Political Quotes

“next week the Nation will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when we commemorate the series of marches of nonviolent civil rights protestors from Selma to the Alabama State capital of Montgomery. They were marching for the right to vote, which had been guaranteed by the adoption of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. The first section of the amendment reads: ``The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'' These marches gripped the attention of the Nation because of the violence reaction from the Alabama State troopers, who attacked the marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge after leaving Selma. The State troopers attacked the marchers using billy clubs, tear gas, fire hoses, and dogs, and numerous marchers were wounded and were beaten unconscious. The images shown on television galvanized the American public in support of voting rights. President Lyndon Johnson called on Congress to enact voting rights legislation and make good on both the promise of the 15th Amendment as well as the responsibility of Congress to enforce the amendment ``by appropriate legislation.'' One of those protestors beaten on the bridge was a Freedom Rider, speaker at the March on Washington, and a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee. That protestor was John Lewis.…”