Political Quotes

“56 years ago, 600 peaceful protesters, led by the late John Lewis, prepared to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right to vote. On the other side stood Sheriff Jim Clark and his armed patrolmen ready to stop them. The protesters marched on. Clark and his troopers put on their gas masks, blasted the marchers with teargas, and then brutally beat them with billy clubs and cattle prods. Some of Clark's men mounted their horses and charged into the crowd trampling protesters while unleashing a rebel yell. They beat John Lewis so hard, they broke his skull. He and dozens of his fellow marchers were hospitalized. {time} 2115 Mr. Speaker, 5 months after Bloody Sunday, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act. As we remember Bloody Sunday, let us also recognize the Jim Clarks who blocked the bridge to democracy today. Five decades after Bloody Sunday, the Supreme Court struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act in a decision in 2013 called Shelby. As we commemorate our first Bloody Sunday without John Lewis, Republicans in Georgia have passed a new law cracking down on the right to vote. Today, as we answer John's call to cross the bridge to democracy once again, let us hope that no Supreme Court Justices stand in our way on the other side. If they do, may we, like our ancestors, march on.”