![Jesse Jackson, Jr. > Congressman Jackson Speech Honoring Parks
A few days ago I was asked to keynote the 142nd remembrance of the Gettysburg address in Gettysburg at the site of that great battle. I was terribly moved by what I felt that day, as I am now.
Many score and years ago our founding fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and equality. Our Declaration of independence and the immortal words that All men are created equal have challenged us as individuals and our nation as a whole.
Nearly 100 years later our nation found itself on a battlefield testing whether a nation so nobly conceived could survive. Little would they know that 92 years after that great battle, on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks would single handedly deal a blow to Jeffersonian Democracy and the ideology of states rights. While most people consider Rosa Parks a simple woman whose act of courage initiated the civil rights movement, a more comprehensive interpretation of Parks’ act redefined constitutional theory and the role of the central government in building a more perfect union for all its citizens.
Under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s limited view of democracy, each state was co-equal with the federal government with the same power and authority to act and decide as the national government in their state “sphere” of “reserved powers” – that is, those powers not specifically given away to the federal government by the Constitution.
James Madison developed the theory of “interposition” in the Virginia Resolution of 1798, the idea that when, in the eyes of a state, the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority, the states “have the right and are duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." In short, a state could stop the effectiveness of a federal law’s execution, administration or interpretation by interposing itself between the people of the state and the federal government.
Thomas Jefferson developed the theory of “nullification” in the Kentucky Resolution of 1799. Building on the conservative compact constitutional theory of government, he argued that states had the right to nullify all laws that they considered unconstitutional.
Both resolutions denied the Supreme Court’s authority to determine whether laws passed by Congress were constitutional.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case provided even greater context for Parks’ actions when one considers the massive resistance by the southern states to desegregation. In a shot heard around the world, Rosa Parks’ action served notice to ALL STATES that any further attempts to oppose a broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment using Madison and Jefferson’s theories would be met with equal resistance.
Thus, Rosa Parks actions in 1955, one year after Brown, would motivate a 26-year-old student named Martin Luther King Jr. who, seven years later, would utter these immortal words at the Lincoln Memorial on April 28, 1963, “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Liberals ignore the first part of that statement and conservatives only quote the second.
The bill that President Bush signed into law says that Rosa Parks statue will be completed and placed in Statuary Hall within two years, in 2007, which happens to be the same year that the 1965 Voting Rights Act must be strengthened and extended to protect those who have been discriminated against in the states.
Parks paved the way, but we still have unfinished business to complete as a nation. We can still have a new birth of freedom if “we the people” become reengaged in the struggle to build a more perfect Union and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And if we do—it—“ shall not perish from the earth”---until the earth itself perishes.
My gratitude to the President. Thank you Cong. Mike Rodgers, Speaker Hastert, Cong. Nancy Pelosi, Cong. Bob Ney, Cong. Juanita Millender MacDonald—Sen. Kerry, Sen. Smith and Sen. Obama. And I want to thank in a very special way Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chris Dodd whose efforts in the Senate prompted the house to consider HR4145.](http://jessejacksonjr.smugmug.com/photos/47441085_Z9gP8-Ti.jpg "Jesse Jackson, Jr. > Congressman Jackson Speech Honoring Parks
A few days ago I was asked to keynote the 142nd remembrance of the Gettysburg address in Gettysburg at the site of that great battle. I was terribly moved by what I felt that day, as I am now.
Many score and years ago our founding fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and equality. Our Declaration of independence and the immortal words that All men are created equal have challenged us as individuals and our nation as a whole.
Nearly 100 years later our nation found itself on a battlefield testing whether a nation so nobly conceived could survive. Little would they know that 92 years after that great battle, on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks would single handedly deal a blow to Jeffersonian Democracy and the ideology of states rights. While most people consider Rosa Parks a simple woman whose act of courage initiated the civil rights movement, a more comprehensive interpretation of Parks’ act redefined constitutional theory and the role of the central government in building a more perfect union for all its citizens.
