Eva M. Clayton: “Mr. Speaker, it is important, and it is also very appropriate during Black History Month, for us to reflect upon and…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is important, and it is also very appropriate during Black History Month, for us to reflect upon and recall the struggles this Nation has experienced in our continuing quest to ensure that all our citizens are able to freely exercise their fundamental act of citizenship, voting. In 1776, our Nation's founders made a remarkable beginning of a struggle to establish a more perfect union, a union which the government derived its power from the consent of the government. Our founders correctly, albeit, with some elitism, established voting as a foundation of our democratic republic. Voting was a process by which the will of the people would be expressed. At first, the only people that mattered, those who enjoyed the privilege of voting, were white men who owned property. Through painful, sometimes bloody, often deadly struggles and sacrifices of many American heroes, the shackles of racial and gender discrimination have been shaken off. It is fitting that we take time to pause and to recall and to honor those great Americans and their contributions to our Nation, a Nation that shines like a beacon to other people around the world who also yearn to be free.”