Rep. Corrine Brown: “this year as we observe Black History Month we should reflect on the all-out attack that has occurred on civil rights…”

“this year as we observe Black History Month we should reflect on the all-out attack that has occurred on civil rights, voting rights, and affirmative action programs. We need to renew our commitment to progress on these political fronts. We have witnessed the Hopwood case in Texas, the attack on affirmative action, as well as a number of majority-minority districts being found unconstitutional and ordered to be redrawn by State legislatures. This happened in my district, the Third Congressional District of Florida, as well as districts represented by Representative Sanford Bishop, Representative Cynthia McKinney, Representative Eva Clayton, Representative Melvin Watt, and just late last week Representative Bobby Scott, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, and Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson. To say the least, the past 2 years have indeed been hostile. I, and others, would not have the privilege of serving in Washington today, if it were not for the courage and sacrifice of those great leaders who led the way. The progress we, as a race, have made could not have occurred without the groundwork having been laid by great African-Americans like former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, tennis great Arthur Ashe, poet Zora Neale Hurston, Gwen Cherry, Mary Singleton, and James Weldon Johnson, composer of the Negro National Anthem.”