Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, this weekend a movie opened in America that is really unlike any other movie. It is a significant movie because it is about a group of gentleman who won the Congressional Gold Medal, the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the first black airmen in the United States military history. It's part of black history; but beyond black history, it's American history. Because as I watched the movie yesterday in Memphis, in a largely African American crowd, I realized this was a story about America's progress and fulfilling its promise and about the problems we've had and have had to overcome. The Tuskegee Airmen were men that wanted to fight for their country in World War II, but they weren't allowed to because of segregationist policies that we had at the time. The military wasn't integrated, and they didn't think African Americans were capable of serving as pilots and weren't allowed to do so. They had an experimental group set up in Tuskegee, Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute, to train black Army personnel who wanted to be pilots. They succeeded, and they formed the Tuskegee Airmen. They had many obstacles, but they beat the odds and they succeeded. They rose to the challenge. They dispelled myths that African Americans weren't courageous enough, weren't skilled enough, weren't smart enough. On Friday, at the request of the family, I spoke at the funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers, Jr.…”