[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 STATEMENT ON THE 38TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN 
                            LUTHER KING, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 4, 2006

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, today, on the 38th anniversary of the 
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I urge my colleagues to 
join me in remembering this solemn day. Yet while we reflect on Dr. 
King's death, we should also celebrate his legacy of service and 
justice--for he was ever hopeful about the future of our nation.
  Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 15, 1929. He was one of 
three children of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta 
Williams King, in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King graduated high school two 
years early and went on to study at Morehouse College, Crozer 
Theological Seminary, and Boston University. He began his career as an 
assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
  During his time leading the civil rights movement, Dr. King was 
arrested on more than thirty occasions for doing the right thing. He 
served as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association during 
the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. He founded and led the Southern 
Christian Leadership Conference from 1957 until his death in 1968. He 
led the March on Washington in 1963, delivering the ``I Have A Dream'' 
speech to thousands, and focusing the eyes of the world on the American 
civil rights movement.
  Martin Luther King, Jr., worked tirelessly to promote the political, 
economic and social rights of millions of Americans, particularly those 
who felt that equal justice was beyond their reach. His passion was 
unmatched, his strength and perseverance were remarkable, and his 
enduring commitment to peace has provided an example to us all.
  On April 3, 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis to support the striking 
Sanitation Workers' Union. The night before his assassination, Dr. King 
prophetically declared that the movement for racial equality may have 
to continue without him. That night, he and other civil rights 
activists stayed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
  The next afternoon, April 4, Dr. King, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and 
Memphis minister Rev. Billy Kyles, met at the Lorraine motel. The three 
of them spoke briefly before Dr. King and Rev. Kyles stepped out onto 
the balcony. His colleagues, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the 
Reverend James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and the Reverend Andrew Young Jr. 
waited in the parking lot below with the car that would have taken Dr. 
King to his dinner. At 6:01 PM, a single shot rang out. One hour later, 
Dr. King, the icon of peaceful, nonviolent change, was pronounced dead 
at St. Joseph's Hospital.
  The following day, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Sunday, April 
7 a day of national mourning. Attending his funeral on April 9 were 
nearly 100,000 mourners who had felt Dr. King's impact and had come to 
pay their respects. His coffin traveled through his hometown of Atlanta 
from Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College, his alma mater.
  In the years since his death, his widow, Coretta Scott King, whom we 
mourned in January, carried on his work and his legacy. So many others 
who fought alongside Dr. King have also dedicated themselves to keeping 
the dream alive. I consider it an honor to serve on the Ways and Means 
Committee with my friend and colleague, John Lewis, who spoke so 
eloquently this morning of his friendship with Dr. King.
  The anniversary of Dr. King's assassination should remind us that 
America has far to go in the struggle to recognize all its citizens as 
equals. I look forward to the vote in this chamber to renew the Voting 
Rights Act before its provisions expire in the summer of 2007, and I 
would hope that we would remember and honor Dr. King's commitment to 
end poverty and injustice in all our work in the House.
  At Dr. King's funeral, former Morehouse President Dr. Benjamin Mays 
spoke these words: ``Martin Luther King, Jr., believed in a united 
America. He believed that the walls of separation brought on by legal 
and de facto segregation, and discrimination based on race and color, 
could be eradicated.'' Let us all share in Dr. King's beliefs and his 
dream for a better America.

                          ____________________