Under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s limited view of democracy, each state was co-equal with the federal government with the same power and authority to act and decide as the national government in their state “sphere” of “reserved powers” – that is, those powers not specifically given away to the federal government by the Constitution.
James Madison developed the theory of “interposition” in the Virginia Resolution of 1798, the idea that when, in the eyes of a state, the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority, the states “have the right and are duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." In short, a state could stop the effectiveness of a federal law’s execution, administration or interpretation by interposing itself between the people of the state and the federal government.
Thomas Jefferson developed the theory of “nullification” in the Kentucky Resolution of 1799. Building on the conservative compact constitutional theory of government, he argued that states had the right to nullify all laws that they considered unconstitutional.
Both resolutions denied the Supreme Court’s authority to determine whether laws passed by Congress were constitutional.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case provided even greater context for Parks’ actions when one considers the massive resistance by the southern states to desegregation. In a shot heard around the world, Rosa Parks’ action served notice to ALL STATES that any further attempts to oppose a broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment using Madison and Jefferson’s theories would be met with equal resistance.
Thus, Rosa Parks actions in 1955, one year after Brown, would motivate a 26-year-old student named Martin Luther King Jr. who, seven years later, would utter these immortal words at the Lincoln Memorial on April 28, 1963, “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Liberals ignore the first part of that statement and conservatives only quote the second.
The bill that President Bush signed into law says that Rosa Parks statue will be completed and placed in Statuary Hall within two years, in 2007, which happens to be the same year that the 1965 Voting Rights Act must be strengthened and extended to protect those who have been discriminated against in the states.
Parks paved the way, but we still have unfinished business to complete as a nation. We can still have a new birth of freedom if “we the people” become reengaged in the struggle to build a more perfect Union and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And if we do—it—“ shall not perish from the earth”---until the earth itself perishes.
My gratitude to the President. Thank you Cong. Mike Rodgers, Speaker Hastert, Cong. Nancy Pelosi, Cong. Bob Ney, Cong. Juanita Millender MacDonald—Sen. Kerry, Sen. Smith and Sen. Obama. And I want to thank in a very special way Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chris Dodd whose efforts in the Senate prompted the house to consider HR4145.")
Congressman Jackson Speech Honoring Parks
A few days ago I was asked to keynote the 142nd remembrance of the Gettysburg address in Gettysburg at the site of that great battle. I was terribly moved by what I felt that day, as I am now.
Many score and years ago our founding fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and equality. Our Declaration of independence and the immortal words that All men are created equal have challenged us as individuals and our nation as a whole.
Nearly 100 years later our nation found itself on a battlefield testing whether a nation so nobly conceived could survive. Little would they know that 92 years after that great battle, on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks would single handedly deal a blow to Jeffersonian Democracy and the ideology of states rights. While most people consider Rosa Parks a simple woman whose act of courage initiated the civil rights movement, a more comprehensive interpretation of Parks’ act redefined constitutional theory and the role of the central government in building a more perfect union for all its citizens.
Under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s limited view of democracy, each state was co-equal with the federal government with the same power and authority to act and decide as the national government in their state “sphere” of “reserved powers” – that is, those powers not specifically given away to the federal government by the Constitution.
James Madison developed the theory of “interposition” in the Virginia Resolution of 1798, the idea that when, in the eyes of a state, the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority, the states “have the right and are duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." In short, a state could stop the effectiveness of a federal law’s execution, administration or interpretation by interposing itself between the people of the state and the federal government.
Thomas Jefferson developed the theory of “nullification” in the Kentucky Resolution of 1799. Building on the conservative compact constitutional theory of government, he argued that states had the right to nullify all laws that they considered unconstitutional.
Both resolutions denied the Supreme Court’s authority to determine whether laws passed by Congress were constitutional.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case provided even greater context for Parks’ actions when one considers the massive resistance by the southern states to desegregation. In a shot heard around the world, Rosa Parks’ action served notice to ALL STATES that any further attempts to oppose a broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment using Madison and Jefferson’s theories would be met with equal resistance.
