Maiden Speech

Destination Freedom. Station WMAQ presents Destination Freedom, dramatizations of the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, a part of the pageant of history, and of America's own destination, freedom. Today, Destination Freedom tells the story of the former congressman from Illinois, the honorable Oscar de Priest, the first Negro since the Reconstruction era to enter the halls of Congress

in a chapter entitled, Made in Speech. The chair recognizes the Congress must defend the Congress for you, may the President and the Chair make it now move we adjourn. The House is quick and all together.

The motion is on the order. What do you mean? The Congress will fight a fourth-carol and then come to the front so that all could hear him. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me tell you what's happened.

This is a scene in the Congress, the year 1991. You can't tell what's on a man's mind, by the way he walks. But there is important purpose in the footsteps you hear. This man is prepared to make a farewell speech, and over what he says may not alter the minds of those above.

It will give him reason to consider. His name is George White, a name, a speaker who may not have heard of him until yesterday. But here now that he has reached the platform, it is about to speak.

Mr. Chairman, as the gentleman said, this is my last day in Congress. I stand before you the last of a number of Negro legislators sent to Congress since Emancipation Day. Send chair during the days of Reconstruction, sent here to help keep free men free.

Send by Robert then. Unscaled away! See, Congressman? Congressman, since freedmen were in Congress, we have legislated to build schools and hospitals, with made laws to protect the poor and aged, and to further the cause of freedom. We were not always right or immune to mistakes. But I'm not here to dwell upon the past. I'm