WASHINGTON, June 2, 2004 -- Cong. Charles Rangel will be part of a high-level Congressional delegation announced today by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert that will travel to England and France this week to participate in ceremonies paying tribute to the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
 
Members include Speaker Hastert, Charles Rangel, John D. Dingell, Ralph Regula, James L. Oberstar, Ike Skelton, Thomas E. Petri, Lane Evans, John M. Spratt, Jr., Amo Houghton, Peter T. King, Robert W. Ney, John B. Shadegg, Mark E. Souder, Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran, John B. Larson, Randy Forbes, Jeff Miller.  Former Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, a World War II veteran, will also join the delegation.
 
"D-Day was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe and the death-knell of Adolph Hitler's dream to exterminate Jews, Blacks, and every minority that wasn't a member of his so-called Arian race," Cong. Rangel said.  "Tens of thousands of African Americans and Hispanics were part of that dramatic invasion and many were killed and wounded.  We were sent to Europe to fight for democracy that we didn't enjoy at home. But in the process, planted the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement  in our own country."

The delegation will stop first in Cambridge, England on June 4, to participate in a Wreath Laying Ceremony at the American Cemetery in Cambridge.  Many of the paratroopers who participated in the D-Day left from Cambridge.  On June 5, the delegation will visit Omaha Beach and attend a Mass celebrated by Francis Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago.  After the Mass, the delegation will go to St. Mere Eglise, to witness the members of the 82nd Airborne reenact the historic airdrop that started the D-day offensive.  On June 6, the delegation will participate in the Bi-National Ceremony at Omaha Beach, with President Bush, and later tour Utah beach.
 
Speaker Hastert said: "I look forward to leading this very special Congressional delegation trip to Normandy to help pay tribute to the great sacrifices made by our allies and our soldiers in defense of freedom.  Sixty years ago, most of Europe was still dominated by an evil Nazi regime, dominated by Adolph Hitler.  Because of the great courage of ordinary Americans, who left Cambridge at night, parachuted behind the lines at St. Mere Eglise, or stormed the so-called Omaha and Utah beaches, and other locations in Normandy, Hitler's iron grip was broken, and after a long struggle, freedom again reigned in Western Europe."