[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 10, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7605-S7606]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO BURKE MARSHALL

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a life 
spent in pursuit of the highest American ideals. Burke Marshall, a 
wonderful man, a frontline soldier in the battle for civil rights, and 
a deeply respected resident of Connecticut, died Monday, June 2 at the 
age of 80. I am honored to have known him and occasionally benefited 
from his wise counsel.
  Burke became assistant attorney general for civil rights in the 
Kennedy Administration in 1961, just 7 years after the Brown v. Board 
of Education decision had declared ``separate but equal'' schools to be 
unconstitutional. On paper, in the annals of the law, things were 
changing. But in practice, on the streets and in the schools, those who 
suffered under Jim Crow knew that America was still defaulting on its 
promissory note. Segregation was still fierce. America was still 
failing to live up to its founding principles.
  During his tenure, Burke worked tirelessly to desegregate public 
facilities in the South. In 1961, he helped craft the Government's ban 
on segregation in interstate travel. In 1962, he played a central role 
in the maneuvering that led to the admission of James Meredith to the 
University of Mississippi, the first black student to pass through the 
gates of that school. In Birmingham in 1963, he negotiated a settlement 
between civil rights activists and the city's business community that 
helped bring the city back from the brink of violence. And in 1964, he 
helped shape the landmark Civil Rights Act, which would outlaw 
discrimination in public accommodations nationwide.
  During his tenure, Burke Marshall traveled throughout the South, 
persuading local authorities to desegregate bus stations, train 
stations, airports. This wasn't glamorous work. It took patience and 
persistence, clarity and courage. But without that patience, 
persistence, clarity, and courage, America would have stalled. America 
would have regressed. America would not have grown into the great 
Nation, full of hope and opportunity for people of all races and 
backgrounds, that it increasingly is today.
  Looking back, reading history books, some might think the civil 
rights movement was inexorable or its outcome inevitable. After all, 
the justice of the cause now seems so obvious. But in those days, 
nothing was for granted. Advancing civil rights was a struggle. Young 
people were being beaten by mobs; fire hoses and dogs were being turned 
on peaceful protestors. Many defenders of segregation would stop at 
nothing to stop the march of social progress.
  The only reason we were able to build a better country was because of 
the extraordinary heroism of ordinary people, and because of the 
difficult decisions made every day by people like Burke Marshall. He 
chipped away at the evil of Jim Crow and helped open the floodgates so 
that, as the Bible said, justice could begin to flow like water, and 
righteousness, like a mighty stream.
  Justice isn't yet flowing like a mighty river in America, nor is 
righteousness flowing like a mighty stream. We still have hills to 
climb, as Dr. King might say, before we reach the mountaintop. But 
thanks to the foothold that people like Burke Marshall have given us, 
we have the ability to keep climbing. We can see the summit. And

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we have the strength and the inspiration to never give up until we 
reach it.
  I got to know Burke Marshall because, in 1970, he moved to 
Connecticut and joined the faculty of Yale Law School, my alma mater, 
where he served as deputy dean and professor. I unfortunately had 
already graduated, but I was lucky to befriend Professor Marshall 
around New Haven. He was a warm, kind, decent man, who believed that 
the fight for justice was never-ending.
  The dean of Yale's Law School, Tony Kronman, put it well. He said, 
``His goodness was so large that I half believed and fully wished he 
would live forever. Burke's generosity brought out the best in others. 
His love of justice helped change a nation.''
  Burke Marshall was a quiet man. In fact, his wife Violet once said 
that, because he said so few words, she wasn't sure whether he liked 
her or not until he proposed. But he wasn't quiet when it counted. On 
matters of principle, on questions of justice, he heeded the wisdom of 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said: ``Our lives begin to end the day 
we become silent about things that matter.''
  Burke Marshall always spoke when it mattered, and that is why his 
legacy will live on forever in the hearts he touched and in the country 
he helped change for the better.
  My condolences to his wife Violet, his daughters Katie, Josie, and 
Jane, and his grandchildren. May God bless them and the memory of Burke 
Marshall.

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