[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 38 (Monday, March 30, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E513]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TRIBUTE TO THE REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 30, 1998

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
honor the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who, 
thirty years ago this week was senselessly murdered by an assassin in 
Memphis, Tennessee.
  Dr. King contributed more to the causes of national freedom and 
equality than any other man or woman of our century. His achievements 
as an author and as a minister were surpassed only by his leadership, 
which transformed a torn people into a beacon of strength and 
solidarity, and united a divided nation under a common creed of 
brotherhood and mutual prosperity.
  It was Dr. King's policy of nonviolent protest which served to open 
the eyes of the American populace to the horrors of discrimination and 
police brutality. This policy revealed the Jim Crow laws of the South 
as hypocritical and unfair, and forced civil rights issues into the 
national dialectic. It is due to the increased scope and salience of 
the national civil rights discussion that the movement achieved so much 
during its decade of greatest accomplishment, from 1957 to 1968.
  It was in 1955 that Dr. King made his first mark on the nation, when 
he organized the black community of Montgomery, Alabama during a 382-
day boycott of the city's bus lines. The boycott saw Dr. King and many 
other civil rights activists placed in prison as ``agitators,'' but 
their efforts were rewarded in 1956, when the Supreme Court declared 
that the segregational practices of the Alabama bus system was 
unconstitutional, and demanded that blacks be allowed to ride with 
equal and indistinguishable rights. The result proved the theory of 
nonviolent protest in practice, and roused the nation to the 
possibilities to be found through peace and perseverance.
  In 1963, Dr. King and his followers faced their most ferocious test, 
when they set a massive civil rights protest in motion in Birmingham, 
Alabama. The protest was met with brute force by the local police, and 
many innocent men and women were injured through the harsh response. 
However, the strength of the police department worked against the 
forces of discrimination in the nation, as many Americans came to 
sympathize with the plight of the blacks through the sight of their 
irrational and inhumane treatment.
  By August of 1963 the civil rights movement had achieved epic 
proportions, and it was in a triumphant and universal air that Dr. King 
gave his memorable ``I Have a Dream'' speech on the steps of the 
Lincoln Memorial. In the next year, Dr. King was distinguished as Time 
magazine's Man of the Year for 1963, and he would later be awarded the 
Nobel Peace Prize for 1964.
  Throughout his remaining years, Dr. King continued to lead the nation 
towards increased peace and unity. He spoke out directly against the 
Vietnam War, and led the nation's War on Poverty, which he saw as 
directly involved with the Vietnam struggle. To Dr. King, the 
international situation was inextricably linked to the domestic, and 
thus it was only through increased peace and prosperity at home that 
tranquility would be ensured abroad.
  When Dr. King was tragically gunned down in 1968 he had already 
established himself as a national hero and pioneer. As the years 
passed, his message continued to gather strength and direction, and it 
is only in the light of his multi-generational influence that the true 
effects of his ideas can be measured.
  Dr. King was a man who lacked neither vision nor the means to express 
it. His image of a strong, united nation overcoming the obstacles of 
poverty and inequality continues to provide us with an ideal picture of 
the ``United'' States which will fill the hearts of Americans with 
feelings of brotherhood and common purposes for years to come.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to appropriately remember the 
significant deeds of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to join 
in a moment of silent meditation in his honor.

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