Political Quotes

“I will not dwell on the lifelong record of Mr. Pickering. But his testimony against Sam Bowers was not an isolated instance. I will not dwell on the charge some have made about a 1994 case. Senator Hatch dealt with that, although I ask unanimous consent to include two articles, one from the National Review Online and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explaining what really happened. In short, the Justice Department botched the case and the ringleader in the cross burning was turned loose. Pickering then properly reduced a juvenile accomplice's sentence from seven and one half years to 27 months, severely criticizing him. In terms of the struggle for equality and freedom, I have seen the South and our Nation change for the better during my lifetime. I have tried to help bring about that change. When I look back now, it seems embarrassingly slow and amazing that it was so hard. I remember as a student at Vanderbilt in 1962, when we raised the issue of integrating the student body, the student body voted no. I remember in 1980 I appointed the first Black Tennessee supreme court justice, and he was defeated in the next election. I remember it was 1985 before we had the Martin Luther King Holiday, and the legislature nearly voted it down. I appointed the first two African American vice presidents of the University of Tennessee, but that did not happen until 1989. Our country, from its beginning, has truly been a work in progress.”