[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9-H16]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS AND THE LEGACY OF DR. 
                        MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to the chairman of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, I appreciate this honor and this 
opportunity, as well as all the other Members, for giving me this 
opportunity to kick off the second session of the Congressional Black 
Caucus Special Order hours.


                             General Leave

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks, including any 
extraneous material, on the subject of this order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues, as I 
said earlier, for this opportunity. This is truly an opportunity for a 
young man who comes from the city of Philadelphia, who grew up in the 
streets of Philadelphia, and who had the opportunity to be a product of 
the public school system, a product of community college and La Salle 
University, standing here today in the seat with many of my 
predecessors, five African Americans from the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, starting off with Robert N.C. Nix.
  Our theme tonight is the history of the CBC and the legacy of Martin 
Luther King. Next week we begin the celebration of the birthday of 
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
  Dr. King was not only a great man but a great patriot, who loved 
America and the ideas of the underpinning of our democracy.
  To kick off our discussion, I want to open up with two Dr. King 
comments that really capture our current political climate and what is 
at stake. The first quote is: ``We may have come over here on different 
ships, but we are all in the same boat now.'' Dr. King.
  The second quote is: ``Of all forms of inequality, injustice in 
healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.'' Dr. Martin Luther King.
  When we think about this great Nation and our leaders before us like 
Dr. King, who came together to lay a framework for equal pay, fair 
wages, healthcare, equality in housing, so much more we are reminded of 
what is at stake and how much we have to lose in this current political 
climate. We have a lot to lose under the current administration's 
destructive policies.
  Dr. King would be greatly disappointed at many things going on in 
this country right now that affects all of our communities.
  We are in the business of doing no harm, but we must continue to 
fight to show results and solutions to help move our neighborhoods 
forward. Dr. King fought to move our neighborhoods forward when the 
odds were stacked against him. There are many examples of his life, 
legacy, and lasting impact in the city of Philadelphia, which is in the 
Second Congressional District.
  Take, for example, the Dr. King memorial and mural at 40th and 
Lancaster Avenue--he had a rally of 10,000 people when Dr. King was 
there--and the yearly luncheon that the late C. Delores Tucker 
sponsored in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.
  It is important to recognize his connection to Pennsylvania and the 
divinity school in Chester in Delaware County.
  Dr. King came many times to the city of Philadelphia and to the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He had a huge influence on a lot of us.

  On this April 4, 50 years later, when I was in junior high school, 
entering high school in 1968, he had a huge affect on me. He was 
someone who walked with kings and queens. He demonstrated to all of us 
with that message of peace. He was relentless in terms of standing up 
for freedom and justice. He showed all of us what it is to be a leader.
  You will hear, over the next 60 minutes, a number of my colleagues 
who have all either directly or indirectly been connected with Dr. 
Martin Luther King and what he has meant.
  We need to conduct this as a large teach-in. That is what this should 
be. This should be a teach-in so we can share with everybody in this 
country what Dr. King was about and the importance.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Richmond), 
the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Mr. RICHMOND. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania, 
Congressman Dwight Evans, for allowing me this time to speak.
  Mr. Speaker, I heard Mr. Evans talk about Dr. King's roots and 
influence in Pennsylvania. I just want to note, and this would only be 
a small moment of my remarks, that as a Morehouse man, we remind 
everyone that Dr. King started at the age of 16 in his matriculation 
through college and his embarking on the world knowledge that he had at 
Morehouse College, which I spent just a few years at and graduated from 
myself.
  I hope that there are a number of young people watching today, as 
well as those seniors whose backs I stand on, because a lot of people 
talk about Dr. King's dream, but I just want to say here publicly, and 
I have said it

[[Page H10]]

privately so many times, we don't honor the dream. Everybody has a 
dream. The question becomes whether you have the courage, the 
fortitude, and the willingness to sacrifice your future to make that 
dream come true.
  In this body, and as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which 
now represents almost 78 million Americans in serving with real icons 
who paved the way to make this a more perfect union, I appreciate now 
more than ever the sacrifice that went into making this country what it 
is, and because of that and because of this time, let me just give 30 
seconds of my history.
  My mother is from the poorest place in the United States. She had 15 
brothers and sisters, and all she had was a mother, a very dedicated 
mother who was a housekeeper we call a domestic or some other fancy 
term now. She was a woman who woke up every day, who would clean other 
people's houses to make sure that her 15 kids had an opportunity at a 
better future. You know what created that better future? Historically 
Black Colleges and Universities.
  My mother went to Southern University. She shared a jacket with her 
sister, who was still in Lake Providence, which is about 200 miles 
away. I don't know how you do it, but they did it.
  My mother, in that HBCU, because of the work of many people, was able 
to achieve an education, which is the best way to lift yourself out of 
poverty. She instilled in me two things: one, Cedric, you have to work 
hard, you have to do everything twice as good as everyone else so you 
can make it; and two, once you make it, you have an obligation to give 
back.
  That is what is so special about Dr. Martin Luther King and the dream 
and the day that we celebrate. A lot of young people sit around and 
say: Oh, when I make it, I am going to give back. Oh, when I grow up, I 
am going to do something.
  Well, Dr. King did everything that he did at a young age. If you talk 
about the Montgomery bus boycott, if you talk about our leaders in the 
civil rights movement, they didn't wait to grow into leadership. They 
created their own path. The remarkable thing is many of them sacrificed 
not only their future but their life.
  When you talk about Dr. King, and to a lot of my middle class African 
Americans, let me say this, Dr. King could have sat back and said: I 
have mine, you get yours, or my family is comfortable, so I will take 
the easy path.

