Charles Rangel: “Let me thank my friend and colleague for giving me an opportunity to thank an organization that, unfortunately, so many…”

“Let me thank my friend and colleague for giving me an opportunity to thank an organization that, unfortunately, so many Americans, Black and White, have taken for granted. Earlier today, I was sitting on the floor next to one of my Republican friends from the South, and we were talking about Selma. He had recently seen the motion picture, and he was shocked that something like this could have happened. Me being an oldtimer, I was surprised that he did not know that those things had gone on, but it was the graphics in the motion picture and the change in attitude that people have. {time} 1830 And it reminded me that this happened in my lifetime, to see somebody from the same culture, the same background, now seeing things obscene that should never happen in our great country. Now, if people could have stood up 60 years ago and subjected themselves as some people did in Selma and put their life on the line in the early sixties, as John Lewis and so many others did--because I would like to remind everybody I did the march too, but it was after Bloody Sunday. I was not thinking about putting my life on the line. And putting my feet on the line for 54 miles was an ordeal for me, because I didn't fully understand the concept and the threat to human life that was taking place in the sixties. Imagine what it was when the NAACP was formed.…”