Political Quotes

“I think it is a shameful thing that one of the best things we have been able to do as a government in dealing with the single greatest problem in this country is now under assault, and clearly the gravest problem that America has faced from its beginning has been the systematic mistreatment at the outset of African Americans, and the lingering heritage of that mistreatment. This is a nation that began with slavery as part of its institution, unfortunately recognized in the Constitution. The Constitution is a great document in many ways, but as Thurgood Marshall pointed out, it was flawed in some respects, and its embrace of slavery is one of those. We struggled throughout our history to try to overcome that. We have made progress, but clearly we have a long way to go. No single act did more to empower people to fight against the terrible effects of racism than the Voting Rights Act, because no single act did more to give people the ability to defend themselves. The Voting Rights Act was an extraordinarily important turning point in our democracy. The tragedy, Madam Speaker, is that today as we are just beginning to see the full effects of the Voting Rights Act, opponents of true democracy are trying to cut it off, and that must not be allowed.”