                              {time}  1930

  So for all of us who are doing well, remember, there are a whole 
bunch of people who are not. We have this ice storm all across the 
country right now where we are hunkering down in our homes with heat. 
We have to remember that there are people who are hunkering down on the 
street, sleeping outside under a blanket because that is all they have.
  So we have to, in the spirit of Dr. King, remember that we are the 
greatest country on Earth; and if we don't think it is a perfect Union, 
we have to make it a more perfect Union. Even if it costs us our life, 
like it did Dr. King, and it cost him his life in Memphis, fighting for 
sanitation workers; we have to fight for the least among us because 
this country is only as great as is the least among us.
  As long as there are people sleeping on the streets during this 
blizzard, that means this country is failing. When there are kids in 
public school that are destined for failure because we have not funded 
our public schools, this country is failing.
  So I would just say that, of all of the great things about Dr. King, 
the one thing that we should remember is his sacrifice, his courage, 
and the fact that he gave his life to make our lives a better life.
  Let me just say that, as I grew up going to some of the best schools 
in the country, integrated schools because of Dr. King and because of 
the person whom I am going to introduce, I know I stand on their backs, 
and I know that I have a lot of work to do to make sure that the 
generation behind me has that ability.
  But sacrifice is not easy, and when I think of it, I think of people 
that I read about in my textbooks, people I studied, people I admired, 
people whose autograph I sought. And now I actually get to call this 
gentleman, this distinguished gentleman from Georgia, a friend.
  But he is more than a friend: he is an icon; he is a trailblazer; he 
is a person who saved this country; and he, as a teenager, started his 
civil rights fight. He marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, knowing 
that there was hatred on the other side; and he met hatred with love, 
and he was beaten because he loved and they hated.
  But do you know what he did? He marched again.
  Do you know what he did? He ran for Congress.
  Do you know what he did? He welcomed me into this Congress, and he 
paved a better way for generations so that we could go to some of the 
best schools in the country.
  Mr. Speaker, I have an opportunity to present, introduce, one of the 
greatest Americans to ever walk on the face of this Earth, one who has 
sacrificed blood, sweat, tears, and who has stayed on his knees 
constantly, praying for a better country.
  He reminds us all that the Lord will order your steps, but you have 
to move your feet. He moved his feet across that Edmund Pettus Bridge, 
and he was beaten so that I could vote without counting how many 
bubbles in a bar of soap or how many jellybeans in a big tub.
  Mr. Speaker, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Evans) will now yield to one of the greatest Americans and the greatest 
Member serving in this House of Representatives, the Honorable John 
Lewis from Georgia.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our chairman, and that is why 
he is our chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, because you just 
heard him so eloquently express his thoughts and his feelings. He has 
done a fantastic job as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
and I thank him. I always recognize the importance of what he brings to 
all of us.
  The gentleman is correct about the next person. I want to add my 
voice to what he just said. I was 11 years old when he went across the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge. I recall seeing it on CBS. I did not understand 
it, but, now, like the chairman, I serve in this body with him. I am a 
part of this body. And as I watch him and as I listen to him, all of 
the drive and the energy that he has--and he is always extremely 
positive. I have not met a person who is more positive and optimistic 
about the future of this country as he says and talks about walking in 
his shoes. I remember that he said that.
  I remember that opportunity when I was down in Alabama on that Edmund 
Pettus Bridge--along with him and my good friend and colleague from 
Alabama, Terri Sewell--that I thought to myself, I said: ``Self, here I 
am with Congressman Lewis.'' He is someone who is renowned in this body 
and in this country and around the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, Mr. 
Evans, for yielding, and thank you to the chairman of the CBC, Cedric 
Richmond.
  Mr. Speaker, it is true that I grew up in rural Alabama, 50 miles 
from Montgomery, outside of a little place called Troy. It is true that 
my father was a sharecropper, a tenant farmer.
  But in 1944, when I was 4 years old--and I do remember when I was 4--
my father had saved $300, and a man sold him 110 acres of land. We 
picked cotton. We gathered peanuts. We pulled corn.
  Sometimes I would be out there working in the field and I would fall 
behind, and my mother would say: ``Boy, you need to catch up.''
  I would say: ``This is hard work.''
  And she would say: ``Hard work never killed anybody.''
  I said: ``Well, it's about to kill me.''
  But one day, 15 years old, in the 10th grade, I heard of Martin 
Luther King, Jr. I heard of Rosa Parks in 1955. The action of Rosa 
Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
inspired me to find a way to get in the way. So 2 years later, I wrote 
a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1957, and I told him, in 
this little letter, that I wanted to attend a State-supported college 
called Troy State, now known as Troy University. It didn't admit Black 
students.
  Dr. King wrote me back and sent me a round-trip Greyhound bus ticket 
and

