[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 25, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, earlier this week, our Nation celebrated 
Martin Luther King Day. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would 
have been 77 years old on January 16. It was a day to reflect on the 
life of a man admired for the dream he dreamed for America, and for his 
words and deeds in pursuit of it.
  He dreamed, as he famously said, ``that one day this nation will rise 
up and live out the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to 
be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' '' Dr. King argued, 
in words that stir the heart, that racial segregation must end in the 
South and that Black Americans must be granted their citizenship rights 
throughout the land and throughout our institutions: in education, in 
employment, in housing, and in the voting booth.
  His role in the push for full voting rights for African Americans is 
well known but bears repeating. In the spring of 1965, a national 
television audience was shocked by broadcasts of State troopers and 
sheriff's deputies brutally repulsing voting rights protesters in 
Selma, AL. Hours later, Dr. King declared: ``No American is without 
responsibility.'' He went to Alabama and led a march, under Federal 
protection, from Selma to the State capital. The event garnered 
national support and provided momentum for congressional passage of the 
Voting Rights Act later that year.
  Dr. King appreciated the blessings of freedom; he wanted them for his 
people, and for all people. We remember this Protestant minister's 
eloquence and also his sense of spiritual mission--he was an ecumenical 
religious leader who brought people of all faiths, all races, together 
in mutual respect for one another.
  As Taylor Branch, his biographer, put it: ``His oratory fused the 
political promise of equal votes with the spiritual doctrine of equal 
souls.''
  His belief in nonviolent protest convinced those who listened to him 
that here was the high road to vindicating the rights of Black people 
in this country. It is a bitter fact that he lost his life to 
violence--he was only 39 when an assassin's bullet cut him down in 
Memphis--and it makes us understand his great courage in taking on the 
burden of leadership.
  In officially celebrating the life of Dr. King, we celebrate the end 
of legal segregation and the many inroads we have made against racism 
and discrimination. Of course, there is more we must do to make sure 
all Americans enjoy the blessings of freedom. He would tell us that, if 
he were here. He would also insist that we continue on in his way: with 
passion and with civility, calling on our fellow human beings to act on 
their best instincts, not their worst.
  Dr. King, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, is a model here and 
around the world--from China, and the 1989 antigovernment protests in 
Tiananmen Square, to South Africa, where apartheid rule gave way in 
1990 without provoking the civil war many had feared. In encouraging 
the holding of free elections and the formation of institutions of 
civil society in faraway places today, we promote the idea that Martin 
Luther King put forward so well: that the nonviolent settling of 
differences among men is the bedrock of democracy.
  Let us all take inspiration from the King legacy this week, Mr. 
President, and every week.

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