Whereas Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated
his life to securing the Nation's fundamental principles of liberty and justice
for all citizens;
Whereas Dr. King was the leading civil rights advocate of
his time, spearheading the civil rights movement in the United States during
the 1950s and 1960s, and earned worldwide recognition as an eloquent and
articulate spokesperson for equality;
Whereas in the face of hatred and violence, Dr. King
preached a doctrine of nonviolence and civil disobedience to combat
segregation, discrimination, and racial injustice, and believed that each
person has the moral capacity to care for other people;
Whereas Dr. King awakened the conscience and consciousness
of the Nation and used his message of hope to bring people together to build
the Beloved Community—a community of justice, at peace with itself;
Whereas Dr. King was born on January 15, 1929, and
attended segregated public schools in Georgia;
Whereas Dr. King began attending Morehouse College in
Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 15, and received a B.A. degree in 1948 from
Morehouse College, following in the footsteps of both his father and
grandfather;
Whereas Dr. King received his B.D. in 1951 from Crozer
Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in theology in 1955 from
Boston University;
Whereas in Boston Dr. King met Coretta Scott, his life
partner and fellow civil rights activist, and they married on June 18, 1953,
and had 2 sons and 2 daughters;
Whereas Dr. King was ordained in the Christian ministry in
February 1948 at the age of 19 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia,
and became Assistant Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church;
Whereas, in 1954, Dr. King accepted the call of Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and was pastor there until
November 1959, when he resigned to move back to Atlanta to lead the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference;
Whereas from 1960 until his death in 1968, Dr. King was
again a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, along with his father;
Whereas between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled over
6,000,000 miles, spoke over 2,500 times, and wrote 5 books and numerous
articles, supporting efforts around the Nation to end injustice and bring about
social change and desegregation;
Whereas Dr. King led the Montgomery bus boycott for 381
days to protest the arrest of Mrs. Rosa Parks and the segregation of the bus
system of Montgomery, Alabama, in the first great nonviolent civil rights
demonstration of contemporary times in the United States;
Whereas during the boycott, Dr. King was arrested and his
home was bombed, yet he responded with nonviolence and courage in the face of
hatred;
Whereas, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court of the
United States declared the laws requiring segregation in Montgomery's bus
system to be unconstitutional, leading to the end of the bus boycott on
December 21, 1956;
Whereas Dr. King led the March on Washington, D.C. on
August 28, 1963, the largest rally of the civil rights movement;
Whereas during during that march, Dr. King delivered his
famous I Have A Dream
speech from the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial and before a crowd of over 200,000 people;
Whereas Dr. King's I Have A Dream
speech is
one of the classic orations in United States history;
Whereas Dr. King was a champion of nonviolence, fervently
advocating nonviolent resistance as the strategy to end segregation and racial
discrimination in the United States;
Whereas Dr. King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize in
recognition for his efforts, and, at the age of 35, was the youngest man to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize;
Whereas through his work and reliance on nonviolent
protest, Dr. King was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
Whereas the work of Dr. King created a basis of
understanding and respect and helped communities, and the Nation as a whole, to
act cooperatively and courageously to achieve tolerance, justice, and equality
between people;
Whereas, on the evening of April 4, 1968, Dr. King was
assassinated while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis,
Tennessee, where he was to lead sanitation workers in protest against low wages
and intolerable working conditions;
Whereas in 1968 Representative John Conyers first
introduced legislation to establish a national holiday honoring Dr.
King;
Whereas Coretta Scott King led a massive campaign to
establish Dr. King’s birthday as a national holiday;
Whereas in 1983 Congress passed and President Ronald
Reagan signed legislation establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day;
Whereas in 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated
in more than 100 countries;
Whereas in remembering Dr. King we also honor his wife and
indispensable partner, Coretta Scott King, a woman of quiet courage and great
dignity who marched alongside her husband and became an international advocate
for peace and human rights;
Whereas Mrs. King, who had been actively engaged in the
civil rights movement as a politically and socially conscious young woman,
continued after her husband's death to lead the Nation toward greater justice
and equality for all, traveling the world advocating for racial and economic
justice, peace and nonviolence, women's and children's rights, gay rights,
religious freedom, full employment, health care, and education until her death
on January 30, 2006;
Whereas the values of faith, compassion, courage, truth,
justice, and nonviolence that guided Dr. and Mrs. King's dream for the United
States will be celebrated and preserved by the Martin Luther King, Jr. National
Memorial on the National Mall near the Jefferson Memorial and in the new
National Museum of African American History and Culture that will be located
near the Lincoln Memorial;
Whereas Dr. King’s actions and leadership made the United
States a better place and the people of the United States a better
people;
Whereas the people of the United States should commemorate
the legacy of Dr. King, so that one day this nation will rise up and
live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be
self-evident; that all men are created equal
; and
Whereas Dr. King’s voice is silenced today, but on the
national holiday honoring Dr. King and throughout the year, the people of the
United States should remember his message, recommit to his goal of a free and
just nation, and consider each person's responsibility to other people: Now,
therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)observes and
celebrates the national holiday honoring Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King,
Jr.;
(2)honors Dr. King's
example of nonviolence, courage, compassion, dignity, and public
service;
(3)pledges to
advance the legacy of the Dr. King; and
(4)encourages the
people of the United States to celebrate—
(A)the national
holiday honoring Dr. King; and
(B)the life and
legacy of Dr. King.