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Congress wears black and white ribbons during State of the Union

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Jim Watson/AFP/Newscom
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R.) wears a black and white ribbon prior to the State of the Union address by US President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
  • By Chris Richardson Staff

| New York

It looked like most members of Congress present for the State of the Union address were wearing black and white ribbons. What do they mean, and where did they come from?

The ribbons are meant to honor the 19 victims from the Arizona shooting where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) was shot.

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) of Florida and Michael McCaul (R) of Texas proposed the idea in a letter to their colleagues, which read as follows:

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