Political Quotes

“as you know, outside these doors to my left is a beautiful room called the President's Room, or the Red Room. We call it the President's Room because for many decades, this was the place where Presidents came to sign legislation. During the past century, the 20th century, it wasn't used often at all. Rarely was it used for Presidents to come and sign legislation. But on August 6, 1965, it was used. The last time the Red Room, or the President's Room, was used for signing a bill into law was on a hot summer day of 1965. It had been a very hot summer. The purpose of President Lyndon Johnson coming to the Capitol to sign the bill here, rather than in the White House, was because it was the Voting Rights Act. The reason I say it was a very hot summer, it had been a hot couple of years. I would direct everyone's attention to a wonderful book written by Taylor Branch, a relatively new book, published recently, called ``At Canaan's Edge.'' This book tells the story of a number of things, but one is how the Voting Rights Act became law. People sacrificed their lives to allow this movement to go forward and, ultimately, to have this legislation passed. So if we look back historically, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of the most magnificent pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress because what it did is jump forward 100 years following the Civil War and give African Americans the ability to register to vote.…”