[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1057]
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 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon an unusual quality is the 
order of the day, an unusual quality for this House, and that is of 
humility.
  It is with great humility that any of us talk about this trip to 
Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery and to Birmingham in the presence of the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), our colleague. With humility and 
gratitude to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and to the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) and to the Faith and Politics 
Institute, I am grateful to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) for 
the opportunity to bring my daughter Christine, for the two of us to be 
able to go with you to walk through history.

                              {time}  1530

  It is a tradition in our country that families take their children to 
visit Boston and Philadelphia, to see places of significance, 
Washington DC., in our country's history. We must add to that list of 
must visits Alabama, Birmingham, to see what happened and how it is 
memorialized at the museum and in the monuments there, with the dogs 
and the hoses and the rest, to see we are capable of man's inhumanity 
to man, to Montgomery to see the sites of the march, and to Selma to 
see where the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) crossed over the 
bridge and where he was physically beaten for his courage.
  What stands out to me and what I want to use my brief time, Mr. 
Speaker, on this Special Order that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Lewis) is participating in, and I thank him for allowing us to have 
this time to express our appreciation for that very, very special 
visit, which, as the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson) said, has 
made a difference in all of our lives, is I want to talk for a moment 
about the Reverend Martin Luther King.
  Reverend King is revered in our country as a great leader. Indeed, he 
has joined the ranks of American Presidents in having a day named for 
him where people honor his contribution to our country. But I wish that 
more people would honor him more fully and have a greater appreciation 
for his contribution. Certainly he was a great civil rights leader; but 
he was also a disciple, an apostle of nonviolence, faith-based 
nonviolence that was central to his success, to his strength, and to 
the contribution that he made to our country.
  So, in closing my remarks, I want to say that I hope that one of the 
resolves that comes out of our visit and out of this Special Order and 
out of our work in Congress is a fuller appreciation throughout our 
country in our schools for the work of Reverend Martin Luther King. I 
hope on another occasion to say more on that subject.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased with great humility and gratitude to yield 
to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Pelosi), my friend and my colleague, for yielding 
and for going on this trip. I want to also take the time to thank all 
of the staff of Faith and Politics, staff from the Capitol, the Capitol 
Police, and others that assisted us in making this trip a very 
successful trip.
  We have come a distance in the past 36 years toward laying down the 
word on race, toward creating a truly interracial democracy. We are on 
our way toward the building of the beloved community. We are not there 
yet; but during the past 36 years, we traveled such a distance.
  Those signs that I saw in Selma that said ``white men,'' ``colored 
men,'' ``white women,'' ``colored women,'' they are gone. They will not 
return.
  Today, in Selma, Alabama, in Montgomery, in Birmingham, you have 
biracial government, black people, white people working together to 
create a sense of community, to create a sense of family.
  If there is anything we learned from this trip, even here in the 
House, the people's House, the House of Representatives, we can create 
a sense of family, one family, one House, the American House, the 
American family.




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