Political Quotes

“I rise today to celebrate Black History Month, when we declare that Black History is American history, and that our Nation is a better, fairer, and more perfect union thanks to the Black Americans who helped forge it. Fifty years ago, in 1968, a crowd of 25,000 people gathered outside Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, TN. They congregated there in support of the city's 1,300 Black sanitation workers--men who were being underpaid and subjected to abusive and unsafe working conditions--all of whom had been protesting those conditions, day after day, for months. The sanitation workers had organized, unionized, and exercised their right to peaceful protest; yet the mayor of Memphis refused to heed their calls for justice and change. So they gathered there, alongside thousands of supporters, outside a church in Memphis, waiting for someone to tell them--to show them-- their path forward. One man spoke to the crowd, saying, ``You are reminding not only Memphis, but the nation, that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.'' He went on, ``You are here tonight to demand that Memphis do something about the conditions our brothers face, as they work day in and day out for the well-being of the total community. You are here to demand that Memphis will see the poor.'' The speaker encouraged the sanitation workers to continue their fight and vowed to stand by them. He showed them their path forward.…”