[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 29 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 29

 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Day and the many lessons still to be learned from Dr. King's example of 
     nonviolence, courage, compassion, dignity, and public service.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 12, 2007

Ms. Stabenow (for herself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Rockefeller, 
   Mr. Leahy, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
Sanders, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Obama, Mr. Webb, Ms. 
Mikulski, Mr. Levin, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Salazar, Mrs. Clinton, 
Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Tester, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Byrd, Mr. Brown, Mr. Biden, 
 Mr. Wyden, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Reed, 
Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Pryor, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Reid, and Mr. 
Specter) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Day and the many lessons still to be learned from Dr. King's example of 
     nonviolence, courage, compassion, dignity, and public service.

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
    Resolved, 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.
                                 <all>