Senator Hiram Revels and Fannie Lou Hamer; request joint committee on Library of Congress to approve replacement of current statues with statues of.

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To: Rules
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE REGULAR SESSION 2026

By: Representative Johnson

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 5

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION FORMALLY REQUESTING THE JOINT 1
COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS TO APPROVE THE REPLACEMENT OF 2
THE STATUES OF JAMES ZACHARIAH GEORGE AND JEFFERSON DAVIS THAT ARE 3
DISPLAYED IN STATUARY HALL IN THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL WITH A 4
STATUE OF BOTH CIVIL RIGHTS ICONS, FANNIE LOU HAMER, AND SENATOR 5
HIRAM RHODES REVELS, THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN TO SERVE AS A 6
UNITED STATES SENATOR. 7
WHEREAS, the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United 8
States Capitol is comprised of 100 statues contributed by each of 9
the 50 states to honor persons notable in each state's history; 10
and 11
WHEREAS, thirty-five statues are now displayed in the 12
National Statuary Hall, while others have been placed in other 13
parts of the Capitol, including the Crypt, the Hall of Columns and 14
the Capitol Visitor Center; and 15
WHEREAS, Mississippi has representational statues of 16
Jefferson Davis and James Zachariah George displayed, which were 17
crafted by Augustus Lukeman and dedicated in 1931; and 18
WHEREAS, Jefferson Davis, who authored Rise and Fall of the 19
Confederate States, served in the United States House of 20
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Representatives and the United States Senate, was President of the 21
Confederate States, and eventually made his home at Beauvoir, near 22
Biloxi, Mississippi; and 23
WHEREAS, James Zachariah George was a Confederate colonel who 24
served on the Mississippi Supreme Court, represented Mississippi 25
in the United States Senate, helped frame the future Sherman 26
Anti-Trust Act, served as a member of the Mississippi 27
Constitutional Convention of 1890, and successfully defended the 28
constitution before the Senate and the Supreme Court; and 29
WHEREAS, both men are important figures who reflect similar 30
times, but do not necessarily reflect the unified spirit 31
encompassing the Mississippi of today, as it is Mississippi's 32
sentimental desire to respect and celebrate the past while 33
honoring its evolution from past icons to present icons; and 34
WHEREAS, on October 6, 1917, the world was blessed with the 35
birth of an American voting rights advocate, civil rights leader 36
and generous philanthropist, Fannie Lou Hamer, and now, the State 37
of Mississippi, as well as the United States of America still 38
revel in the progress and promise that she bestowed upon her 39
fellow Mississippians and fellow Americans; and 40
WHEREAS, born in Montgomery County, Mississippi, the youngest 41
of twenty children born to Ella and James Lee Townsend, Mrs. Hamer 42
and her family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, to work as 43
sharecroppers on the plantation of W.D. Marlow, where she began 44
picking cotton at the age of six; and 45
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WHEREAS, Mrs. Hamer attended school in a one-room schoolhouse 46
on the plantation from 1924 until 1930, but when the importance of 47
her ability to pick 200 to 300 pounds of cotton daily outweighed 48
the importance of her education, she was forced to drop out and 49
toil in the fields all day, fortunately though, not before she had 50
learned how to read and write; and 51
WHEREAS, her ability to read and write earned her the title 52
of time and record keeper for the plantation in 1944, and in 1945, 53
she married Mr. Perry "Pap" Hamer, and the two of them worked 54
together on the plantation for the next seventeen years, until 55
Mrs. Hamer was fired for registering to vote; and 56
WHEREAS, beginning her trailblazing journey to help achieve 57
equality for African Americans at the polling place in the 1950s, 58
Mrs. Hamer attended several annual civil rights conferences in 59
Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where she became inspired from civil 60
rights activists such as Mahalia Jackson, Thurgood Marshall and 61
Representative Charles Diggs of Michigan; and 62
WHEREAS, in 1961, Mrs. Hamer truly realized the importance of 63
her pleas for equality and change in the South and across the 64
nation when she entered an operating room to have a tumor removed, 65
but left without a tumor or any reproductive organs, as the white 66
doctor from Mississippi had given her a hysterectomy without her 67
consent as part of the state's plan to reduce the number of poor 68
African Americans located within its borders, a practice common in 69
the South during that time; and 70
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WHEREAS, as a result of her "Mississippi appendectomy," the 71
phrase she coined for her egregiously uninformed and nonconsensual 72