[[Page H11]]

invited me to come to Montgomery to meet with him. In the meantime, I 
had been accepted at a little college in Nashville, Tennessee, American 
Baptist College.

  Dr. King got back in touch with me and said: ``When you are home for 
spring break, come and see me.''
  So, in 1958, I boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled from Troy to 
Montgomery, and a young lawyer by the name of Fred Gray, who had been a 
lawyer for Rosa Parks and for Dr. King, met me at the First Baptist 
Church, pastored by the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and took me in to see 
Dr. King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy.
  Martin Luther King, Jr., said: ``Are you the boy from Troy? Are you 
John Lewis?''
  I said: ``Dr. King, I am John Robert Lewis,'' but he still called me 
``the boy from Troy.''
  This man inspired me to stand up, to find a way to get in the way or 
find a way to get in trouble, in good trouble, necessary trouble.
  He said: ``If you want to go to Troy State, we will help you, but we 
may need to file a suit against the State of Alabama, against Troy 
State. Go back and have a discussion with your mother and your father. 
Tell them their home may be bombed or burned. They can lose their 
land.''
  I went back. My mother was so afraid and my father was afraid, so I 
continued to study in Nashville. From time to time, Dr. King would come 
and visit Nashville and speak at mass meetings and rallies. But he 
inspired me, along with Rosa Parks and others, to get involved.
  He led the Montgomery bus boycott. For more than 381 days, people 
walked the streets; they shared cars and rides; they stood in unmovable 
lines; but they never gave up.
  Dr. King inspired us to stand up. He inspired us to believe in the 
philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. We would be sitting at a 
lunch counter waiting to be served, and someone would come up and spit 
on us or put a lighted cigarette down our backs or in our hair, pour 
hot water or hot coffee on us, but we obeyed his instructions.
  So I got arrested a few times during the sixties, 45 times, but I 
never gave up.
  Just think, in 1961, the same year that President Barack Obama was 
born, Black people and White people couldn't leave the city sitting 
together to travel on a Greyhound bus or a Trailways bus through the 
South.
  People were arrested, jailed, beaten, but Dr. King met us in 
Montgomery, sheltered us in a church. One night, while we were there in 
that church, when people were threatening to bomb the church or burn it 
down, he made a call to Robert Kennedy and told him about what was 
happening. Robert Kennedy communicated to his brother, President 
Kennedy, and the President put the city of Montgomery under martial 
law.
  If it hadn't been for Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, and 
President Kennedy, some of us would have died in that church. But it 
led to the desegregation of public transportation all across the 
American South.
  More than 400 people--400 of us--arrested in Jackson, Mississippi. We 
filled the city jail, the county jail, and, later, the penitentiary at 
Parchman. But Martin Luther King, Jr., changed America forever. He 
taught us how to live and he taught us how to die. He taught us to be 
brave, to be courageous, to be bold.
  If it hadn't been for Martin Luther King, Jr., I don't know what 
would have happened to many of us, happened to America. Many of us of 
color, whether we are Black, Latino, Asian American, or Native 
American, wouldn't be in this body. He opened up the political process.
  He was a man who believed in the way of peace, the way of love, 
believed in the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence.
  In a few days, a few weeks, we will commemorate his passing. He was 
assassinated on April 4, 1968. I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, with 
Robert Kennedy when we heard that Dr. King had been assassinated. We 
heard that he had been shot. Robert Kennedy announced that he had died. 
And I think, when Dr. King died, something died in all of us; something 
died in America.
  He left us the way of peace, the way of love, the way of hope, and I 
hope that all young people and people not so young will commemorate and 
learn something about the teachings of Dr. King.
  I want to thank the chair of our caucus, Congressman Richmond, and 
Mr. Evans, my friend and brother, for having the vision to hold this 
teach-in tonight; and I hope we will do more to explain to the American 
people and people around the world what Dr. King meant not just to 
Americans, but to the world community.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I hope that what we just heard, and to our 
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, that we can, either through 
social media or whatever way, share that that was a learning experience 
that just took place. To have Congressman Lewis, who was there, who was 
on the front lines, who is not talking about something he read but 
something he has demonstrated through his own experience, that all of 
us--not just the Congressional Black Caucus, but this entire House--
should thank him for his service and for being a patriot and for what 
he has expressed.
  So I personally want to thank the Honorable John Lewis for taking 
that opportunity just to educate us, because we all need education, and 
we are never too wise to think we don't need someone to talk to us.
  Speaking of education, another good colleague from the great State of 
Texas--I know a little bit about that State. Everything is big in that 
State, they tell me. She is in a seat that Congresswoman Jordan used to 
hold, and Mickey Leland, and she, in her own right, is doing a lot. I 
have watched her in the period of time I have been here, just a year. 
She is a fantastic person, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, from the 
18th Congressional District of Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

