Political Quotes

“America has always been a place known for its citizens and its heroes who have gone above and beyond. In honor of Black History Month, the State of South Carolina and the First Congressional District in South Carolina has one such hero, a citizen by the name of Robert Smalls. Robert Smalls is the epitome of a true South Carolina hero. Robert Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. Robert Smalls faced countless afflictions in the early years of his life, but he never gave up. During the Civil War, he hijacked a Confederate ammunition ship and turned it over to the Union Navy, delivering its 17 African-American passengers from slavery to freedom. Robert Smalls then became the first African American to pilot a U.S. vessel taking the helm of a Union warship in the first battle of Charleston Harbor in 1863. At the war's conclusion, Robert Smalls received a commission as brigadier general in the South Carolina militia and eventually went on to serve the South Carolina State General Assembly and Senate. But his tireless work for the people of South Carolina did not end there. Smalls would then go on to serve five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1874 to 1886, for South Carolina's First Congressional District, the district that I represent today. So, on behalf of the Lowcountry and the people of the First District, I am deeply honored to offer a bill being considered today in committee that will designate the U.S.…”