Gwen Moore: “I just want to rise today to thank my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this Special Order…”

“I just want to rise today to thank my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this Special Order hour and for honoring the life and legacy of the late, great Reverend Jackson, Sr., a man who truly taught us all how to keep hope alive. Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., is not only a friend to the Congressional Black Caucus, but he was a friend of all of ours individually and collectively. He had a very humble birth, born to a single mother, and started his political life by being arrested for protesting around not being admitted to a segregated library and became one of the storied Greenville Eight in that protest. Of course, you will hear from others tonight about his association with the late, great Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. You will hear about his leadership at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, his founding of Rainbow PUSH, his negotiating the release of American hostages in various parts of the world, his running for the President of United States, both in 1984 and 1988. I lived 90 miles from Chicago, and so I know the Reverend Jackson who would just show up at random, unknown people's grandmother's funeral.”