Tom Perez Quotes

Many civil rights came about, not when they were passed into law, but because the federal government did what it should and saw them enforced.

On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act. Its enactment, following the longest continuous debate in the history of the U.S. Senate, enshrined into law the basic principle upon which our country was founded - that all people are created equal.

Rejecting the fundamental provision of the Civil Rights Act is a rejection of the foundational promise of America that all men and women should be treated equally, a promise for which many Americans have lost their lives.

The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

I support the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

In the end no segregationist scheme has withstood the force of a simple idea: equality under law.

I'd like to think I would have signed the Civil Rights bill and wouldn't have had any issues with it.

I want a fair housing bill. We’ve got to end this Goddamn discrimination against Negroes. Until people, whether they’re purple, brown, black, yellow, red, green, or whatever – live together, they’ll never know they have the same hopes for their children, the same fears, troubles, woes, ambitions.

[Speaking of civil rights;] We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and as plain as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities.

Before I became Attorney General, I won’t say that I stayed up at night worrying about civil rights

Is the Jew a man? He is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, my fellow; and he shall not, if I can prevent it, be a slave! I demand for him equal rights and privileges, and a place within the pale of the Constitution!" Let all the people say, Even so, AMEN!

Though the Attorney General of the United States carries many responsibilities and undertakes many tasks, there can be none more important than the pursuit of civil rights on behalf of all the people of this country.

There's a long bipartisan tradition of civil rights enforcement.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country. So tonight I urge every public official, every religious leader, every business and professional man, every working man, every housewife - I urge every American - to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people, and to bring peace to our land.

You can't put civil rights on the ballot.

This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen.

I'd like to continue being involved with issues that animated my time as attorney general - criminal-justice reform and civil rights especially. I don't just want to give speeches; I'd like to involve myself in this work in a systematic way.

Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

It was Dr. King's tireless activism that fostered our modern way of relating to one another.

Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.

Protecting the rights of service members was an important part of my work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

The fact that women are very young in obtaining their civil rights and African-Americans are young in obtaining their civil rights, I think it's about time that we extend that to all Americans, whether straight, gay, purple, green, black, brown.

Civil rights are more important today than they ever have been in our country. There is so much divisiveness today.

The resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder is met with both pride and disappointment by the Civil Rights community. We are proud that he has been the best Attorney General on Civil Rights in U.S. history and disappointed because he leaves at a critical time when we need his continued diligence most.