sterilization, Mr. and Mrs. Hamer were never able to have children 73
of their own, but unwilling to let racism prohibit them from being 74
parents, they later raised and eventually adopted two girls; and 75
WHEREAS, on August 23, 1962, after listening to an inspiring 76
sermon from Reverend James Bevel, an organizer for the Student 77
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and associate of Dr. 78
Martin Luther King, Jr., who encouraged African Americans to 79
register to vote despite the hardships waiting for them at the 80
polls, Mrs. Hamer did just that, as she was the first volunteer to 81
register to vote; and 82
WHEREAS, on August 31, the courageous Mrs. Hamer traveled on 83
a bus with other recipients of Reverend Bevel's sermon to 84
Indianola, Mississippi, to register to vote, and to help calm the 85
nerves of her fellow passengers and help them understand that what 86
they were doing was the right thing, she sang Christian hymns, 87
including "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "This Little Light of 88
Mine"; and 89
WHEREAS, the day she registered to vote proved to be 90
bittersweet for Mrs. Hamer, because after that bus ride to 91
Indianola, she had finally registered to vote, the same right that 92
all other Americans had, and a step towards true equality, but 93
upon her return to Marlow's plantation, she was fired for doing 94
the one thing she had fought so hard to do; and 95
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WHEREAS, her lack of employment ultimately benefited the 96
Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, as the trials, tribulations 97
and mostly, perseverance, reached the ears of Bob Moses, the SNCC 98
organizer, who recruited her to perform activist work all over the 99
South, with her base location remaining in Mississippi; and 100
WHEREAS, during one of her travel days, Mrs. Hamer and other 101
activists were returning to Mississippi from a literacy workshop 102
in Charleston, South Carolina, when they were stopped and falsely 103
arrested in Winona, Mississippi, but the ugliness did not end 104
there as once they were in jail, her colleagues were beaten by 105
police in the booking room, and she was taken to a cell where the 106
police had ordered two other inmates to beat her, which they did 107
until she nearly died; and 108
WHEREAS, after being falsely detained for three days, Mrs. 109
Hamer was finally released, and her recovery from the brutal 110
beating lasted for over a month, but despite her recurring 111
physical and psychological problems that resulted from that 112
horrendous incident, she bravely continued advocating in 113
Mississippi and organizing voter registration drives, including 114
the "Freedom Ballot Campaign" in 1963, and the "Freedom Summer" 115
initiative in 1964; and 116
WHEREAS, in the summer of 1964, Mrs. Hamer helped organize 117
the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, or "Freedom Democrats," 118
to challenge Mississippi's all-white, anti-civil rights delegation 119
to the Democratic National Convention, which failed to represent 120
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all Mississippians, and through her efforts, and her many, many 121
inspirational speeches on the issue, in 1968, the Freedom 122
Democrats were finally seated at the convention and the party 123
adopted a clause that demanded equality of representation from 124
their states' delegation; and 125
WHEREAS, in 1972, Mrs. Hamer was elected as a national party 126
delegate, and throughout her life, she continued to work at the 127
grassroots-level for programs such as Head Start, the Freedom Farm 128
Cooperative in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and Martin Luther 129
King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign; and 130
WHEREAS, a day that will forever be associated with grief and 131
sorrow in the minds and hearts of all Americans, on March 14, 132
1977, at the age of 59, complications from hypertension and breast 133
cancer ended the life of our beloved civil rights leader, Mrs. 134
Fannie Lou Hamer, but her legacy of change and progress will 135
continue to encourage young leaders in Mississippi and around the 136
country for generations to come; and 137
WHEREAS, in addition to Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer's outstanding 138
legacy, it is also important to recognize the incredible impact of 139
Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve 140
in the United States Congress, and one of Mississippi's most 141
iconic figures who stepped into history and pioneered toward 142
equality and justice; and 143
WHEREAS, one hundred and fifty three years ago, on February 144
25, 1870, visitors in the packed United States Senate galleries 145
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burst into applause as Senator-elect Hiram Rhodes Revels, from 146
Mississippi, entered the chamber to take his oath of office, and 147
those present knew that they were witnessing an event of great 148
historical significance, as he was about to become the first 149
African American to serve in the United States Congress; and 150