                              {time}  1945

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Curtis). The gentleman has 36 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Evans for 
the mighty leadership that he has given and for the service that he 
gives to his constituents in Philadelphia. I accept his challenge, and 
I accept the challenge of my chairman, Cedric Richmond, who told a 
story that hopefully will be an inspiration and a guide for all of 
those who believe that they are not yet mature enough to serve, to 
give, to offer to the beloved community that Dr. King so aptly speaks 
of.
  What can I say about John Lewis, whose moral guidance, but whose 
bloody brow, was never bowed. I thank Congressman Lewis not only for 
the straight talk but the loving talk. To my colleagues who are here, I 
know that each will have a moment, so allow me to take just a moment to 
be able to offer my tribute and commemoration of Dr. King's life. What 
a powerful year we face in 2018, and I am so grateful to have left 
2017.
  I believe that this gives a fresh look to America. I looked at the 
movie ``Remember the Titans,'' and maybe you saw that with Denzel 
Washington, and it reflected a racial conflict with football players 
just outside of Washington in Virginia. It is a moving story of how 
when you get young people together, we can break the chains of racism 
and differences. It brought tears to my eyes, because in 2017, we went 
that journey again, and I was hoping that we would come in this year, 
the commemoration year, to accept Dr. King's challenge of a beloved 
community.
  I salute my community of Houston. Some say there was no civil rights 
movement, and I beg to differ with them. Dr. King came one time, and 
the clergy gathered, most of them gathered, those who were afraid; we 
know that most were not. They were all ready to have a big rally, and 
wouldn't you know it, a bomb threat. But our Houstonians were ready to 
march and to be out front in spite of the fear of a bomb.
  I believe that every community that Dr. King was either invited to or 
that he went to, there were people of courage who were willing to stand 
up and embrace freedom in the face of devastating potential disaster.
  So let me just say that my greatest claim for this legacy is my fight 
as a

[[Page H12]]

