[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 22 (Monday, February 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1498-S1499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. DURBIN. Today, I would like to take the opportunity to honor the 
contributions of African Americans, particularly since this year marks 
the 80th anniversary of historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson's 
launch of Negro History Week in 1926. Since then, the contributions of 
African Americans to American history have been recognized and 
celebrated, and February has been designated ``Black History Month.''
  I especially want to pay tribute to Mrs. Rosa Parks and Mrs. Coretta 
Scott King, the mother and the first lady, respectively, of the modern 
civil rights movement, who inspired ordinary African Americans to 
demand equal rights as American citizens. Their recent deaths remind 
us, during this month in particular, to take the time to reflect on the 
vital heritage and important contributions of African Americans.

[[Page S1499]]

  This year also marks what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr.'s 77th birthday, and it is important that we continue to honor the 
values of faith, compassion, courage, truth, and justice that guided 
his dream for America. We have made great progress, especially in the 
area of racial justice, but we still haven't reached the Promised Land. 
If he were alive today, what would Dr. King, leader of the civil rights 
movement and the Poor People's Campaign, say about the fact that one in 
five American children are living in poverty today? What would he say 
about the fact that here, in the wealthiest Nation on Earth, 45 million 
people have no health insurance and millions more are underinsured?
  What would Asa Philip Randolph, the labor leader who organized the 
Pullman car porters and fought against discrimination and segregation 
in the Armed Forces, say about the growing income inequality in America 
and the fact that corporate profits have increased 50 percent in the 
last 5 years--but low wage workers haven't had a raise in 7 years 
because the Congress of the United States refuses to raise the minimum 
wage? A parent who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year for minimum 
wage today doesn't even earn enough to lift herself and her child out 
of poverty. Would Asa Randolph call that progress? Would he call that 
justice?
  What would Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist who fought for 
low-income housing, school desegregation, and daycare, have said if she 
had seen the pictures of people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans and 
left homeless by Katrina in Biloxi, Pearl River, and so many other 
communities throughout the gulf coast? I suspect she would ask the same 
questions we all asked: How could this happen in America? In 2005?
  This year, America lost Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights 
movement. Many others of those who marched and worked with her have 
passed on as well. How do those of us who believe in their dream keep 
it alive? We keep it alive by continuing the fight begun by them and by 
remembering and acting on what Dr. King said: America has no second- or 
third-class citizens. We should all have an equal voice, and an equal 
chance to succeed.
  Yes, we have made progress in some areas. I think Charles Hamilton 
Houston, civil rights attorney who as a faculty member at Howard 
University prepared Thurgood Marshall to argue cases against 
discrimination, would be pleased to see my colleague from Illinois--the 
son of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother--serving in the U.S. Senate. I 
think he would have smiled in sad approval as he saw Rosa Parks lay in 
honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol--one of the highest honors we 
can accord a person and one she so rightly deserved. I think Mr. 
Houston would be pleased that at least one of the murderers of James 
Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman has finally been 
convicted of that horrible deed. Dr. King would also approve of the 
fact that the U.S. Senate finally, finally last year, condemned 
lynching.
  I think another civil rights leader, John Jones, the first African 
American to hold elective office in Illinois, would also approve of the 
fact that 81 percent of African Americans aged 25 and older had at 
least a high school diploma, an increase from less than 1 in 5 in the 
1950s. Today, African Americans own 1.2 million businesses that 
generate $69.8 billion or about $735,586 per firm. Mr. Jones would also 
be proud to hear that 60 percent of African Americans age 18 and older 
voted in the 2004 Presidential election, which equaled 14 million 
voters.
  Yes, African Americans have made great achievements, but Dr. King 
would also remind us that we have further to go. One example is 
Georgia's new voter-identification law, which was approved over the 
objections of noncareer lawyers at the Department of Justice who warned 
that the plan would unfairly disenfranchise minority voters. Therefore, 
in the spirit of Dr. King's message of equality and racial justice, we 
need to reauthorize and strengthen the Voting Rights Act--with all of 
its sections--this year.
  Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, those in the civil rights movement 
worked to secure basic civil rights and voting rights in statute. The 
cost for those in the movement was high: church burnings, bombings, 
shootings, and beatings. I walked in those same footsteps during my 
recent pilgrimage with U.S. Representative John Lewis to Selma and 
Montgomery, AL. It is important that we recognize the contributions of 
these extraordinary people because the legacy they left behind is an 
expression of important American values--equality, nondiscrimination, 
fairness, and ensuring the full participation of everyone in our 
society. Therefore, I celebrate this month with pride and reflection, 
knowing that although we have come a long way, we still have a great 
distance to go in order to fulfill our Nation's ideals of equality and 
equal opportunity.

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