Who is Elijah Cummings
Elijah Cummings was born on the 18th January 1951 and was a member of the Democratic Party in the United States of America. As well as being a serving politician, he was also a civil rights advocate and writer, having a regular column in the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper.
Cummings served in the House of Representatives for the 7th Congressional District of Maryland, winning a set in 1996 and staying there until his death in 2019. Before this, he served in the Maryland House from 1983 and even from a young age, he campaigned for civil rights, with stories as a child of campaigning for a segregated swimming pool in his local community.
He studied law at college and practised it for 19 years before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1996. Cummings served on a variety of educational boards and commissions, alongside his political career, striving to improve the lives of his community.
He is widely celebrated for his commitment to improving the lives of Americans and in particular African-Americans and this is emphasised by his body lying in state, following his death in 2019, rarely afforded to those other than presidents.
Elijah Cummings Quotes
1. “It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.”
2. “You must have confidence in your competence.”
3. “I’m going to try and make people realize that in order to live the life they are living, they need to have democracy, and it’s being threatened.”
4. “Tweets are not enough. We need real action and meaningful reform.”
5. “My mom and dad, although they may not have had a lot of formal education, they were two of the most brilliant people that I know.”
6. “It is a new day in our city, let the wheels of justice begin to roll.”
7. “From my own life experience, I can attest that we have come a long way toward universal justice in this country, but we are not there yet.”
8. “I’m a lawyer, I practiced for many years, and so I believe in the Fifth Amendment.”
9. “Voting is crucial, and I don’t give a damn how you look at it: there are efforts to stop people from voting. That’s not right. This is not Russia. This is the United States of America.”
10. “Americans want government to help them. And this is something you can do to help all Americans.”
11. “I try to remind people that there are a lot of good people, all colors. Then there’s some bad ones, too. But there’s a lot of good people who really care.”
12. “I say to the president: No more talk, no more tweet. No more commotion, emotion and motion and no results.”
13. “My life is based on pain, passion, and purpose.”
14. “By providing students in our Nation with such an education, we help save our children from the clutches of poverty, crime, drugs, and hopelessness, and we help safeguard our Nation’s prosperity for generations yet unborn.”
15. “Price gouging for drugs that treat cancer in children is simply unconscionable.”
16. “I realized that with African American people, where we’ve been blocked from being all that God meant for us to be, I don’t have time to be patient.”
17. “I have a moral conscience that is real central.”
18. “Many of these Americans who are struggling to survive are Americans of color, .. Their cries for assistance confront America with a test of our moral compass as a nation.”
19. “We need to act as fast as we can to create that diplomatic resolution so that we will not have this problem.”
20. “Any little thing can spark the situation to get out of hand and we cannot afford that, we’re better than that.”
21. “The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged this fact when it reported that those with a bachelor’s degree earn on average $1 million more over their lifetime than those with only a high school diploma.”
22. “Our ultimate goal must be to serve the interest of the children and families of Flint.”
23. “I’m going to do what feeds my soul.”
24. “This complaint reads more like political talking points than a reasoned legal brief, and it contains a litany of inaccurate information.”
25. “We’re going to take a close look at this administration.”
26. “I was in special ed, but I felt like I was a caged bird. I felt like I could do better. I made sure I mastered my special ed lessons. I made sure I listened to my teacher. I made sure I did my homework, but I had to do a little extra.”
27. “I am not going to allow the president to be in jeopardy or his family.”
28. “More than 26,000 lives may be lost to the effects of drug abuse this year. This tragic impact is felt in communities across this great nation. Sadly many of these deaths occur among our young people.”
29. “They were irresponsible, incredibly disrespectful, and did not reflect reality.”
30. “The president’s assertion does not change the fact that the attorney general and the secretary of commerce are sadly in contempt.”
31. “They are not refugees. I hate that word.”
32. “When I became a lawyer, no one asked me if I had spent some time in special ed. All they wanted was a good lawyer.”
33. “We can not have people disobeying the law, the President is not above the law. And neither is Ms. Conway above the law.”
34. “When you’ve got integrity, which Rod Rosenstein has, you don’t have to go figure out what a poll says, you just do what you know is right.”
35. “Our children are the living messages we send to a future we will ever see… Will we rob them of their destiny? Will we rob them of their dreams? No – we will not do that.”
36. “I think it’s important for industry to do well. But I want them to do well and do good at the same time.”
37. “We will do whatever we have to do, using every tool that we have available, as we would with any subpoena now, to get her in.”
38. “Most people who are hating on you, they are not worried about where
you are. They’re worried about where you’re going.”
39. “It seems as if there are some police who believe that it is their job to not only arrest, but to convict and punish severely, unreasonably and unjustly at the scene of arrest defendants and suspects.”- Elijah Cummings
40. “Our practice on this Committee is to give witnesses an opportunity to clarify their testimony, and that is what Mr. Cohen has done.”
41. “You have to understand – I come from a neighborhood where ‘The Wire’ was filmed.”
42. “The committee needs to hear directly from the heads of these agencies as soon as possible in light of the almost daily reports of abuse and defiance.”
43. “Our country is slowly but surely moving – and I’ve seen it over and over again in many instances in government – toward a culture of mediocrity.”
44. “But the American people are begging us for more than thoughts and prayers, they want an answer, and guess what ? They want it now, because they know that this is a critical moment in our history.”
45. “People want transparency in government.”
46. “Every time something bad happens to me, I don’t ask the question, ‘Why did it happen to me?’ The question I ask is, ‘Why did it happen for me?’”
47. “Yes, you’ve got people dying. Come on now, i think we have a real to do whatever is necessary to save lives.”
48. “You’re saying to the people of the United States that you all made no mistakes. I’ve got to go back to my district and explain to them why we’ve got a federal agency that, to me, made some mistakes and won’t admit it.”
49. “We still have been zeroed in on Hillary Clinton. There is absolutely no doubt about that, and it’s very unfortunate.”
50. “I’m going to study the transcript first, that’s No. 1. I’m going to see what the allegations are and then I’ll go from there.”
