the case called Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in Charlotte, North Carolina, that we ought to allow busing to educate children. Mr. Speaker, I thought there was something wrong with that decision. I didn't like it because I thought it put too much burden on students. {time} 2000 I went out talking about my opposition to that decision. In fact, I spoke to a TV reporter who held the mike in my face and I waxed what I thought was eloquent until I got home. When I got home, my wife was standing in the middle of the door, tears were streaming down her face. I asked her what was wrong. I thought maybe something had happened to our daughter. We had one child at the time. I rushed toward her, what is wrong?”
“The African Methodist Episcopal Zion, AME Zion, has a school up in Rock Hill outside of my district. I better mention Claflin University in Orangeburg, as well. Mr. Speaker, as we talk about education and think about the Trump administration's efforts to minimize the importance of focusing on areas that have been left out of the process, I will mention a couple things here tonight that is going to run a little bit contrary to what my staff has researched for me. The knowledge and skills of our young people and the things that they learn in school should not be limited to people who look like them or only people with similar backgrounds and experiences. We learn from each other when we bring to discussion a plethora of backgrounds and experiences that we can learn from. I found that out in my own marriage.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) tonight in opposition to the Trump administration's attacks on education. Mr. Speaker, as the gentlewoman just mentioned, our country has a very spotty history when it comes to educating everybody. I know a lot about the history she just mentioned in Alabama and Mississippi and now in Virginia. Hailing from South Carolina, my own dad was not allowed an education beyond the seventh grade by the State of South Carolina. Thanks to Black churches. In fact, in my congressional district, there are seven HBCUs. Only two are supported by the State. The other five are church schools: The AME Church at Allen University; the Baptists at Benedict College and Morris College; and Episcopalians at Voorhees.”