Elijah Lewis: “This amendment is another poison pill. It is a phony issue. It has nothing but nothing to do with free speech or with…”

“This amendment is another poison pill. It is a phony issue. It has nothing but nothing to do with free speech or with civil rights. I know something about civil rights. I grew up at a time when I saw those signs that said ``white men,'' ``colored men,'' ``white women,'' ``colored women,'' ``white waiting,'' ``colored waiting.'' As a child, I tasted the bitter fruits of integration and racial discrimination, so I know something about civil rights. In 1960, when we were sitting in; in 1961, when we went on the freedom rides; in 1963, when we marched on Washington; in 1964, when we went to Mississippi during the Mississippi summer project; in 1965, when we marched from Selma to Montgomery, that was about civil rights. We did not have a Web site, a Web page. We did not have a fax machine. We did not have a cellular telephone. But we had our bodies. We had our feet. And we put our bodies on the line for civil rights. We did not have much money of any kind, hard or soft, but we had a dream that we could create an America, a truly interracial democracy, a beloved community. I say to my colleagues that we should be real. This is not about civil rights. This is not about free speech. This is about cleaning up our political process, opening it up and letting all the people come in. This is about campaign finance reform. That is what it is about. Do not be fooled tonight.”