Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to be here on the floor with my colleague from New Mexico, who has been a champion for restoring our democracy, working year after year over the last decade toward that vision, and presenting tonight superb comments on the history of where we have been and where we should go. This last weekend, I went to Alabama. I went with Congressman John Lewis to be there to look into the history of discrimination in our Nation, the history in which we had separate entries to buildings for Whites and for Blacks and separate water fountains. We had front doors for White America and back doors for Black America. We were standing on the spot where Rosa Parks stood before she stepped onto the bus and said: I will not sit at the back of the bus. I will be treated like every other American. She asked for equality, and she started a big movement to break down discrimination. Last weekend, we also gathered together in Selma, AL, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This spot is where John Lewis and a whole set of individuals took a stand. They were planning a march. They were going to march for voting rights--for voting rights in America, voting rights that had been taken away as a strategy of suppressing the voice of the people, particularly the voice of African Americans. We have struggled in the history of our country toward full equality of opportunity--full equality to participate in this beautiful democratic Republic we call America.…”