Terri Sewell: “I would like to thank all of my colleagues for participating in this Special Order hour, celebrating the life and legacy…”

“I would like to thank all of my colleagues for participating in this Special Order hour, celebrating the life and legacy of such a great Alabaman, of such a great American, Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth. To his family--his wife and children and grandchildren--I want to say thank you on behalf of a grateful Nation for the sacrifices that you as a family had to make in order for this wonderful man to be able to lead a movement from Birmingham that affected the whole world. I am eternally grateful, personally, for your friendship, Mrs. Shuttlesworth, as well as for your enduring sacrifice. Know that we here in Congress understand how important his life's work was, that we take seriously the mantle that he left behind--his commitment to equality, his commitment to justice for all. I know I am personally so grateful for the opportunity to have met him before he died and to be able to tell him personally thank you for what he did for me as a little black girl, growing up in Selma, Alabama, to be able to even dream of someday being in this august body. {time} 1610 It was Shirley Chisholm, the first African American to sit in these seats in Congress, who said: ``Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this Earth.'' I know that Reverend Shuttlesworth has made more than just a deposit towards that rent. He's opened the doors, so many doors for so many of us to walk through, and for that I just want to say thank you. Thank you.…”