Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to talk about something really important to all Americans but specifically important to Americans from the Deep South who happen to look like me. As I listened to the President talk about the importance of stopping what he characterized as Jim Crow 2.0, I felt frustration and irritation rising in my soul. As I keep hearing the references to Jim Crow, I ask myself how many Americans understand what Jim Crow was. I am so thankful--thankful--that we are not living in those days. But just for those who don't appreciate the Jim Crow that was, it was a time when my grandfather, born in 1921, would have experienced it. If he were still alive, he could tell the stories of the Jim Crow South and the Jim Crow era, an era where, in order for a black person to vote, you had to pass a literacy test. Now, if you could read at that point, it would not just be a test on whether or not you could read, it would be a test on ``Do you know who your Governor was 20 years before you were getting ready to vote?'' It would include the threat of being lynched--literally killed--because those in power wanted to stop Black folks from realizing and fully participating in the greatest Nation on Earth and exercising what I believe is a fundamental responsibility and right of Americans, the right to vote. It would include beatings and the power of intimidation, the loss of your job if you dared to show up to vote.…”