April 4, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 59 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
THE 51ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 59
(Extensions of Remarks - April 04, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E403-E404] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] THE 51ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ______ HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE of texas in the house of representatives Thursday, April 4, 2019 Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, today, April 4, 2019, marks the 51st anniversary of one of the darkest and most sorrowful days in American history, the assassination in Memphis, Tennessee of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. The mortal life of one of the towering figures of the 20th century may have been cut short on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel a half century ago, but the spirit that animated that life and inspired a nation lives on and reminds us that nothing is impossible when we are guided by the better angels of our nature. In remembering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we commemorate a man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day. We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and beatings, and even bombings. We celebrate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway. Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness.'' ``Life's most persistent and nagging question,'' he said, is ``what are you doing for others?'' And when Dr. King talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life: ``I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said. ``I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life . . . to love and serve humanity.'' We should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to power. There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam War being waged by the Johnson Administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend and champion of civil and human rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. Martin's youth was spent in our country's Deep South, then run by Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan. For young African-Americans, it was an environment even more dangerous than the one they face today. A young Martin managed to find a dream, one that he pieced together from his readings--in the Bible, and literature, and just about any other book he could get his hands on. Not only did those books help him educate himself, but they also allowed him to work through the destructive and traumatic experiences of blatant discrimination, and the discriminatory abuse inflicted on himself, his family, and his people. As a youngster, Dr. King learned to use his imagination and his dreams to see right [[Page E404]] through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men, and women, regardless of their place of origin, their gender, or their creed, are created equal. Dr. King was a dreamer and through dreams he was able to lift his mind beyond the reality of his segregated society to a beloved place where it was possible that white and black, red and brown, and all others live, work, and prosper together in harmony. But the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an idle daydreamer. He shared his visions through speeches that motivated others to join in his nonviolent effort to lift themselves from poverty and isolation by creating a new America where equal justice and institutions were facts of life. In the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are Created Equal.'' At that time and for centuries to come, African-Americans were historically, culturally, and legally excluded from inclusion in that declaration. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' Speech, delivered 54 years ago, on August 28, 1963, was a clarion call to each citizen of this great nation that we still hear today. His request was simply and eloquently conveyed--he asked America to allow of its citizens to live out the words written in its Declaration of Independence and to have a place in this nation's Bill of Rights. The 1960s were a time of great crisis and conflict. It was the decade of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Malcolm X, Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and the man we honor here today. The dream expressed and shared by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped win major victories in the battle for civil rights. It started when Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with Rosa Parks and others, which lasted for 381 days, and ended when the United States Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation on all public transportation. But the dream did not die there. It continued with a peaceful march for suffrage that started in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, a day that was immediately known and will always be remembered as ``Bloody Sunday,'' when a peaceful march for voting rights ended in bloodshed and violence at the hands of law enforcement officers as the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. When the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was stolen from us, he was a very young 39 years old. People remember that Dr. King died in Memphis, but few can remember why he was there. On that fateful day in 1968 Dr. King came to Memphis to support a strike by the city's sanitation workers. The garbage men there had recently formed a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to demand better wages and working conditions. But the city refused to recognize their union, and when the 1,300 employees walked off their jobs the police broke up the rally with mace and Billy clubs. It was then that union leaders invited Dr. King to Memphis. Despite the danger he might face entering such a volatile situation, it was an invitation he could not refuse. Not because he longed for danger, but because the labor movement was intertwined with the civil rights movement for which he had given up so many years of his life. The death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will never overshadow his life. That is his legacy as a dreamer and a man of action. It is a legacy of hope, tempered with peace. It is a legacy not quite yet fulfilled. I hope that Dr. King's vision of equality under the law is never lost to us, because without that vision--without that dream--we can never continue to improve the human condition. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that a life well lived, and all of the noblest virtues--courage, wisdom, grace, love-- were rooted in service to others. And he memorably expressed this idea in his last sermon, the one given at Mason Temple in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the evening before he was felled by an assassin: But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: ``If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'' That's the question before you tonight. Not, ``If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, ``If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?'' The question is not, ``If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?'' The question is, ``If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?'' That's the question. Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you. So in these difficult days of challenge, let us remember and take inspiration from the remarkable, extraordinary, and consequential life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and move forward together, with greater readiness and determination, to make America a place where all of her people enjoy the blessings of justice, equality, and human dignity. Let us, the living, continue that struggle today and forever, in the incandescent spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ____________________