Political Quotes

“I rise first to send my thoughts and prayers to the family of Freddie Gray and the entire city of Baltimore. Today, another family is grieving another young life needlessly cut short; and, again, a community is searching for answers in the face of tragedy and injustice. My own community knows this all too well. On New Year's Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a bright young man, was murdered on the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit platform in Oakland. Our community took to the streets demanding justice. Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin and the list goes on, all lives cut short. Today, their stories compel us to come to the House floor to join millions of Americans around our Nation in saying that, like all lives, Black lives also do matter. Make no mistake, the issues rocking many communities are not a new phenomenon. These tragedies, yes, are a part of a dark legacy of injustice born in the sufferings of the Middle Passage, nurtured through slavery, and codified in Jim Crow. On April 14, 1967, at Stanford University, Dr. King described these issues in his ``Two Americas'' speech. He said, ``There are literally two Americas. One America is overflowing with the milk of prosperity and honey of opportunity. Tragically and unfortunately, there is another America.…”