WHEREAS, Senator Revels was born a free man in Fayetteville, 151
North Carolina, on September 27, 1827, and was the son of a 152
Baptist preacher, and as a youth, he took lessons at a private 153
school run by an African-American woman, and eventually traveled 154
north to further his education, attending seminaries in Indiana 155
and Ohio, becoming a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal 156
(AME) Church in 1845, and eventually studying theology at Knox 157
College in Illinois; and 158
WHEREAS, during the turbulent decade of the 1850s, Senator 159
Revels preached to free and enslaved men and women in various 160
states while surreptitiously assisting fugitive slaves, and when 161
the Civil War began in 1861, he was serving as a pastor in 162
Baltimore, Maryland, and before long, he was forming regiments of 163
African-American soldiers, serving as a Union army chaplain in 164
Mississippi, and establishing schools for freed slaves in 165
Missouri; and 166
WHEREAS, after the war ended, Senator Revels settled in 167
Natchez, Mississippi, where he served as presiding elder of the 168
AME Church, and in 1868, he was appointed as an alderman for 169
Natchez, and in 1869, he was elected to the Mississippi Senate, as 170
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one of thirty-five African Americans elected to the Mississippi 171
Legislature that year; and 172
WHEREAS, in 1870, as Mississippi sought readmission to 173
representation in the United States Congress, and as the 174
Republican Party firmly controlled both houses of Congress, and 175
also dominated the southern state legislatures, that, along with 176
the pending ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, set the stage 177
for the election of Congress's first African-American members; and 178
WHEREAS, one of the first orders of business for the new 179
Mississippi Legislature when it convened on January 11, 1870, was 180
to fill the vacancies in the United States Senate, which had 181
remained empty since the 1861 withdrawal of Albert Brown and 182
Confederate president, Jefferson Davis; and 183
WHEREAS, representing around one-quarter of the state 184
legislative body, the African-American legislators insisted that 185
one of the vacancies be filled by an African American, and since 186
Senator Revels had impressed his colleagues with an impassioned 187
prayer, legislators agreed that the shorter of the two terms, set 188
to expire in March 1871, would go to him; and 189
WHEREAS, Mississippi gained readmission on February 23, 1870, 190
and Senator Henry Wilson, one of the United States Senate's 191
strongest civil rights advocates, promptly presented Senator 192
Revels' credentials to the Senate, and three senators immediately 193
issued a challenge, arguing that Senator Revels had not been a 194
United States citizen for the constitutionally required nine 195
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years, citing the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, arguing 196
that he did not gain citizenship until at least 1866, with the 197
passage of that year's civil rights act, and perhaps not until the 198
Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, and by this logic, 199
Senator Revels could only claim that he had been a United States 200
citizen for, at most, four years; and 201
WHEREAS, Senator Revels and his supporters dismissed the 202
challenge, insisting that the Fourteenth Amendment had repealed 203
the Dred Scott decision, and they pointed out that long before 204
1866, Senator Revels had voted in the state of Ohio, certainly 205
qualifying him as a citizen; and 206
WHEREAS, by an overwhelming margin, the United States Senate 207
voted 48 to 8 to seat Senator Revels, and two days later, he was 208
escorted to the well by Senator Wilson, and took the oath of 209
office on February 25, 1870; and 210
WHEREAS, three weeks later, the Senate galleries were again 211
filled to capacity, as Senator Revels rose to deliver his maiden 212
speech, and seeing himself as a representative of African American 213
interests throughout the nation, he spoke against an amendment to 214
the Georgia readmission bill that could be used to prevent African 215
Americans from holding state office; and 216
WHEREAS, Senator Revels made good use of his time in office, 217
championing education for African Americans, speaking out against 218
racial segregation, and fighting efforts to undermine the civil 219
and political rights of African Americans, and when his brief term 220
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ended on March 3, 1871, he returned to Mississippi, where he 221
became president of the first African-American land grant college 222
established in the United States, Alcorn A&M College, now Alcorn 223
State University; and 224
WHEREAS, in 1873, Senator Revels took a leave of absence from 225
his position as president of Alcorn to serve as Mississippi's 226
interim Secretary of State after the sudden death of his friend, 227
James Lynch; and 228
WHEREAS, in July 1876, Senator Revels returned to his former 229
