Melvin Watt: “the rules of the House won't allow me to do what George H. White did in 1901 when he rose to address an agriculture bill…”

“the rules of the House won't allow me to do what George H. White did in 1901 when he rose to address an agriculture bill for 5 minutes and ended up speaking for an hour and a half, giving his farewell to Congress and saying these words: ``Mr. Speaker, this perhaps may be the temporary farewell of minorities and African Americans from this body, but some day we will rise up and come again.'' Well, it took 92 years from that point in 1901 until 1993 when Eva Clayton and I returned to Congress as African American Members from North Carolina. And thank God the laws won't allow the exclusion of African Americans and other minorities from this democracy any longer because of the Voting Rights Act. We have got to renew it and extend it. We need to do it today in the House. ____________________”