Robert Berry: “all of us that participated in the trip came away with a new appreciation for what happened in Selma, Montgomery, and…”

“all of us that participated in the trip came away with a new appreciation for what happened in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham. We are very appreciative of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and certainly the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for making it possible for us to experience that. When I first came to the House, one of the first people that extended the hand of friendship to me was the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis). He shook my hand and he said, ``Welcome, my friend and my brother.'' I knew just from the way he shook your hand and the way he said it that he meant it. Until I went to Selma and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge arm-in-arm with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I did not really appreciate what he meant or how important it was that he did that. I suspect, had I been through some of the things that the gentleman Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and some of the others that were in the nonviolent civil rights movement at that time, I would not even want to be in the same room with a guy like me. I can understand that. But I think it says so much that we can come together, that we did make this pilgrimage, and it meant an awful lot to all of us. It shows us, not only how far we have come, but how far we have yet to go, and that we must never, ever forget that we cannot go back to what that was.”