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Georgia Rep. Dan Ponder Jr.'s
Historic Anti-Racist Speech
Although you may not be from Georgia, please consider clicking on the link below to download and hear the historic, 14-minute speech given by Rep. Dan Ponder Jr. (R-Donalsonville) on the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives March 16th, 2000 in support of Georgia's hate crimes bill. http://georgiasummit.org/
As a white southerner from a conservative rural district, and a descendent of slave owners, Rep. Ponder's speech was of tremendous historical significance. His public repudiation of bigotry was truly the high point of the debate, if not the entire legislative session. I guarantee you will be touched and moved by Representative Ponder's compelling call to triumph over bigotry and hate.
In articulating his support for the hate crimes bill, Rep. Ponder explains in deeply personal terms how he, as a product of the segregated South, came to reject hate and prejudice of all kinds; whether rooted in race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Many representatives distinguished themselves with speeches in favor of Senate Bill 390, the Anti-Domestic Terrorism Act (better known as the hate crimes bill). But without question, the most powerful and moving remarks were delivered by Representative Ponder, whose personal and eloquent denunciation of racism and bigotry should be heard by all.
The GRUS
site also contains the full
text of Rep. Ponder's speech which you can print and share with others.
You can also use this link to read along, as you listen to the audio
of his powerful and moving remarks.
Part
of his speech follows.
"I am a White Republican, who lives in the very Southwest corner of the most ultra-conservative part of this state...
I was raised in a conservative Baptist church. I went to a large, mostly white Southern university. I lived in and was the President of the largest, totally white fraternity on that campus. I had 9 separate Great-Great-Great Grandfathers that fought for the Confederacy. I don't have a single ancestor on all of my family lines that lived north of the Mason-Dixon line going back to the Revolutionary War. And it is not something that I am terribly proud of, but it is just part of my heritage, that not one, but several of those lines actually owned slaves. So you would guess just by listening to my background that I am going to stand up here and talk against hate crime legislation. But you see, that's the problem when you start stereotyping people by who they are and where they came from, because I totally, totally support this bill...."
February 2003