Elijah Cummings: “As I close, Mr. Speaker, I just want to go back to something that the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania just…”

“As I close, Mr. Speaker, I just want to go back to something that the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania just talked about. He talked about the fact that there had been doors closed over and over again to people of African-American descent. And there have been doors closed to many immigrants that have come to this country. As I sat there listening to what he had to say, I could not help but be reminded of my childhood as a young boy in south Baltimore, where we did not have many opportunities. We did not play on grass. We played on asphalt. I will never forget looking up to a Jackie Robinson and saying there is a man who looks like me, who looks like my father, there is a man who came from the same kind of neighborhood that I came from, there is a man who is doing it, and so I know that I can do it, too. That was very significant for me. I shall never forget standing and singing in class, in elementary school, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.' And then I asked the question, but am I singing for a dream that can be fulfilled? Am I singing for a dream like a Jackie Robinson? Mr. Speaker, I would submit to the Members of this great Congress that it is people like Jackie Robinson that stood up for little boys and girls all over our country.”