Political Quotes

“I rise to speak of my friend Earl Shinhoster, who died on June 11, 2000, in a car accident. This good man joined many of us in struggling to make America better in innumerable ways. He spent 30 years with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization was the original civil rights organization, and it still stands among the great leaders for human rights in the world. Earl Shinhoster began at the age of 13 stuffing envelopes, sitting-in and picketing for the basic civil rights of American people. He stayed with it, humbly saying later in life that he had never had a real job, just a calling and a movement. He served as the NAACP director of the Southeast until he was called in 1995 to be acting director and chief executive officer of the national organization. While in the South, he traveled to every meeting he could attend, in cities, on farms, in the poorest areas of the poorest area of our nation. No one was beneath him; no one was too poor or oppressed for his attention, love and service. Few of us have served so well and so consistently as Earl Shinhoster. Few have asked for less compensation or sought less recognition. He was a servant of the people, of freedom and of God. Earl Shinhoster was a graduate of Morehouse College, where I also graduated. When he died in that automobile accident, he was picked up by a chariot and taken to a higher place. He asked for no praise, but he will never be forgotten.”