Political Quotes

“Thank you very much for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to join my colleagues and people throughout the United States to celebrate Black History Month. It may come as a surprise to some that Black History Month is also celebrated in Canada and the United Kingdom, although they do so in the United Kingdom in the month of October. Thanks to the hard work and persistence of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the celebration of Black history was inaugurated in 1926. In response to Mr. Woodson's advocacy, it was to be for 1 week, the second week in February, in order to envelope the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, and Frederick Douglass, February 14. First proposed by students at Kent University in 1969 and 1970, the week was officially expanded to a month in 1976. Gerald Ford was President at the time. When the month was established, President Ford urged the country to ``honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans.'' There is a lot of talk about health care these days, and in no area has the contributions of African Americans been more neglected and dishonored as much as in the field of health care.…”