younger person to be part of the Southern Christian Leadership 
Conference. It will be my greatest honor to have been able to work for 
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to walk in that office on 
Auburn, that I believe may not be to meet Ralph David Abernathy because 
it was after the death of Dr. King, to know James Orange, and to know 
the brother that walked with the wooden leg, and to know Andy in a way 
that they were still engaged in Dr. King's work.
  I am reminded of the message that he has given to us. And as Chairman 
Richmond said, he was young, and he asked the question: ``Life's most 
persistent and nagging question is''--he said--``what are you doing for 
others?'' And I think we as members of the Congressional Black Caucus 
and the adjunct of the foundation that works for young people, we have 
no doubt in what we are doing for others.
  But Dr. King gave us the words: ``I would like somebody to 
mention''--as he talked about his death on February 4, 1968, this is 
what we should be doing in 2018. We should be talking about what we are 
doing in commemoration. ``I would like somebody to mention on that day 
Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.'' And 
he said: ``I want you to say on that day''--that I might have lost my 
life--``that I did try in my life . . . to love and serve humanity.''
  So as I close, I want to remind those of us who have not yet made our 
journey to something that brought us closer to Dr. King that this body, 
this group of Republicans and Democrats, this administration, we need 
to unshackle ourselves. This question of race needs to be thrown under 
the bus of the beloved community. And we need to be able to dream like 
Dr. King did and say--but he learned to use his imagination when he saw 
this separation and his dreams to see right through those ``White 
Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men and women, regardless of 
our place of origin, their gender, or their creed, are created equal. 
What a visionary.
  And so I close with his braveness in two points: his answer to the 
question about who are we as a nation and what this citizenship should 
mean. And he simply turned us back to the Declaration of Independence 
and said that we simply should have citizens who can live out the words 
written in the Declaration of Independence that have a place in this 
Nation's Bill of Rights. We simply want to be like others.
  And he took this courage to his death, for at the end of his life, he 
was not ashamed to go to Riverside Church and stand against the Vietnam 
war while others looked aghast, afraid. Why are you stepping out of 
your box? Dr. King said: I believe in the beloved community, a dreamer 
with works and actions.
  And so I close in that faithful journey that he made that we will be 
commemorating all converging in Memphis, Tennessee, and the American 
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who were forged and 
born in the shadow of two sanitation workers who were killed in the 
line of their duty, and Dr. King felt compelled to be there.
  When do we feel compelled: on the tax bill, on CHIP, on fully 
qualified healthcare, on affirmative action? When are we taking this, 
in essence, to the mat? Because that is what Dr. King did. He took it 
to the mat. And he went to the mat in the face of violence, and he told 
us, in his last words, that he had been to the mountaintop. He had seen 
the promised land. And he did not know if he would get there someday, 
but he knew that we as a people would pine away to that pathway.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, next Monday, January 15, the nation observes for the 
33rd time the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.
  Each year this day is set aside for Americans to celebrate the life 
and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America.
  The Martin Luther King Holiday reminds us that nothing is impossible 
when we are guided by the better angels of our nature.
  Dr. King's inspiring words filled a great void in our nation, and 
answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by 
its noblest principles.
  Yet, Dr. King knew that it was not enough just to talk the talk; he 
knew that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible.
  And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who put his 
life on the line for freedom and justice every day.
  We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and 
beatings, and even bombings.
  We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom 
for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his 
leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway.
  Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk 
in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive 
selfishness.
  ``Life's most persistent and nagging question,'' he said, is ``what 
are you doing for others?''
  And when Dr. King talked about the end of his mortal life in one of 
his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist 
Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of 
a full life:

       I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther 
     King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said. 
     ``I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life . 
     . . to love and serve humanity.

  We should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
was, above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to 
power.
  There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and 
consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam War being waged by the 
Johnson Administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend 
and champion of civil and human rights.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 
1929.
  Martin's youth was spent in our country's Deep South, then run by Jim 
Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.
  For young African-Americans, it was an environment even more 
dangerous than the one they face today.
  A young Martin managed to find a dream, one that he pieced together 
from his readings--in the Bible, and literature, and just about any 
other book he could get his hands on.
  And not only did those books help him educate himself, but they also 
allowed him to work through the destructive and traumatic experiences 
of blatant discrimination, and the discriminatory abuse inflicted on 
himself, his family, and his people.
  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that we celebrate here today 
could have turned out to be just another African-American who would 
have had to learn to be happy with what he had, and what he was 
allowed.
  But he learned to use his imagination and his dreams to see right 
through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men, 
and women, regardless of their place of origin, their gender, or their 
creed, are created equal.
  Through his studies, Dr. King learned that training his mind and 
broadening his intellect effectively shielded him from the demoralizing 
effects of segregation and discrimination.
  Dr. King was a dreamer and his dreams were a tool through which he 
was able to lift his mind beyond the reality of his segregated society, 
and into a realm where it was possible that white and black, red and 
brown, and all others live and work alongside each other and prosper.
  But the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an idle daydreamer.
  He shared his visions through speeches that motivated others to join 
in his nonviolent effort to lift themselves from poverty and isolation 
by creating a new America where equal justice and institutions were 
facts of life.
  In the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, 
``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are Created 
Equal.''
  At that time and for centuries to come, African-Americans were 
historically, culturally, and legally excluded from inclusion in that 
declaration.
  Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' Speech, 
delivered 54 years ago, on August 28, 1963, was a clarion call to each 
citizen of this great nation that we still hear today.
  His request was simply and eloquently conveyed--he asked America to 
allow its citizens to live out the words written in its Declaration of 
Independence and to have a place in this nation's Bill of Rights.
  The 196os were a time of great crisis and conflict.
  The dreams of the people of this country were filled with troubling 
images that arose like lava from the nightmares of violence and the 
crises they had to face, both domestically and internationally.
  It was the decade of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and 
the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Malcolm X, 
Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and the man we honor here today.
  Dr. Martin Luther King's dream helped us turn the corner on civil 
rights.
  It started when Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with 4, Rosa 
Parks and others,

