Political Quotes

“I thank you for letting me claim the time for my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), who I trust will join us tonight. Mr. Speaker, several of my colleagues have gathered to honor an individual who was one of the legendary Americans of the last century. She was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most significant people of that century. She was honored by President Clinton as a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she has been honored by numerous organizations all over this world and all over this country. Her name was Rosa Parks. She was, of course, an icon of the South, an icon of the country, and she was called home to her maker just last week. She will have two memorial services. One we understand will be in Detroit, Michigan next Wednesday, one in Montgomery, Alabama, this coming Sunday. Two communities, Montgomery and Detroit, will do their best to make a statement on behalf of this extraordinary woman; and I thank the House for giving us this hour to speak to her role tonight. I wanted to begin by hearkening, if I can, back to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. Montgomery, Alabama, happens to be the city where I was born in 1967, it happens to be the city where my mother was born, and my grandmother came to that city in 1931. I still remember them telling me what it was like to sit at the back of the bus. As those who know history remember, that was not simply a Montgomery phenomenon; it was a Southern phenomenon.…”