[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 17 (Thursday, January 30, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1798-S1799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REMEMBERING THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor an extraordinary man 
in American history. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., without exception, 
led a fearless life dedicated to the cause of human rights and world 
peace. His example inspired a generation of Americans to rise above 
what had been two centuries of injustice and inequality and usher in a 
new day of enlightenment and freedom. For that great gift, for having 
imagined what America ought to be and setting us on that course, we 
will forever be in his debt.
  Had Dr. King been spared on that fateful day in 1968, he would have 
turned 74 years of age this month. He would have watched his children, 
Martin, Dexter and Yolanda, grow into strong and responsible adults. He 
would have watched a generation of young people mature into adults, 
struggling to keep the spirit of his dream alive. He would have seen 
the birth of an entirely new generation, charged with carrying 
America's torch into a new century.
  Had Dr. King lived, he would have witnessed, and undoubtedly 
experienced, countless changes in America and the world . . . but would 
he believe we had truly arrived at the ``promised land'' he spoke of in 
his ``I Have a Dream'' speech? Or would he find some unfinished 
business? What would he say?
  Would Dr. King still speak of the ``debilitating and grinding 
poverty'' that disproportionately affects minority communities? In 
America today, like America of the 1960s, disproportionate numbers of 
minorities live in dilapidated housing with low or no income. They have 
far too few resources to feed their families, to clothe their children, 
or to pay the price of higher and higher rents, and certainly not 
enough to afford a down-payment for a home of their own. Too many 
seniors have to make the unfair and unacceptable choice between heat 
and prescription drugs. And too few of them have the retirement savings 
of which they had dreamed. And in these sorry economic times, there is 
no safety-net, children can't support their aging parents.
  What would Dr. King say? We live in the richest Nation in the world, 
yet certain current economic policies sometimes neglect working-class 
men and women and turn a blind eye to the poorest among us, all in the 
name of stimulating our economy. If we want to boost the economy, we 
should first boost the vast majority of Americans who can't spend 
because they don't have an opportunity to earn. Our focus should be on 
providing equal access to professional and educational opportunities, 
and not on dispensing one-way tickets to low-paying jobs with dead-end 
possibilities. If we are concerned about our country's economic health, 
we should be concerned about economic opportunities for all.
  What would Dr. King say? Last year, hate crimes climbed by more than 
17 percent, and offenses targeted specifically against Muslims jumped 
1,600 percent. Just this month, as the Nation prepared itself to honor 
the memory of Dr. King, racial threats were mailed to more than 30 
African-American churches and businesses in Kansas City, MO. And, 
sadly, Kansas City is no different than many cities in America. 
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9,730 hate crimes 
were reported in the United States in 2001, that is more than 26 hate 
crimes a day. And it is not counting the untold numbers of crimes that 
go unreported, nor the numbers of crimes against individuals solely 
because of their gender or sexual orientation or disability, all of 
which are not captured under current Federal law.
  Hate crimes are not simply crimes against individuals; they are 
crimes against whole communities and have marked the demise of great 
nations. To paraphrase Dr. King, ``history is cluttered with the 
wreckage of nations and individuals'' that tolerated ``this self-
defeating path of hate.'' And yet Congress in its infinite wisdom has 
failed to pass basic legislation that would strengthen the ability of 
Federal, State and local governments to investigate and prosecute hate 
crimes; failed to remove unnecessary obstacles to Federal