Thus, Rosa Parks actions in 1955, one year after Brown, would motivate a 26-year-old student named Martin Luther King Jr. who, seven years later, would utter these immortal words at the Lincoln Memorial on April 28, 1963, “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Liberals ignore the first part of that statement and conservatives only quote the second.
The bill that President Bush signed into law says that Rosa Parks statue will be completed and placed in Statuary Hall within two years, in 2007, which happens to be the same year that the 1965 Voting Rights Act must be strengthened and extended to protect those who have been discriminated against in the states.
Parks paved the way, but we still have unfinished business to complete as a nation. We can still have a new birth of freedom if “we the people” become reengaged in the struggle to build a more perfect Union and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And if we do—it—“ shall not perish from the earth”---until the earth itself perishes.
My gratitude to the President. Thank you Cong. Mike Rodgers, Speaker Hastert, Cong. Nancy Pelosi, Cong. Bob Ney, Cong. Juanita Millender MacDonald—Sen. Kerry, Sen. Smith and Sen. Obama. And I want to thank in a very special way Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chris Dodd whose efforts in the Senate prompted the house to consider HR4145.
A few days ago I was asked to keynote the 142nd remembrance of the Gettysburg address in Gettysburg at the site of that great battle. I was terribly moved by what I felt that day, as I am now.
Many score and years ago our founding fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and equality. Our Declaration of independence and the immortal words that All men are created equal have challenged us as individuals and our nation as a whole.
Nearly 100 years later our nation found itself on a battlefield testing whether a nation so nobly conceived could survive. Little would they know that 92 years after that great battle, on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks would single handedly deal a blow to Jeffersonian Democracy and the ideology of states rights. While most people consider Rosa Parks a simple woman whose act of courage initiated the civil rights movement, a more comprehensive interpretation of Parks’ act redefined constitutional theory and the role of the central government in building a more perfect union for all its citizens.
Under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s limited view of democracy, each state was co-equal with the federal government with the same power and authority to act and decide as the national government in their state “sphere” of “reserved powers” – that is, those powers not specifically given away to the federal government by the Constitution.
James Madison developed the theory of “interposition” in the Virginia Resolution of 1798, the idea that when, in the eyes of a state, the federal government exceeded its constitutional authority, the states “have the right and are duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." In short, a state could stop the effectiveness of a federal law’s execution, administration or interpretation by interposing itself between the people of the state and the federal government.
Thomas Jefferson developed the theory of “nullification” in the Kentucky Resolution of 1799. Building on the conservative compact constitutional theory of government, he argued that states had the right to nullify all laws that they considered unconstitutional.
Both resolutions denied the Supreme Court’s authority to determine whether laws passed by Congress were constitutional.
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case provided even greater context for Parks’ actions when one considers the massive resistance by the southern states to desegregation. In a shot heard around the world, Rosa Parks’ action served notice to ALL STATES that any further attempts to oppose a broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment using Madison and Jefferson’s theories would be met with equal resistance.
Thus, Rosa Parks actions in 1955, one year after Brown, would motivate a 26-year-old student named Martin Luther King Jr. who, seven years later, would utter these immortal words at the Lincoln Memorial on April 28, 1963, “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Liberals ignore the first part of that statement and conservatives only quote the second.
The bill that President Bush signed into law says that Rosa Parks statue will be completed and placed in Statuary Hall within two years, in 2007, which happens to be the same year that the 1965 Voting Rights Act must be strengthened and extended to protect those who have been discriminated against in the states.
Parks paved the way, but we still have unfinished business to complete as a nation. We can still have a new birth of freedom if “we the people” become reengaged in the struggle to build a more perfect Union and a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And if we do—it—“ shall not perish from the earth”---until the earth itself perishes.
My gratitude to the President. Thank you Cong. Mike Rodgers, Speaker Hastert, Cong. Nancy Pelosi, Cong. Bob Ney, Cong. Juanita Millender MacDonald—Sen. Kerry, Sen. Smith and Sen. Obama. And I want to thank in a very special way Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chris Dodd whose efforts in the Senate prompted the house to consider HR4145.