Political Quotes

“I would like to take a few minutes to congratulate the completion of the Freedmen's Bureau Records Project. The Freedmen's Bureau was organized by Congress in 1865 at the conclusion of the Civil War. It offered assistance to freed slaves in a variety of ways. The Bureau opened schools to educate the illiterate. It managed hospitals, it rationed food and clothing for the destitute, and it even solemnized marriages. In the process, it gathered priceless handwritten personal information on potentially 4 million African Americans. Due to the work and commitment of over 25,000 volunteers, with the help of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and FamilySearch International, they have been able to uncover the names and stories of over 1.9 million freed slaves. In some cases, for the very first time, African Americans are able to discover their Civil War-era families through an online and searchable database. I was especially pleased to attend an event yesterday where the newly indexed database of the Freedmen's Bureau Records was delivered to the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture. If I could just divert for a moment, I would like to share a story from this experience from one of the leaders of the museum, and I hope he will forgive me for stealing his story and repeating it to you. This gentleman told of how his grandparents passed away when he was very young.…”