(1955) CONGRESSMAN ADAM CLAYTON POWELL, JR., “SPEECH ON CIVIL RIGHTS”
On February 2, 1955, New York Representative Adam Clayton Powell, then one of only three African Americans in the U.S. Congress, rose to argue that his colleagues should support two pending civil rights bills then before the House of Representatives. His speech appears below:
Mr. Speaker, the United States Congress is a 19th century body in a 20th century world. In the field of civil rights we are still conducting ourselves along the pattern of yesterday’s world. Tremendous changes are taking place in our country eradicating the concept of second-class citizenship. Yet the United States Congress has done absolutely nothing in this sphere. We are behind the times. We are a legislative anachronism. In an age of atomic energy, our dynamic is no more powerful than a watermill.
READ MORE: (1955) CONGRESSMAN ADAM CLAYTON POWELL, JR., “SPEECH ON CIVIL RIGHTS”
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american...
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Thursday, February 2nd 2023 at 11:00AM
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