Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5597, which would name a post office in Oklahoma after Clara Luper. Luper believed that Oklahoma and the United States should be a place where everyone is treated equally with respect. In 1958, she and 14 of her NAACP youth council students organized one of the first U.S. sit-ins at a Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma. They tried to order a hamburger and soda knowing that they would be refused solely because of the color of their skin. Though they were assaulted, they stayed with their cause. And within days, Katz Drug Stores integrated their lunch counters in Oklahoma and three other States. This sit-in helped inspire the 1961 sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, which was a critical moment during the civil rights movement. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.”