Political Quotes

“last month we celebrated Black History Month in the United States, and I took to the floor each week we were in session to speak for a moment or two about the tribulations and contributions of Black Oregonians. I want to make one more statement, however, since recognition of these contributions really cannot, and should not, be confined to any single month of the year. We must not spend the next eleven months oblivious to the monumental strides and invaluable contributions that black Americans have made since the birth of our Nation. The individuals who opened the west and helped build my State, people like Moses Harris, George Washington Bush, and York, must not remain obscure characters in the annals of Oregon history. Countless other men and women, who never achieved prominence, are also owed our gratitude for helping make Oregon, and America, a better home for all her citizens. The efforts of black Americans have helped Oregon shed the days when it was marked by racial intolerance and exclusion. When my predecessor, former-U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield, was a State senator, he was forced to take the great opera singer Marian Anderson to Portland because no hotels in Salem would serve a black woman. Thankfully, now Salem not only hosts black women in hotels, but in the State senate as well. We have come a long way as a State and as a people, and we should be grateful.”