[[Page S1799]]

involvement in the prosecution of bias-motivated crimes; and failed to 
give law enforcement the tools it needs to ensure that every American 
can live in an environment free of terror.
  And what would Dr. King say of our efforts to make it possible that 
every American child attend college and receive the benefits that flow 
from a college education? Four decades after Ole Miss and the 
University of Alabama admitted their first minority students, some are 
arguing that universities cannot seek to promote a diverse campus 
atmosphere by considering race, among many other factors, in assembling 
its student body. I was disappointed when the President announced to 
the nation that he would authorize the U.S. Government to oppose the 
undergraduate and law school admissions policies of the University of 
Michigan. The administration had an opportunity to send a powerful 
message to the Nation, namely that, partisan politics aside, the 
attainment of diverse student bodies at America's universities is in 
our greatest national interest. I disagree with his decision.
  The President's reason for opposing the Michigan admissions system 
was because it mandated racial quotas. It does not. As the university's 
president, Mary Sue Coleman, noted in her response to President Bush's 
misstatement, the university's admissions system ``is a complex process 
that takes many factors into account and considers the entire 
background of each applicant. . . . We do not have, and never had, 
quotas or numerical targets in either the undergraduate or Law School 
admissions programs. Academic qualifications are the overwhelming 
consideration for admission to both programs.''
  No, this debate is not about quotas. Rather, it is about educators' 
judgments about how best to teach and stimulate the curiosity of 
America's college students. It is about how to nurture critical 
thinking, how to ignite students' intellectual imagination. I have said 
it many times before, but now I have the social science data to back it 
up: the greatest benefactor of a diverse student community is not the 
individual student who gets some plus-factor on his admissions 
application; it is the wider college community that gains immensely 
from learning in an environment with different types of people, with 
different types of life experiences. And anyone who would suggest that 
an individual's race does not contribute to one's life experience would 
be sadly mistaken, because, even in the 21st century, diversity 
matters.

  This debate is about how to make America's promise real for all her 
children. Tellingly, when asked about the lawsuits against the 
University of Michigan, Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, noted 
quite poignantly that affirmative action is ``an important part toward 
eliminating discrimination.'' She is right. To the extent that Whites 
and minorities sometimes experience life differently, in other words, 
to the extent that there are Black-White gaps in poverty rates, in 
income levels, in access to quality health care, in life expectancy, in 
rates of imprisonment, in any number of life indicators, those gaps 
narrow considerably when minorities have increased and equal access to 
educational opportunities.
  Quite frankly, the road that led me from the small town of Scranton, 
PA, to the hamlet of Claymont, DE, and eventually to the hallowed Halls 
of the Senate, while rocky and sometimes uncertain, was always paved 
with possibility. The challenge, my friends, is to make sure every 
child, no matter their race or ethnicity, no matter their gender, no 
matter their families' socio-economic status, has a chance to travel a 
road, not necessarily free of obstacles, but certainly full of 
possibility. We must be vigilant in ensuring that the road for all our 
citizens is paved with possibility.
  In 1957, when Dr. King and a group of others formed the Southern 
Christian Leadership Conference, they chose as their motto: ``To save 
the soul of America.'' Our charge today is no less urgent. We have to 
make America what it ought to be. And to do that, we start where our 
Founders started, by awakening in our hearts that spirit of revolution, 
of freedom, of democracy out of which America was born, by remembering 
that America's promise is only as strong and as real to you as it is to 
all. Dr. King said it best: ``Injustice anywhere is a threat 
everywhere. . . . Whatever affects one directly, affects all 
indirectly.'' My friends, ``either we go up together or we go down 
together.''
  The questions are really quite simple. I stand with Dr. King's 
vision, which calls on us today to make sure that we do all we can to 
close the gaps in education and economic prosperity.
  When Dr. King died that dark day in 1968, honestly a part of me and a 
part of every American died, too. Riots erupted in 125 cities around 
the country, including in my home State of Delaware, where the National 
Guard occupied Wilmington for 10 months, reportedly the longest 
occupation in the country. But out of that horror and the anguish that 
followed, a clarion call was heard. We emerged from the riots a 
stronger and better nation, and with a stronger faith in what is good 
and right about America.
  To my beloved countrymen, I say that, in this season marking Dr. 
King's birth, we must remember his legacy. We must continue to raise 
our voices, continue to speak for the least among us, continue to fight 
for what is good and right about America.

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