Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today is February 1, the first day of Black History Month. We thought it will be a good time for us to open up some discussion of what we consider to be a very, very important theme for this year's celebration. The theme for the year 2000 is heritage and horizons, the African-American legacy and the challenges of the 21st century. Mr. Speaker, as I think about this theme, I think about two quotations, the first written by George Santayana, who wrote that ``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' I think all of us remember the past of this great Nation. It is a past that is very checkered. All of us are aware of the history of the African-American experience in these United States, having arrived here as a people in 1619, at a time when they were considered to be property and brought against their will to serve out an existence of 244 years in slavery. That is ten generations. In 1863, our Nation brought an end to that institution. So for the past 137 years, African-Americans have lived an existence in our Nation as free people, albeit at one point upon the institution of freedom we were only counted as three-fifths of a person.”