Political Quotes

“And still I rise; and I rise as a liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. I rise in the spirit of Shirley Chisholm, who coined the notion of being unbought, unbossed, and unafraid. I rise as a proud scion of the enslaved Africans whose lives were sacrificed for more than 240 years to make America great. Their lives were sacrificed because America at that time desired to have a caste system, a system wherein persons were born into this caste, would live, die, and be buried as a part of the caste. Not a class. Caste is hereditary. A class is a socioeconomic circumstance. There was this desire to have persons be a part of the caste, and persons of African ancestry were selected because they were identifiable, and they wanted an identifiable caste. They wanted this caste to be subservient, immediately agreeing to whatever the master said, and they wanted them to be powerless. They were exactly that: A powerless, subservient, identifiable caste for more than 240 years. Mr. Speaker, I still love my country, notwithstanding its history. I love it because I believe in the ideals that have been expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Those ideals give me hope. I believe that America still has much to achieve, but I believe that America can still dream big and accomplish great things.…”