Political Quotes

“In March, I had the honor to join my friends from Alabama in traveling to Birmingham as part of the 13th annual Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage. I was joined by my esteemed colleague, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who led the delegation to numerous landmarks that defined the civil rights movement at the time, including the tragedy that occurred at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The legislation we are considering today comes 50 years after the senseless death of four young girls when a bomb exploded in their church one Sunday morning in September of 1963. Less than a month before this bombing, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial--not far from where I stand today in the House Chamber--and declared that he dreamed of a day where all people could coexist and thrive together in peace and justice. The echo of his call for peaceful protest was still fresh in the mind of millions when it was replaced by the violent explosion at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which injured dozens and killed the four innocent girls. Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley did not live to see Dr. King's dream realized, but their tragic deaths catalyzed the civil rights movement and produced a backlash against these unthinkable acts of violence across the country. As we have seen in recent tragedies, acts of violence often produce the opposite outcome than that desired by the perpetrators.…”