[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 8, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H3000]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, on Saturday, the National Civil Rights 
Museum in Memphis was reopened. It is a spectacular display with all of 
the up-to-date technologies of civil rights in America, from the Middle 
Passage to April 4, 1968, which was the assassination of Martin Luther 
King at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the museum.
  As I toured the fabulous museum, I thought about how far America had 
come and how much farther it needs to go. There are stories about the 
Voting Rights Act; yet I thought about the Supreme Court's striking 
down provisions and about the impossibility of getting sponsors here 
sufficient to pass a renewed Voting Rights Act, which is so necessary 
to America's fulfilling its purpose.
  I thought about the Affordable Care Act and efforts to repeal it, to 
simply give health care to individuals, many of whom are poor and 
haven't had health care before. I thought about jobs bills because, 
without economic justice, you don't have social justice in full effect.
  You need infrastructure bills. You need minimum wage, and you need 
unemployment insurance. We have a long way to go to fulfill Dr. King's 
dream.
  I am pleased the museum reopened. It is spectacular. I urge all 
people to come to Memphis and visit it, and I urge all people to think 
about Dr. King and to try to fulfill his dream by passing those 
measures that are necessary.

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