Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I stand before this House tonight as the proud Representative of the congressional district that has seven of the eight HBCUs in South Carolina within its borders: Allen and Benedict in Columbia; Claflin and South Carolina State in Orangeburg; Morris in Sumter; Voorhees, Denmark Tech in Denmark, South Carolina; and Clinton College in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I listened intently as some of the speakers spoke before me, and I would like to give just a brief overview of the history of HBCUs. You have heard from the previous speaker that the first HBCU was Cheyney State in 1837. Well, it is kind of interesting. That school was created a few decades before the Emancipation Proclamation, so it means that before slavery was abolished, HBCUs existed. Now, one of the interesting things that took place during the Civil War was the creation of something called the Morrill Act. The gentleman from Vermont, Justin Morrill, introduced legislation to train people not just in agriculture, but in military training. {time} 2015 That law was signed by the President, President Abraham Lincoln, July 2, 1862. Now, the interesting thing is that when the law was enacted, the Southern States refused to implement that law on behalf of people of color. They would not allow any person of color to attend those schools.…”