Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise proudly today to speak to a resolution that I have submitted in the Senate commending John Robert Lewis, Congressman, from the city of Atlanta, civil rights leader in the 1960s and 1950s, and my personal friend. In 1954, I was 10 years old in the Atlanta public schools when Brown v. Board of Education was decided in the U.S. Supreme Court. John Lewis was 4 years older than me. He was born just outside of Pike County, AL, and went to the Pike County, AL, segregated public school. He went on to Fisk University to get a degree in religion and philosophy and volunteered for sit-ins in Nashville to break the first sit-in on lunch counters in the history of that city. This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is called the Big Six in civil rights. As I am sure the Presiding Officer will remember, it was 50 years ago this August that Martin Luther King led a march in Washington and gave his great speech, ``I Have a Dream'' at the Lincoln Memorial. There were six great civil rights leaders then. There is only one left, and that is John Robert Lewis. He is my friend, he is my compatriot, and our lives have paralleled each other all the way through. John introduced me when I was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and I was honored for that introduction.…”