Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to discuss S. 2827, the African-American Burial Grounds Network Act, introduced by Senator Alexander from Tennessee and me. We know that for too long and in too many parts of our country, Black families were blocked from burying their loved ones in White cemeteries. These men and women were freed slaves, civil rights champions, veterans, mothers, fathers, and active workers in communities. Our bill is simple. It directs the National Park Service to conduct a study on ways to identify and preserve and record unmarked, abandoned, or other historic African-American burial grounds. We need to act now before these sites are lost to the ravages of time or development. In an op-ed published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Senator Alexander summed up the need for bills like ours: ``Our children need to learn more history in order to grow up knowing what it means to be an American, including our struggle with race.'' For more than two centuries, these cemeteries have been looked after by churches, community groups, and private citizens. I learned about these efforts and the struggle to preserve these sacred places when I visited Union Baptist Church in Cincinnati, where parishioners have worked to preserve their hallowed space from vandals and the inexorable passage of time. The cemetery I visited in Cincinnati was founded in 1864. It is a final resting place for freed slaves, for Black Union soldiers, and for civil rights activists.…”