[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 14, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S1172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today during Black History Month 
to celebrate and remember the rich history of the millions of African 
Americans who have made this country what it is today.
  It is a time to honor leaders from across the country--some who are 
well known and others who are almost forgotten. It is a time to cherish 
the pioneers to give them the recognition they deserve and to preserve 
their names, faces, and stories for generations to come.
  This Black History Month, we especially remember and mourn the recent 
loss of two of the key players in the civil rights movement Rosa Parks 
and Coretta Scott King.
  In October, we said goodbye to the ``First Woman of Civil Rights,'' 
Rosa Parks. When Ms. Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in 
Montgomery, AL, in 1955, we know that a movement had already begun, but 
she poured fuel on the fire--inspiring the historic Montgomery bus 
boycott. She refused to give up her seat to a White man because she was 
tired--tired of being treated like a second-class citizen, tired of 
being forced to move because someone else decided they deserved to sit 
more than she did. And she became a model and a hero for me and 
generations of Americans looking to make our country truly the land of 
the free.
  And then we just lost another icon. Not only was Coretta Scott King 
married to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but she was a pioneer with her 
own voice in the civil rights movement at a time when women were not 
often recognized for their own talents and merit. She was resolute, but 
she was feisty--someone after my own heart. She founded the King Center 
for Nonviolent Social Change and saw to it that the center became 
deeply involved with the issues that she believed breed violence--
hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. And when her husband 
was tragically shot, she comforted a nation that was torn apart. She is 
the reason we have a national holiday that honors Dr. King.
  While we remember the lives and deeds of Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott 
King, and countless others, we need to honor their memory not just with 
words, but with deeds. We need to reexamine what this country must 
still do to ensure equality every day. We need to evaluate the work we 
still need to do to guarantee that African Americans are not left 
behind when it comes to the issues that matter.
  This Black History Month, I am still concerned and dedicated to 
fighting for the issues that matter to African Americans. We must make 
higher education more affordable for families. We must fight for 
adequate health care. We must fight to keep our neighborhoods and 
communities safe. We must fight to make sure the needs of Hurricanes 
Katrina survivors are not forgotten.
  The cost of college tuition has been skyrocketing. It is putting 
stress on the families and students who have to struggle just to be 
able to pay their bills. That is why I have introduced legislation to 
create a tuition tax credit to families and to students who pay for 
their own tuition. This legislation would offer a tax credit of up to 
$4,000 a year per student to help them with the cost of the education 
they deserve. America needs our young people to know that they will not 
be limited by the size of their wallet to follow their big dreams.
  I also want to assure African Americans that they are not limited in 
the health care they receive because of spartan or skimpy funding for 
the health issues that affect them most. That is why I teamed up with 
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones in the Uterine Fibroids Research 
and Education Act of 2005, to double fibroid research funding and to 
launch an education campaign for patients and physicians. Uterine 
fibroids are a terrible, painful ailment that plague mostly African-
American women. Fibroids affect the entire family--not only the woman 
who has to endure them but also those who love her and who hate to see 
the lady they love in so much pain. They have gone ignored for too 
long. We need to fight for the resources to find the cause, to find 
better treatments, and hopefully to find a cure for this devastating 
disease so that women and families don't have to deal with this pain in 
their lives.
  Families also want to know the neighborhoods they live in are safe. 
The number of gangs nationwide and in my own home State of Maryland has 
been rising. Families don't want to have to worry about gang violence 
in their streets. That is why in Maryland I have helped launch a 
statewide antigang initiative that I hope can serve as a model for the 
country. This initiative will not only go after the bad guys through 
suppression and enforcement, but it will offer prevention and 
intervention efforts to help the good kids in the communities who are 
trying so hard. Mothers and fathers shouldn't have to worry about 
losing their children to gang violence in their neighborhoods, and that 
is why I am going to continue to give help to our communities to 
protect themselves.
  We need to offer protection to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in 
the gulf coast communities because the Federal Government really let 
them down. I know the African-American community feels very prickly 
about this and feels abandoned. They should know that even though 
President Bush hires cronies and doesn't have competent people working 
for him, the American people haven't abandoned them. We are going to 
work to rebuild the communities in Louisiana. We are going to get the 
survivors housing and jobs and health care. We are going to open the 
schools. We are going to stick with them, and we are going to fight for 
them.
  So this year during Black History Month, I honor the memories of the 
great leaders who have come before us with my commitment to fighting 
for these important year-round issues. And I am going to do it not just 
with words, but with deeds. I urge you all to join me.

                          ____________________