Elijah Lewis: “I did not go to Harvard. I did not attend Yale. I could not. I could not even attend Troy State University, just a few…”

“I did not go to Harvard. I did not attend Yale. I could not. I could not even attend Troy State University, just a few miles from my home, because of the color of my skin. For 200 years, millions of African-Americans could not go to college. The doors of higher education, of opportunity, were shut simply because of the color of our skin. Today African-Americans and other minorities are attending Troy State, Harvard, Yale, and nearly every institution of higher learning because of merit and because of affirmative action. Affirmative action opens the door for those who grew up with less hope and less opportunity, because of the color of their skin, because their parents did not go to college, because their family has yet to overcome 200 years of government-sanctioned discrimination. Opponents of affirmative action say they want a colorblind society, but ending affirmative action is not colorblind. It is blind to centuries of discrimination, blind to the racism that is still deeply embedded in our society, blind to the barriers that continue to confront generation upon generation of African-American and other minorities. Mr. Chairman, we have fought too long and too hard and come too far. We cannot let affirmative action be destroyed. People have gone to jail. People have been beaten. People have lost their lives.…”