Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me and for the work she does with this Special Order. And I thank my friend from Texas (Mr. Veasey), for allowing me to participate. Mr. Speaker, thanks to the scholarship of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, and the perseverance of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, we continue to lift up the contributions of and achievements of Black Americans. The celebration of Black History Month has its roots in Black History Week, established back in 1926; and because of the urgings of Carter G. Woodson, the week was selected to be the second week of February in order to embrace the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Now, later, in fact, in 1969, students at Kent State University, after having experienced some turmoil on their campus back in 1968, as it took place on campuses in other places across the country--Jackson State in Mississippi, South Carolina State in South Carolina--students at Kent State decided, as a part of their redress, to expand the week to a month. So they, in 1970, celebrated what they called Black History Month. Now, 6 years later, President Gerald Ford signed legislation creating Black History Month. When he signed that legislation, he said it was to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans.…”