Political Quotes

“many years ago, in the very early 1960's, when I was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, I met a man who was a preacher from Montgomery, AL, Dr. Martin Luther King. This man changed my life and the lives of millions of Americans who before ``his dream'' were treated as second-class citizens. After I met him, I enlisted in the movement and became one of Dr. King's foot soldiers in the war for racial equality. I was personally harassed by those who were against changes. It is hard for many of my colleagues to remember just how evil it was during the days of racial segregation before Dr. King helped change things, but, believe me, times were hard, cruel, and difficult. Because of my race, Mr. Speaker, none of Alabama's white public colleges would admit me as a student. We were cleverly denied the right to vote. Anyone would say, ``If you travel after dark in many cities in Alabama,'' and I would say in the rural South, ``as a black man, you took your life in your own hands,'' and, as many of my colleagues know, I am the first African-American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Congress by the people of Alabama. It is not accidental that I am here. It is because we fought the struggle. Times have changed. we have not reached the promised land. Without the continued presence, involvement and funding of the King Holiday Commission, Mr. Speaker, we would never reach our full potential of building both unity and understanding between the races.”