[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 15, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1210
 
                    DR. M.L. KING HOLIDAY COMMISSION

  (Mr. HILLIARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, many years ago, in the very early 1960's, 
when I was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, I met a man 
who was a preacher from Montgomery, AL, Dr. Martin Luther King.
  This man changed my life and the lives of millions of Americans who 
before ``his dream'' were treated as second-class citizens. After I met 
him, I enlisted in the movement and became one of Dr. King's foot 
soldiers in the war for racial equality. I was personally harassed by 
those who were against changes. It is hard for many of my colleagues to 
remember just how evil it was during the days of racial segregation 
before Dr. King helped change things, but, believe me, times were hard, 
cruel, and difficult. Because of my race, Mr. Speaker, none of 
Alabama's white public colleges would admit me as a student. We were 
cleverly denied the right to vote. Anyone would say, ``If you travel 
after dark in many cities in Alabama,'' and I would say in the rural 
South, ``as a black man, you took your life in your own hands,'' and, 
as many of my colleagues know, I am the first African-American since 
Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Congress by the people of 
Alabama.
  It is not accidental that I am here. It is because we fought the 
struggle. Times have changed. we have not reached the promised land. 
Without the continued presence, involvement and funding of the King 
Holiday Commission, Mr. Speaker, we would never reach our full 
potential of building both unity and understanding between the races.
  Mr. Speaker, the past is history, but history must be treated as 
knowledge and in its proper perspective so that mistakes of the past 
will be known so that hopefully they will be prevented and corrected. 
The Martin Luther King Holiday Commission helps us to remember. 
Hopefully it will help us to correct and prevent mistakes of the past.

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