[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)] [House] [Page H1005] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] THE DREAM LIVES ON The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, 40 years ago yesterday on March 7, 1965, events in Selma, Alabama, became a seminal moment for the advancement of civil rights in our country. Last weekend, I had the privilege to join one of my heroes, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), who was also one of the leaders of the nonviolent civil rights movement, to retrace his steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where America's long march to freedom met a roadblock of violent resistance. The day became known as Bloody Sunday. By 1965, the cause of equality and human dignity had already seen much progress and setbacks: the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, Rosa Parks's defiance on a bus in Montgomery, the breaking of a color barrier at Ole Miss, the historic March on Washington, the assassinations of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy, the bombing deaths of four little girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, the Mississippi freedom summer, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But on this Bloody Sunday, about 600 people, young and old, put their lives on the line and met the unbridled force of racism for the most basic American right, the right to vote and be full participants in our democracy. The Alabama State Patrol was waiting for them at the other side of the Pettus Bridge and attacked them with clubs, tear gas, and dogs. The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) was beaten so badly he believed he was going to die. The images were captured on TV. When the movie ``Judgment at Nuremberg'' was interrupted with the news, many people watching the movie first thought that it was a continuation of the movie depicting brutal Nazi oppression, until they realized that this was happening in America, right now. People's shock moved the political world. One week after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson spoke to the Nation. In inspiring words, he said: ``At times, history and fate meet in a single time and a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma. Their cause must be our cause.'' Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, Dr. Martin Luther King and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) led 4,000 people across the Pettus Bridge on their 54-mile march to Montgomery. Six months later, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, proclaiming that the right to vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison all people merely because they are different from each other. Soon the Voting Rights Act will be up again before Congress for reauthorization. We should do it sooner rather than later. We should make it permanent, rather than for short periods, so we do not have to revisit the issue and debate its provisions. Surely there is enough common interest and bipartisan support to accomplish this. Their cause 40 years ago this week still must be our cause to overcome today. For as long as the power of America's diversity is diminished by acts of discrimination and violence against people just because they are black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Muslim or gay, we still must overcome. As long as the gap between rich and poor continues to spread in our Nation, with some and not all having access to health care, we still must overcome. As long as children of color are more likely to live in poverty, die sooner, and less likely to graduate high school and go on to college, we still must overcome. As President Bush stated during his recent trip to Europe: ``We cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. All our nations must work to integrate minorities into the mainstream of society, and to teach the value of tolerance to each new generation.'' President Clinton pointed out 5 years ago at the Pettus Bridge that these challenges already have existing bridges waiting to be crossed. He said: ``These bridges stand on the strong foundations of our Constitution. They were built by our forebears through silent tears and weary years. They are waiting to take us to higher ground.'' But there is still much work to be done. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: ``Human progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts of people willing to be co-workers with God.'' We remember the event of 40 years ago this week not only to honor the courage, sacrifice and accomplishments by those like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and so many more, but also to rededicate ourselves to their unfinished work: the pursuit of justice, love, tolerance and human rights, in our country and throughout the world. ____________________