Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am old enough to have grown up and become cognizant of public affairs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is ironic that today, I am hearing the language of interposition of States' rights. There were a lot of States' rights in the 1950s and the 1940s and 1960s. And John Lewis will tell you those States' rights kept people from voting, from participating, from playing a role. Now, we have legislation before us that will ensure, as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 assured, that people would not be shut out by States' rights by people who wanted to keep certain other people from voting and participating in their State's elections, in their county's election, in their municipal election, in their city election. I have heard a lot about States' rights. I am old enough to have heard about what States' rights meant. They meant don't butt in to assure that every United States citizen, one nation, under God, indivisible. But we were divisible. We were divisible by color and by other arbitrary and unjustified distinctions. So we are here today to say that is not America. That is not one nation under God, indivisible. So, yes, all the States will be covered because we want all States to comply, and they will not have a thing to worry about under this legislation if they have not had violations within the 20-year period. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, we will mark what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, 93rd birthday.…”