Figures Blasts Trump Administration for Proposed Sale of Historic Building That Houses the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama

WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Shomari C. Figures (AL-02) spoke on the House Floor to condemn the Trump Administration’s efforts to sell the historic Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station which houses the Freedom Rides Museum. This museum honors the legacy of John Lewis and other young civil rights activists who were nearly killed at the Montgomery bus station while trying to exercise their constitutional rights. 

Watch Rep. Figures’ floor statement on YouTube. 

Below are Rep. Figures’ remarks, as delivered on the House floor today: 

Mr. Speaker, today I rise with a deep sense of responsibility to highlight an issue that it’s disappointing that we have to highlight.

We just spent a weekend, myself and colleagues on both sides of the aisle, from both the Senate and the House, and people from around the country and around the world, spent the weekend down in Selma, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which recognizes the importance of voting rights. We reflected on the lives of the people who marched across that bridge 60 years ago for me to be able to stand here today, and for people who look like me to be able to have a fair opportunity to participate in our electoral process.

They were led on that day by a former colleague of many members here, Congressman John Lewis. But before Mr. Lewis was nearly killed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, he was nearly killed a few years earlier in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a Freedom Rider, and he was on the bus of Freedom Riders, himself with other young college students at the time, both black and white, as they came from Birmingham into Montgomery, Alabama. 

They were abandoned by the State Highway Patrol escort that they had on that day, and when they got to the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, there were hundreds of Klansmen and Klan supporters awaiting them, and they unleashed a brutal and savage attack on them, nearly killing them, including a U.S. Department of Justice official who had been sent to monitor the Freedom Rides.

Well, the reason I stand here today is because several years ago we had the wisdom to designate that Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station as a national historic landmark, and it was added to the Registry of National Historic Places here in the United States, and the national Freedom Rides Museum is now housed in that building. 

Well, last week, just before we went down to Alabama, DOGE, in its infinite wisdom, decided to list that building for sale, and that strikes a chord with people in the state of Alabama, both Democrats and Republicans. That strikes a chord with me, as someone who sits here today, that is the product of the Voting Rights Act. 

We think we’ll win on this one. We hope that they will see the logic in preserving American history. You know, after all, just a few years ago, we saw people literally lose their minds over efforts to remove the monuments that have been placed around this country in recognition of those who fought to keep people who look like me enslaved. 

I think we will win this one, but we shouldn’t have to keep doing this. We shouldn’t have to stand up for pieces of history in this country. We shouldn’t have to stand up for pieces of history related to our civil rights, related to voting rights. We shouldn’t have to deal with an administration where it seems every single week we’re having to stand up again. Whether it’s talking about the Tuskegee Airmen and their rightful place in history, whether it’s repealing an equal opportunity executive order that’s been in place since the 1960s, whether it’s seeing this administration hit pause on federal scholarship funding to land grant institutions for historically black colleges, but not hitting pause on the same funding for land grant schools that were not historically black colleges. 

It is a shame. We should not be doing this. We have to do better. We cannot keep running the clock back in an effort to appease this administration’s efforts to whitewash history.

So, Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of John Lewis, in honor of the civil rights workers, both known and unknown. We will stand with you. We will fight for you because we will not sell our history. We will not go down silently. We will not go down quietly, and we certainly will not go backwards.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.

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