 Hi, I'm Congresswoman Terry Sewell, and I proudly represent Alabama's 7th Congressional District, the Civil Rights District, which includes the historic cities of Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Marion, and my hometown of Selma, Alabama. I want to thank the National Trust for historic preservation for honoring me as a 2023 Chaffee Award recipient. It is on behalf of the 750,000 residents of my district that I humbly accept this award. The story of Alabama's 7th Congressional District is a story of ordinary Americans making extraordinary sacrifices to make this nation live up to its highest ideals of equality and justice for all. It was here in this district where John Lewis and so many foot soldiers known and unknown shed blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the equal right of all Americans to vote. It was here in this district where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus and where Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous letter from a Birmingham jail. And it was here where an entire generation of freedom fighters organized, strategized, mobilized to secure the rights that we enjoy today. As a representative of this district and as Alabama's first black congresswoman, I take very seriously my role as a preserver and protector of our rich civil rights legacy. I often say that we in the 7th Congressional District are custodians of America's history. After all, if we don't tell our stories, others will and they may not get it right. That's why I've spent my time in Congress fighting alongside the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve and protect our legacy so that future generations can learn from the sacrifices of those who came before us. Each year I am proud to lead the effort Congress to increase funding for the National Park Services African American Civil Rights Grants Program. Since taking office, my team and I have secured over 13 million dollars from this program to preserve historic civil rights sites in Alabama. Places like my home church, the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma and Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham. Working closely with the National Trust, we also successfully led the push to establish the Birmingham National Civil Rights Monument in 2016 with the help of President Brock Obama. The fight for historic preservation has never been more critical as we witness efforts to rewrite our history and limit the telling of our stories. But working together, I know that we can break through the bitterness and division to tell the truth, the full truth of our nation's storied battle for civil rights. I am so grateful for the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their partnership in this endeavor and I want to congratulate you on the fifth anniversary of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. It is truly an honor to be among this year's award recipients. Thank you again for this recognition and I look forward to our continued collaboration. Thank you.