House Commemorates the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s As- M. Speaker, this Friday, April 4th, will mark the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968. I commend my colleague, Mr. John Lewis of Georgia, for introducing this bipartisan House Resolution that calls upon all Americans, on this anniversary, to “pause and remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” I would also like to acknowledge the many Judiciary Members that join us in supporting this resolution – Ranking Member Lamar Smith, Constitution Subcommittee Chair Jerrold Nadler, Immigration Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren, Crime Subcommittee Chair Bobby Scott, as well as Keith Ellison and Steve Cohen. This Friday, April 4th, 40 years ago, Dr. King, our nation’s greatest civil rights leader, was taken from us much too early. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King’s life ended abruptly as he was fighting for the rights of African American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King believed that providing a voice for these workers was an integral part of the Poor People’s Campaign he was organizing.
The night before his death, Dr. King addressed the sanitation workers and their supporters at Memphis’ Mason Temple, pledging that they would “get to the promised land.” The next day, Dr. King was in his Lorraine Motel room preparing for the April 8th march and demonstration on behalf of the sanitation workers. It was that afternoon, as he stepped out on the balcony of Room 306, that an assassin’s bullet took his life.
This great man, who never swayed from his commitment to social change through nonviolence, even when it was the unpopular thing to do, was himself a victim of violence.
It is significant that Dr. King spent the last days of his life giving the voiceless a voice, and bringing greater equality under the law to those who had not known it. The work he was in the midst of when he died is emblematic of all that he accomplished in his short 39 years here.
With Ms. Rosa Parks, Dr. King began his career as an eloquent spokesman for the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, which would result in “back of the bus” treatment being deemed unconstitutional in 1956.
From Montgomery, Dr. King’s life work would take him to Atlanta, Albany, Birmingham, Jackson, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., among other places, to demand freedom, justice, and equality for all people.
Dr. King’s work also took him to cities abroad, like Bombay and Calcutta, India, where he and Mrs. King met with mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, in 1959.
From marches and rallies to sit-ins and freedom rides, as the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. King mobilized men and women in all walks of life to challenge racism and discrimination through peaceful, nonviolent means.
He worked with community leaders to promote free, integrated communities, and he worked with policymakers to ensure the laws of the land were fair and just to all Americans regardless of color.
Dr. King’s work would culminate in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. King would be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964, becoming the youngest person to receive the prestigious award.
On that tragic day, April 4, 1968, Dr. King was survived by his parents, Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Mrs. Alberta Williams King, his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and his four children, Yolanda Denise (deceased, May 15, 2007), Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine, all of whom dedicated their lives to continuing the legacy of their son, husband, and father.
I feel very privileged to have known Dr. King. I am honored to have been endorsed by him at his visit to Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, during my first run for Congress in 1964, and to have been recognized by him with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Award in 1967.
Less than a month before his death, on March 12, 1968, I hosted Dr. King at Grosse Pointe High School, where he gave an address entitled The Other America.
It was with Mrs. Coretta Scott King’s approval, that I introduced the Dr. King federal holiday bill just four days after Dr. King’s death.
In 1969, I joined Mrs. King at the King Center, an organization that she established in her husband’s honor in 1968, to kick off the grassroots campaign for the King holiday.
Mrs. King’s commitment to the King holiday would bring her to Congress to testify in support of the King holiday bill in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983. Our 15-year effort resulted in the November 3, 1983, enactment of the King holiday bill, so that we may formally acknowledge Dr. King and his legacy the third Monday of every January. The first holiday observance occurred on January 20, 1986. When we lost Coretta Scott King on January 31, 2006, this nation mourned a woman who was not only the wife of Dr. King, but a civil rights leader in her own right, who herself, advanced racial and economic justice.
In addition to Mrs. King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has continued Dr. King’s work throughout the years, with Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowery, Martin Luther King, III, Fred Shuttlesworth, and now Charles Kenzie Steele, Jr. at the helm.
In commenting on Dr. King’s legacy, I cannot help but reflect on the pursuit of peace 40 years ago and the pursuit of peace today. Exactly one year before his death, on April 4, 1967, Dr. King gave his first anti-Vietnam War speech at Riverside Church in New York City. Today, this April 4, 2008, if Dr. King were here with us, perhaps he would be traveling the nation delivering anti-Iraq War speeches, having just watched as this war reached its 5-year marker on March 19th.
During his last days, Dr. King worked to unite the civil rights movement and the peace movement. He believed, “Everyone [had] a duty to be in both the civil rights and the peace movements.” As we advance Dr. King’s legacy today, we need to remember these words. It is 40 years later, and this country finds itself again poisoned by war, a war that is jeopardizing the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans.
So, as we observe the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, I ask that we examine the principles and values on which Dr. King based his work, and apply them to our work today. From the Iraq War and a failing economy, to inadequate healthcare and unsatisfactory schools, it is up to us to finish Dr. King’s work. This April 4th, commemorations will take place throughout the country, so that we may recommit ourselves to advancing Dr. King’s legacy.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee, site of the Lorraine Motel, and the King Center in Atlanta will observe the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination through forums, town halls, marches, candle light vigils, cultural events, worship services, and other activities. On Friday, April 4th, I ask that my colleagues in Congress and my fellow citizens also recognize the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for this country is all the better because of it.
I encourage my colleagues to support this resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.
House Commemorates the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s As
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