Posted on 07/15/2014 7:20:13 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a history lesson coupled with an appraisal of current events Tuesday to an audience gathered at Howard University to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Holder recapped African-American history beginning with the 1619 arrival of slaves in the British colonies and emphasized gains following the Civil War and the 1960s civil rights movement.
He warned, however, that the uplifting tale of progress doesn't mean the country is free of racism.
“We must never hesitate to confront the fact, the undeniable truth, that in too many places across this nation that I love – and have served throughout my life – that the echoes of injustices stretching back nearly four centuries continue to reverberate,” Holder said. “These echoes from times past are still heard by too many.”
"Too many individuals act in ways that are negligent or counterproductive," he said.
The venue was friendly turf for the country’s first black attorney general. He was welcomed with a standing ovation and received robust applause when he denounced state laws that require a photo ID to vote.
“Our society is not color blind, nor should it be, given the disparities that still afflict and divide us,” Holder said after discussing prison sentencing disparities and variance in the quality of public education. “We must be color brave.”
In addition to urging continued pursuit of racial equality, Holder linked the civil rights movement to ongoing minority rights movements, including those for gay and transgender people. And he urged Congress to pass various laws.
“Today, I am calling on Congress to renew the spirit of the Civil Rights Act by updating fair housing and lending laws to address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status; by strengthening workplace protections to prohibit pay discrimination against women and to finally end discrimination against LGBT citizens; by ensuring equal access to education and promoting nondiscriminatory learning environments; and by passing updated voting rights legislation that will enable every voter, in every jurisdiction, to exercise – unencumbered – the rights that so many have fought for and died to defend,” he said.
Howard University played host to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in April 2013. The likely 2016 presidential candidate has repeatedly reached out to African-Americans, attempting to build bridges with the traditionally Democratic demographic on issues such as school choice and criminal justice reform.
Before the event began Danielle Holley-Walker, dean of the university’s law school, told U.S. News she was thrilled that Holder was visiting, praising his belief in the values reflected in the Civil Rights Act. But, Holley-Walker said, she didn’t expect a significantly different reception from the one Paul received.
Dearest Erica..
Lay OFF The Weed....
)))___________
Is Mrs Holders son ricky taking up where jesse jackson left off???
Hey Eric, do you know who Anthony Johnson and John Casor are?
What about the injustices inflicted on us by these pompous overlords over the last 6 years?
I'll pony up $5 towards his one-way flight back to Africa. Whose with me?
Drama Queen A$$hole!
What a self-serving piece of garbage.
move over Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Holder wants to be the biggest racemonger in town
Holder doesn’t go far enough! Clearly Europeans conducted slavery because they were traumatized by the Black Death, a Mongol plot to exterminate them that itself resulted from an oppression of the Mongols by the Chinese who were always building walls to stop them pillaging.
Also Africans would have been able to fend off slavery were it not for oppression by Arabs who of course were victims of Islamophobia by evil Christians.
That is the truth so help me Black Jesus!
Man, Soetoro must be gettin' his butt whupped on this whole illegal border crosser fiasco for Holder to continually stir up this whole racism canard.
In.
I’m in for $10!
“The free colored population [native] of Louisiana … own slaves, and they are dearly attached to their native land … and they are ready to shed their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for abolitionism;”
http://books.google.com/books?id=jTpLQpmlwEYC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false
Does he mean the 27 million blacks currently held as slaves by Muslims?
Your average Israeli can probably hear echoes that go back a lot further.
A few years ago I was in Liberia. As I read about the history of the freed slaves who settled there I discovered that the freed blacks enslaved the natives who were there when they landed.
You’d think that burning down a ROTC building would get that out of his system. But like Ayers, I guess not.
“There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the
troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the
public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of
their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising
their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because
it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his
grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs...
There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who do not want the
patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they
have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy
medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.”
~
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915.) ~
Educator, Author, Civil Rights Leader
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.