Sanford Bishop: “Madam Speaker, like many of our colleagues, I have been making talks about black history this month at schools, churches…”

“Madam Speaker, like many of our colleagues, I have been making talks about black history this month at schools, churches and civic organizations throughout my area of middle and south Georgia. It is an honor to participate. I believe that the goals Dr. Carter J. Woodson had in mind when he established this observance 73 years ago are indeed being fulfilled. As a historian, he wanted to make American history as accurate and as complete as possible. As an African American who worked his way up from poverty to become a renowned teacher, a writer and a scholar, he wanted to give black people, particularly young people, a better sense of their heritage and a more hopeful vision of their future and the country's future. Today, Americans everywhere recognize the contributions that African Americans have made in science, exploration, business, education, religion, the arts, in politics and government, in entertainment and supports and the military and citizenship and in every field of endeavor that has made our country a beacon of freedom and opportunity throughout the world. One example from my area of southwest Georgia, Thomasville, is Lieutenant Henry Flipper. Henry Flipper was born a slave, became the first African American to graduate from West Point.”