It was March of 1960 when more than a thousand students from Claflin and South Carolina

state to historically black colleges marched to the town square in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

They are protesting segregation.

Fire hoses were turned on them and hundreds of arrests were made.

One of those arrested was a young SC state student from Sumter.

He'd been named the youth president of his local NAACP chapter at age 12.

Now in college he was one of the organizers of the sit-in and his name was James Clyburn.

Sitting in the Orangeburg County jail that March day, Clyburn met the woman he would

go on to marry, Miss Emily England.

They remained married for 58 years until our death last September.

Next month, James Clyburn turned 80.

He's never stopped fighting for civil rights.

It's a nice story, a love story, but one that belies the dark, painful reality that

change is slow in this country.

As police hit protesters with rubber bullets and pepper spray this week, and thousands

of Americans are arrested on the streets of our cities.

It starts to feel like we haven't come very far at all.

In times of great struggle and pain, we often look to history to guide us.

Congressman James Clyburn has lived that history.

He's serving his 14th term in the House of Representatives as a Democrat representing South

Carolina's 6th District.

As majority whip, he is the highest ranking black legislator in Congress.

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