[[Page H13]]

which lasted for 381 days, and ended when the United States Supreme 
Court outlawed racial segregation on all public transportation.
  But the dream did not die there.
  It continued started with a peaceful march for suffrage that started 
in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965--a march that ended with violence at 
the hands of law enforcement officers as the marchers crossed the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge.
  Dr. King used several nonviolent tactics to protest against Jim Crow 
Laws in the South and he organized and led demonstrations for 
desegregation, labor and voting rights.
  On April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, he spoke out 
against the Vietnam War, when he saw the devastation that his nation 
was causing abroad and the effect that it had on the American men and 
women sent overseas.
  When the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was stolen from us, 
he was a very young 39 years old.
  People remember that Dr. King died in Memphis, but few can remember 
why he was there.
  On that fateful day in 1968 Dr. King came to Memphis to support a 
strike by the city's sanitation workers.
  The garbage men there had recently formed a chapter of the American 
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to demand better 
wages and working conditions.
  But the city refused to recognize their union, and when the 1,300 
employees walked off their jobs the police broke up the rally with mace 
and Billy clubs.
  It was then that union leaders invited Dr. King to Memphis.
  Despite the danger he might face entering such a volatile situation, 
it was an invitation he could not refuse.
  Not because he longed for danger, but because the labor movement was 
intertwined with the civil rights movement for which he had given up so 
many years of his life.
  The death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will never 
overshadow his life.
  That is his legacy as a dreamer and a man of action.
  It is a legacy of hope, tempered with peace.
  It is a legacy not quite yet fulfilled.
  I hope that Dr. King's vision of equality under the law is never lost 
to us, who in the present, toil in times of unevenness in our equality.
  For without that vision--without that dream--we can never continue to 
improve on the human condition.
  For those who have already forgotten, or whose vision is already 
clouded with the fog of complacency, I would like to recite the 
immortal words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

       I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the 
     sons of former slaves and the sons of former shareholders 
     will be able to sit down together at the table of 
     brotherhood.
       I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi, 
     a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering 
     with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an 
     oasis of freedom and justice.
       I have a dream that my four little children will one day 
     live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color 
     of their skin, but for the content of their character.
       I have a dream today.
       I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its 
     vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping 
     with words of interposition and nullification--one day right 
     there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be 
     able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as 
     sisters and brothers.
       I have a dream today.
       I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 
     every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough place 
     will be made plain and the crooked places will be made 
     straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and 
     all flesh shall see it together.

  Dr. King's dream did not stop at racial equality, his ultimate dream 
was one of human equality and dignity.
  There is no doubt that Dr. King wished and worked for freedom and 
justice for every individual in America.
  He was in midst of planning the 1968 Poor People's Campaign for Jobs 
and Justice when he struck down by the dark deed of an assassin on 
April 4, 1968.
  It is for us, the living, to continue that fight today and forever, 
in the great spirit that inspired the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, the next person I would like to yield to, my 
colleague from Texas gave a great lead-in for her, from the great State 
of California, as Dr. King stood up against the Vietnam war. She knows 
a little bit about standing up.
  If you know anything about Honorable Barbara Lee from the 13th 
Congressional District, you would know she doesn't mind being by 
herself.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from the great State of 
California (Ms. Lee).
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Evans for yielding, for 
that gracious introduction, but, more importantly, for his magnificent 
leadership. He has come to Congress hitting the ground running, and it 
truly has been and is in the spirit of Dr. King, so I thank the 
gentleman very much.
  And to our chair, Congressman Cedric Richmond, I want to thank him 
for his steady leadership--and it is steady--of our caucus and for 
helping us to stay focused on this Special Order on the evenings which 
we do these to honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was 
and is our drum major for justice.
  To Congressman John Lewis, I just have to say to him that I owe him a 
debt of gratitude. I would not be here if it were not for him.
  And I want to say, on behalf of my young people at the Martin Luther 
King Jr. Freedom Center who have a chance to be with him every year--
now it has been about 17 years--how much he and Congresswoman Terri 
Sewell--how much they have touched their lives and have turned their 
lives around, and how they understand now what fighting for justice and 
peace really means by being part of their efforts and by their 
mentoring them and teaching them that the beloved community is not only 
a dream but can be real. So I thank Congressman Lewis so much. It is an 
honor to know the gentleman and to serve with him.
  This year, as we remember the man in the movement that transformed 
really the soul of America, it is really important that we honor the 
fullness of Dr. King's dream. So while we remember Dr. King's birthday 
this month, we also are reminded that it was 50 years ago, on April 4, 
that he lost his life to an assassin's bullet.
  Dr. King was a crusader for voting rights and peace, but he was also 
a warrior for economic justice and ending poverty. In fact, one of Dr. 
King's most memorable speeches, of course, ``I've Been to the 
Mountaintop,'' it was given in Memphis, Tennessee, at a time when Dr. 
King was determined to transform the civil rights movement into an 
intersectional economic justice revolution.
  A few months before his death, two young African-American workers 
were crushed to death by a faulty truck in Memphis. The American 
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, union 
members went on strike, and Dr. King was right there with them lending 
his support.
  In a speech to the sanitation workers on strike, Dr. King explained 
why he was there. He said: ``Now, our struggle is for genuine equality, 
which means economic equality.'' Dr. King said that to thousands 
gathered at Mason Temple. He said: ``For we know that it isn't enough 
to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to 
eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to 
buy a hamburger . . . ?''
  Dr. King had come to signal the dawn of a new era in the struggle. He 
was there to stand with workers who were sick and tired of low wages, 
unsafe working conditions, and the city's refusal to recognize their 
union. He was there because he believed that labor rights, civil 
rights, and human rights are one and the same. He was there because he 
understood the simple truth that there can be no racial justice without 
economic justice.
  Tragically, while fighting to secure the American Dream for all 
Americans, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Now, that was a 
day that changed my life. Congresswoman Jackson Lee mentioned where she 
was. We all remember that moment. I was living in San Jose, California, 
and was commuting to San Francisco, about an hour away by train. I 
returned that evening. My car was parked in the train's parking lot. I 
got off the train, turned on the radio, and the news came through that 
Dr. King had been killed.
  Well, I sat in my car for I don't know how long, and I cried. I was 
shocked like everyone, saddened, and angry. But I was also motivated to 
fight for the dream that Dr. King envisioned. My job, I quit my job. At 
that moment, I knew that I had to do something. So I became involved as 
a community worker with Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party. But it 
was Dr. King's assassination that catapulted me into the movement.

