Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I thank the designees for this Special Order hour, Congresswoman Sewell and, of course, our chair Joyce Beatty and all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Today I rise to honor my friend, my mentor, my colleague, the late Congressman John Lewis and all of those who marched for justice across the Edmund Pettus Bridge 56 years ago. As they marched, each of those heroes carried an unshakeable belief that America would answer their call for racial equality. But at the end of that bridge they were met with a violent mob that was determined to preserve the status quo of brutality against Black Americans. Bloody Sunday shocked the world, and it shamed our government into action. Just days after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson sent a voting rights bill to Congress. By August of 1965, the Voting Rights Act had passed the House and Senate with bipartisan majorities. For decades, the Voting Rights Act protected the right to vote and was reauthorized. But 8 years ago, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court turned their back on decades of progress and struck down critical sections of the law. After the Supreme Court's decision, State governments began to immediately purge voter rolls and institute burdensome requirements on voting to block communities of color from the ballot box. In the last election, many States refused to expand vote-by-mail options that would have kept voters safe.…”