FLASHBACK – Labor Nominee Perez: 'People Are Still Having Issues With Who Won The Civil War'

Thomas Perez spoke to the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy on December 18, 2009 on challenging the Voting Rights act of 1965. Perez said:

“The more things change, the more they stay the same. People are still having issues with who won the Civil War. Crosses continue to get burned. They got burned ten years ago, they got burned 40 years ago and, regrettably, they got burned a few months ago. We continue to deal with all of these issues. I had assumed, naively as it turns out, with the benefit of hindsight that the issue of interracial marriage was an issue that we put behind us. I thought we shut down that unit in the Civil Rights Division only to learn two weeks into my tenure that there was a justice of the peace in Louisiana who did not think that interracial couples were good for Louisiana and therefore denied marriage licenses. Apparently, in the belief that people like our President are never going to get anywhere in life if they’re a child of an interracial marriage.”