Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to a man of extraordinary strength, moral character, and courage, to end National Black History Month on a high note. Every year, National Black History Month is given a theme; this year's focus rests on the American Civil War, the most divisive and destructive conflict ever witnessed in our great Nation. While many think of the Civil War as a conflict between Whites fought over the condition of African Americans, Blacks fought on both sides of the conflict as well. After Emancipation, the Union Armies fielded dozens of corps of the U.S. Colored Troops, making up approximately 10 percent of the total fighting force fielded by the North, at roughly 180,000 troops. One of those men was named Christian Abraham Fleetwood. His picture rests beside me today. In many aspects before the war, Fleetwood was already a rare man. Christian A. Fleetwood was born in Baltimore to two free persons of color, Charles and Anna Marie Fleetwood, on July 21, 1840. He was lucky enough to be educated by a wealthy sugar merchant, free of charge, and continued his education with the Maryland Colonization Society, before graduating from the Ashmun Institute, which would later become Lincoln University. Broadening his education, he travelled to Sierra Leone and Liberia, before returning to the United States to join the Union Army to fight for the freedom of the enslaved.…”