Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I support House Concurrent Resolution 249. This resolution commemorates the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the role it played in ensuring the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, now Congressman John Lewis and Chairman John Lewis, and the late Hosea Williams, led a march in Selma, Alabama, to demand racial and political equality in the United States. They led 600 civil rights marchers east out of Selma, Alabama, toward the State's capital in Montgomery. They got as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where State and local lawmen attacked them with clubs and tear gas and forced them back into Selma. Congressman Lewis was beaten unconscious, leaving him with a concussion and many other injuries. The events on Bloody Sunday were televised nationally, and the Nation responded to these actions. As a result, within eight days, President Lyndon Johnson called for a comprehensive voting rights bill to protect African Americans and other citizens' right to vote, which is already guaranteed in the 15th Amendment. Bipartisan majorities in both Houses of Congress approved the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and President Johnson signed this historic legislation into law on August 6, 1965, less than 5 months after Bloody Sunday.…”