Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, 60 years ago this month, four African American students from North Carolina A&T performed a simple, yet profound act. They sat at Woolworth's lunch counter in front of a detestable ``Whites Only'' sign. They were called rabble-rousers, troublemakers, and worse. They did not yield. In the days that followed, more students joined them, including my friend, Clarence Henderson. By continuing to sit, they were actually standing up for their God-given constitutional rights as Americans. They may not have known it at the time, but their act of courage lit a fire of freedom that spread across our country, all the way to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to us about his dream of a more just tomorrow. Madam Speaker, this Black History Month, we remember the brave sacrifices that were made by so many so that each and every American would never again be judged, as Dr. King said, by the color of our skin but, instead, ``by the content of their character.'' ____________________”