Chinua Achebe Quotes
They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.
Achebe, Chinua. Interview by Robert Siegel. All Things Considered, NPR, 2007.
Also used in his Message to Congress, May 25, 1967
At the time less than 10% of the Southern Blacks were allowed to vote. The result was that Southern segregationists were elected to Congress even in a state like Mississippi which had a majority Black population, The Southern segregationist bloc was large enough that with a few very conservative Republicans, they formed a coalition could block any civil rights legislation including voting rights reform,
The only soldier ever so honored. At the beginning of WWII, President Roosevelt and Churchill wanted the U. S. Army to invade German and Italian North Africa. Marshall, General Eisenhower, and all the other military men, advised that while it was possible, it would be a diversion from the strategic objective of invading Europe. None the less FDR ordered the invasion. The effect on the American people was wonderful, It showed that the Germans were not invincible, increased enlistment and morale at home, and developed more popular support for the war. Later, Marshall learned much about Democratic leadership and he, himself became a very effective government leader, and began to appreciate FDR’s approach but with a little cynicism about democracy.
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his masterpiece, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
