Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 450, a bill that will award, long overdue, the Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley. It is a pleasure to be on the House floor with Chair Waters to speak in favor of this bill and its strong bipartisan support. On August 28, 1955, a 14-year-old African-American boy was brutally murdered while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, based on nothing more than an accusation, an accusation that he had flirted with a White woman 4 days earlier. This boy's name was Emmett Till. The way Emmett was murdered by the woman's husband and brother are far too gruesome to describe here or in the findings of this bill, but they left a scar on America's history in a way that we will never forget. When Till's body was found, it was so badly disfigured it was nearly unrecognizable, even to Emmett's own family. The only clue they had to identify him was an initialed signet ring. As it happened far too often during this period in our history, authorities tried to expedite his burial to try to make the incident go away. Yet, Emmett's mother, as so eloquently described by Chair Waters, Mamie Bradley insisted that her son's body be sent home to Chicago where he could be properly memorialized. She knew that it was only through her son's mutilated body that the world could truly understand the evil that was perpetrated on her son.…”