Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for her leadership on this issue and so many issues. It is so important that we have the understanding, each of us, of the institutions in our own district. She talked about Florida A&M, a great institution of higher education in her district. Part of what we hope to do in the caucus is to educate every Member in this body about the institutions in their districts and--perhaps they don't have any institutions in their district--about institutions across America that are HBCUs and what they have done for their communities and what they have done for the United States of America and continue to do every day. I am very blessed to have been able to work with a number of HBCUs in Alabama in my prior positions in the State school board and as a chancellor of post-secondary education. I must admit I didn't know very much about them before I was in those positions. But as I learned about them, as I got to know the administration and the faculty, but, most importantly, the students at those institutions, I realized what a rich resource that is for those students and for the communities that they are founded in. You look around the country at some of the great graduates of these institutions and you realize where would we have been without the HBCUs, particularly during a period of time when African Americans were denied access to regular institutions of higher education because of discrimination in American society.…”