[[Page H14]]

  I was determined to prove that even though the assassin killed the 
dreamer, he could not kill the dream. Right now in this country, the 
work that Dr. King went to Memphis to achieve, that work remains 
unfinished, which is what we intend to complete. Forty-seven million 
Americans remain locked in poverty. Discrimination and institutional 
racism continue to hold livable wages hostage, and the economic wealth 
divide, it grows deeper every day in urban and in rural communities.
  Now, I represent the 13th Congressional District of California, a 
great district where there is an explosion of wealth in the bay area, 
which has recently experienced also a spike in median household income.

                              {time}  2000

  It is a hub of innovation and creativity, yet, in many ways, it is a 
tale of two cities. Black households in my district have been locked 
out of this explosion of wealth. According to the Census Bureau, the 
median income in the bay area jumped by 9 percent while the median 
income for Black households inched up just 2 percent.
  It is not just wealth inequality. Twenty-three percent of Black 
households are poor, and 43 percent of Black children in my district 
are considered poor in Oakland. These numbers have remained stagnant 
year after year after year. This is unacceptable.
  It is not just my district that experiences this wealth divide. 
Recent studies show that if trends persist, median Black household 
wealth could hit zero by 2053.
  This alarming possibility makes one thing clear: the work to achieve 
Dr. King's dream must continue, and members of the Congressional Black 
Caucus tirelessly continue to work both inside this Congress and in our 
communities because there is still much that we must overcome.
  As the conscience of the Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus 
fights every day to dismantle barriers that prevent low-income people, 
poor people, and people of color from having a fair shot at the 
American Dream. Dr. King's legacy can be found in our efforts to give 
communities of color, struggling families, and women a fair shot at 
improving their basic living standards.
  There are many bills: Congressman Bobby Scott's bill to raise the 
minimum wage to $15 an hour, and Congresswoman Alma Adams' Closing the 
Meal Gap Act. There are many bills that many members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus really are championing every single day to 
ensure that Dr. King's life will be remembered, that his death will not 
overshadow his life, and that his legacy of fighting, as Dr. King said, 
to make the promises of democracy real will live on for generations to 
come.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. 
Sewell). I just had the pleasure of really meeting her this year. She 
has a lot of energy and a lot of drive. She got me to go to Alabama, 
and I had never been to Alabama before. But after her personality, her 
drive, and her intellectual curiosity, and between her and John Lewis, 
what could I say?
  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Evans for 
yielding. He has so ably represented and led the Second District of 
Pennsylvania. It has been an honor to call the gentleman my colleague.
  I want to say, Mr. Speaker, that today I join with my CBC colleagues 
in honoring the extraordinary life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr., 50 years after his tragic death. Today we honor and 
celebrate the man who led our country in the fight against racism and 
injustice, a man who forged tools of nonviolence and compassion so that 
our Nation could break the chains of segregation and Jim Crow. Today we 
honor a man who refused to believe that racism and war would define our 
future, and who fought to ensure that truth and love would be the final 
word.
  As the United States Representative of Alabama's historic civil 
rights district, I know that Dr. King's selfless sacrifices changed the 
trajectory of our Nation's history and changed the lives of so many 
families in my district and around the world.
  When Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in America, it 
was Dr. King who brought the civil rights movement home to Alabama 
during the Birmingham campaign. When four little Black girls were 
killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, 
it was Dr. King who delivered their eulogy and who refused to let their 
deaths go unnoticed.
  Mr. Speaker, when the police beat marchers on a bridge in my hometown 
in Alabama who were simply marching for the equal right to vote, it was 
Dr. King who helped Dr. Reese and so many others to organize that march 
from Selma to Montgomery.
  It was foot soldiers like the honorable John Lewis, whom I am honored 
every day to be able to call colleague, who sacrificed their lives for 
the opportunity of a next generation to have the dream that so many 
wanted and fought for.
  There are constituents in my district, the civil rights and voting 
rights foot soldiers, who marched with Dr. King, who answered the call 
to fight for justice. These foot soldiers faced fire hoses, police 
dogs, and nightsticks so that future generations of Americans could now 
have the equal right to vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I get to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge just to go home 
to see my folks and to visit my family in Selma, Alabama, to go to my 
hometown to visit my friends who live in a place that still needs help.
  There is still some unfinished business of civil rights and voting 
rights. It is my great honor to invite year after year so many to 
come--thousands--walk in the footsteps of John Lewis with John Lewis. 
It doesn't get any better than that.
  For me to be able to see that I am the Member from Alabama, I know 
that I stand on the shoulders of John Lewis and so many others. But I 
also know that I must get off his shoulders and that I must do the hard 
work and the unfinished business that is civil rights and voting rights 
in America. As long as there is voter suppression and people are not 
allowed to vote in this country, we have work to do. We have lots of 
work to do.
  We must do our own work. It is not enough to just say thank you. It 
is not enough that we come before every year to reenact the march from 
Selma to Montgomery. It is not just about reenactment. It is about what 
we do day in and day out to further the dream that is Dr. King's to 
build that beloved community that we talked about.
  I get to see up close John Lewis and know that he is not just talking 
the talk. He walks the walk every day. There are times when I am purely 
frustrated in this House, frustrated because there is so much work that 
we need to do and so much work that we don't do because of our 
dysfunction. When I get tired, I just look over at John Lewis, and I 
think to myself: this man never was tired.

