Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for offering that to me. There were several things that I heard that were deeply inspiring, yet deeply troubling at the same time. It is amazing how when you start talking about Black history, and you get ready to apply it to present day, you understand just how important it is that we do bridge those two things--the history, the future, and where we are at today. If you look at education, for instance, I know that Brenda Lawrence talked about the school desert phenomena and how there are some neighborhoods where there are no neighborhood schools. That is really sad. Because when you think about Brown v. Board of Education and some of the things that were brought out about people having to travel great distances just to be able to get an education, and now you start looking at today in modern-day America and there still are no neighborhood schools, there is still segregation in schools, and then you see a Secretary of Education who wants to try to implement plans that many say would resegregate the schools, would eliminate neighborhood schools, that is what brought us here. The neighborhood school is what brought us here.…”