[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 6, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E7-E8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TRIBUTE TO REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 6, 1999

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to honor the legacy 
of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we will be 
commemorating later this month. It is now over 30 years that his life 
was senselessly snuffed out by an assassin in Memphis, TN.
  Following his death, I joined my colleagues in calling for the 
establishment of the third Monday in January to be a national holiday 
in honor of Rev. King. While this holiday is not ingrained in the 
American fabric of life, many of us are bittersweet regarding the 
message the holiday conveys. Too many Americans view Martin Luther King 
day as a holiday just for black people. Rev. King himself would be the 
first person to repudiate that attitude, for his message was for all 
people, of all races,

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creeds, colors and backgrounds. Today, in 1999, we should dedicate 
ourselves to remembering the universality of his message.
  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 our nation 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 right 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 our 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, AL, during a 382-day 
boycott of the city's bus lines. The boycott saw Dr. King and many 
other civil rights activists incarcerated prison as ``agitators,'' but 
their efforts were rewarded in 1956, when the U.S. 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 our 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 protest in motion in Birmingham, Al. The 
protest was met with brute force by the local police, and many innocent 
men and women were injured through the violent 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 our nation 
toward increased peace and unity. He spoke out directly against the 
Vietnam War, and led our 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 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 and 
courage to express it. His image of a strong and 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 a common purpose 
of years to come.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to bear in mind the courageous, 
dedicated deeds of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to join 
together on Monday, January 18, in solemn recollection of his 
significant contributions for enhancing human rights throughout our 
nation and throughout the world.

                          ____________________