Political Quotes

“Today our Arkansas delegation rises to pay tribute to a dedicated public servant, an exceptional orator, and a distinguished son of Arkansas. Former Arkansas Governor and four-term United States Senator Dale Leon Bumpers passed away on Friday, January 1, at the age of 90. Hailing from the small town of Charleston, Arkansas, Senator Bumpers graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in political science and followed that with service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. After earning his law degree from Northwestern University, Bumpers and his wife, Betty, returned to their hometown of Charleston, where he practiced law. In the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, Bumpers advised the Charleston School Board to immediately desegregate its school system. Listed as his proudest achievement, the Charleston School District was the first school district in the former Confederacy to desegregate. Nicknamed by The New York Times as the ``giant killer,'' Senator Bumpers emerged as a dark horse candidate to defeat long-time Governor Orval Faubus in 1970. In his two terms as Governor, he continued and expanded Governor Rockefeller's era of expansive governmental reform. In 1974, he defeated five-term U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright in the Democratic primary with 65 percent of the vote to win the Senate seat and serve for 24 years.…”