position as president of Alcorn, and he also edited the 230
Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper, the official newspaper 231
of the AME Church, and after his retirement from Alcorn in 1882, 232
he returned to his former church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, 233
and remained active in the religious community, teaching theology 234
at Shaw University, now Rust College, in Holly Springs, and 235
serving as the AME's district superintendent, and on January 16, 236
1901, he passed away in Aberdeen, Mississippi, while attending a 237
religious conference; and 238
WHEREAS, during the Reconstruction Era, a total of seventeen 239
African Americans served in the United States Congress, fifteen in 240
the House of Representatives and two in the Senate, and the 241
significance of the courageous and pioneering service of Senator 242
Revels and other African-American congressmen of the 243
Reconstruction Era cannot be overstated, and although the struggle 244
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to fully achieve equality would continue for years to come, their 245
remarkable accomplishments opened doors for others to follow; and 246
WHEREAS, 2 USC Section 2132 allows a state to request the 247
Joint Committee on the Library of Congress to approve the removal 248
of a previously placed statue from the collection and the 249
replacement of it with an equally suitable and socially inclusive 250
display that is representative of the entirety of the state's 251
diverse citizenry; and 252
WHEREAS, if the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress 253
approves a request, the architect of the Capitol shall enter into 254
an agreement with the state to carry out the replacement in 255
accordance with the request and any conditions that the Joint 256
Committee may require for its approval, and such agreement shall 257
provide that the new statue shall be subject to the same 258
conditions and restrictions as applied to any statue provided by a 259
state under 2 USC Section 2131 and the state shall pay any costs 260
related to the replacement, including costs in connection with the 261
design, construction, transportation and placement of the new 262
statue, the removal and transportation of the statue being 263
replaced and any unveiling ceremony; and 264
WHEREAS, several states have chosen to replace existing 265
statues, thereby including representations of Dwight Eisenhower, 266
Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Thomas Edison and Helen Keller; and 267
WHEREAS, the Mississippi Legislature desires to replace the 268
statues of James Zachariah George and Jefferson Davis with a 269
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statue of both civil rights legends, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Senator 270
Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American to serve as a 271
Senator in the United States Congress, to honor and cherish the 272
extraordinary legacies of these patron citizens of Mississippi, 273
and to further reflect the transformative power of Mississippi 274
from its past to its present; and 275
WHEREAS, we request the Governor of the State of Mississippi 276
to affirm the efforts of this Legislature by issuing a 277
proclamation or statement approving the request for the 278
replacement of the statues, and to create a commission of 279
Mississippi artisans and artists who are authorized to solicit and 280
collect private contributions for the creation and placement of 281
the statues of Fannie Lou Hamer and Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels; 282
and 283
WHEREAS, it is incumbent upon this Legislature to pursue the 284
interest of its citizens by ensuring that statues representing our 285
state wholly reflect the astounding strides made by all citizens, 286
particularly in this instance when the state itself bears the 287
moniker of being the "birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement," 288
and there have been no better ambassadors of our state than the 289
distinguished and incomparable Fannie Lou Hamer and Senator Hiram 290
Rhodes Revels: 291
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF 292
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING 293
THEREIN, That we do hereby submit this formal request to the Joint 294
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ST: Senator Hiram Revels and Fannie Lou Hamer;
request joint committee on Library of Congress
to approve replacement of current statues with
statues of.
Committee on the Library of Congress to approve the replacement of 295
the statues of James Zachariah George and Jefferson Davis with 296
statues of Fannie Lou Hamer and Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels in the 297
Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol. 298
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be 299
furnished to the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress, to 300
the members of the Mississippi Congressional delegation and to the 301
members of the Capitol Press Corps. 302