Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. The previous speaker, Mr. Green from Texas, said that it is time, that it is past time. But it is never too late to do the right thing. I am pleased that this will be a bipartisan vote. This is about Emmett Till. It is about lynching. It is about violence. It is about hate. But in a larger sense, this is about who we are as a country, who we are as a country that said: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'' Surely, our Founders today would have said all men and women are created equal. But in the eyes of two murderers, Emmett Till was neither equal nor a fellow human being, but a dehumanized being, undeserving of protection or of decency. To the surprise, I think, of probably many Americans, Madam Speaker, lynching has not been described as a hate crime. We will do that today. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Collins and Chairman Nadler for bringing this bill to the floor. The House will make that determination today. I am proud to bring this legislation to the floor as majority leader. A broadcaster in our area, Joe Madison, came up to me some year and a half ago and said: Why can't you pass lynching legislation? I had no answer, so I went to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who spoke just earlier, Karen Bass, the former speaker of the California Assembly, one of the leaders in this House.…”