[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THIRTY-SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana 
(Mr. Jefferson).
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I will speak very briefly now to try and 
end this, but there is so much to say.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) 
at the very end, we came back here from the gentleman's trip to hear 
remarks that Senator Byrd had made and indiscreet remarks that he had 
made on a television program, and all of us were in an uproar about it, 
but I saw it in a different paradigm, because of my trip with the 
gentleman, honest to goodness.
  I thought about what the gentleman said when the gentleman talked 
about nonviolence being more than a tactic but a way of life, and the 
fact that the part of the movement was not just to win the struggle but 
to redeem those who were on the other side of it, those who were the 
enemies of the right to vote, the enemies of freedom.
  I felt that I should approach that in a different spirit, and it was 
all because of the gentleman's teaching in that short time that we had 
there about the love and the community, about the value of nonviolence 
and about how we ought to internalize how we dealt with other people. I 
called to talk to him about what he had said in a way very different 
from the way I would have had I not gone with the gentleman. There is 
some strength, tremendous strength, in the nonviolence movement that 
comes, as the gentleman said, from the inside out.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for teaching me that, and I thank 
the gentleman for serving with me as a colleague. I thank the gentleman 
for allowing me to come on the trip. It is a life-changing experience, 
and I thank the gentleman for it.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis).
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), my friend and my colleague, for those kind 
and extraordinary words. I think we all can come together and help 
build up a loving community and really help build the truly interracial 
democracy in America.
  We are really one family. We are one house, the American house, the 
American family or the world house or the world family.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to just say a few words here.
  Mr. Speaker, first, I want to say that I am grateful to the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my colleague, and to the Faith and Politics 
Institute for giving me and my wife, Lisa, the opportunity to not only 
learn more about the great struggle for civil rights in this country 
but to be inspired to do more right now to make this country an even 
better country, to have this experience, to be there with the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, and Bernard 
Lafayette and Bob Zelner and Betty Fikes, all giants in the movement, 
was a real privilege.
  Let me add that I have never heard a voice sing more beautifully than 
Betty Fikes.
  We have had the opportunity to walk through history and to retrace 
the steps of Martin Luther King, of Rosa Parks, of the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and Fred Shuttlesworth, but we also had the 
opportunity to reflect on our current challenges in this country.
  I think we all agree that we still have a long way to go before we 
achieve the dream that Martin Luther King spoke so passionately about. 
As Members of Congress, I think we need to realize that we need to act. 
We need to do more to fight racism and bigotry and prejudice in this 
country. We need to ensure voting rights in this country, and we need 
to do that through more than just rhetoric.
  We need to pass legislation for real election reform here in this 
country. We need to fight to make sure that every child has the 
opportunity for a first-rate education. We need to make sure that 
everybody in this country gets health care. We need to make sure that 
there is funding existing in the Department of Justice to enforce our 
civil rights laws.
  We have a long way to go, and I want to thank my colleague from 
Georgia for giving my wife, Lisa, and I the great privilege to not only 
travel with the gentleman but to learn and to be inspired. So I thank 
the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me just thank the gentleman 
from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my friend, my colleague, my brother, 
and thank the gentleman and his wife for making the trip. It is my hope 
and my prayer that we will continue, all of us, to work together to 
make real the very essence of our democracy, the idea of one person, 
one vote, not only that people must have a right to vote but also have 
their vote counted.

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