Obama compares the recent teargassing of peaceful protesters by federal law enforcement to tactics used by segregationist George Wallace
While eulogizing Rep. John Lewis on Thursday, former President Barack Obama compared the recent teargassing of peaceful protesters across the country by federal law enforcement to tactics used by segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace against civil rights activists in the 1960s.
Video Transcript
BARACK OBAMA: He knew from his own life that progress is fragile, that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country's history, of our own history [INAUDIBLE] whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again.
Bull Connor may be gone, but today, we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.
[APPLAUSE]
We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don't get sick.
