Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleagues Congressmen Jeffries and Horsford for once again leading the Congressional Black Caucus Special Order Hour. African Americans have had a long history with the labor movement. Within the labor community, African Americans joined with individuals of other races to advance efforts to create ladders to prosperity in an environment of economic and racial discrimination. In the 1800s, such efforts led to African American union visionaries, such as Isaac Myers, who realized the collective power of African Americans within the Trade Union movement. Under Myers, an organized group of ship caulkers purchased and operated the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company in Baltimore. Within months, the cooperative employed 300 African American caulkers and received several government contracts. Nearly 100 years later, A. Phillip Randolph would organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph was instrumental in uniting the African American Civil Rights community and the labor movement with the shared ideals of collective prosperity and economic security. Randolph proposed a 1941 March on Washington that heavily influenced the economic and social themes echoed by Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others who were instrumental in making the 1963 March on Washington a success.…”