  The hard work was done by so many before us, and those of us who get 
to walk these Halls of Congress have to decide what we are going to do 
to help further that dream. Dr. King's life was not in vain. John 
Lewis' work is not in vain.
  There are so many of us who know that we stand on the gentleman's 
shoulders and know that, in order for this country to live up to its 
ideals of justice and democracy for all, we must--every generation 
must--continue that fight.
  It was Dr. King who wrote a letter from a Birmingham jail that talked 
about injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And there 
are injustices everywhere. So we have work to do. We, the members of 
the CBC, take that challenge very seriously. But we Members of Congress 
of this House, this august body, must take that work seriously, too. 
That work is not work that is Republican work versus Democratic work. 
It is America's work. It is the work of our democracy.
  It is the work that we must do that our constituents sent us here to 
do that so often is stifled by our rhetoric, stifled by our inability 
to see beyond our party, and stifled by so many things. But I know for 
a fact that when we work hand in hand together, Republicans and 
Democrats, Blacks and Whites, those from different religions, that we 
can do amazing things. We know that because of the life and legacy of 
Dr. King.
  So on this 50th anniversary of his death, let us not mourn. Let us 
recommit. Let us recommit ourselves to that

[[Page H15]]

which he stood for, for that which John Lewis stands for, and that is 
justice for all, irrespective of what country they come from.
  We are tried and tested every day, and it is important that we 
remember that we can all walk across that Edmund Pettus Bridge by doing 
the hard work of seeking justice and equality for all people just 
because they are people.
  I honor again the great work of Dr. Martin Luther King.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 
approximately 13 minutes remaining.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Payne). Congressman Donald Payne is a neighbor across the Walt Whitman 
Bridge or the Ben Franklin Bridge. I have known him and his father, and 
he has done a great job in the Garden State.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank Congressman Evans for hosting 
tonight's Special Order hour on Dr. King's life and legacy. The 
gentleman from Philadelphia has come to this body and has made an 
impact in his first year on the floor of Congress. We are delighted to 
have had him join the CBC.
  Mr. Speaker, as I sat here and listened to my colleagues, the 
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cedric Richmond, not the 
eldest member of the caucus, but a young man who has demonstrated the 
leadership to be the head of this august body; and to hear my 
colleague--and I use the term in reverence--John Lewis, I am fortunate 
to be able to serve the 10th Congressional District of the State of New 
Jersey at this time. Because, you see, I was sitting here as I listened 
to Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, John Lewis, Terri Sewell, and Mr. 
Evans, that to whom much is given, much is expected.
  I hear the story of the ``Boy From Troy.'' I hear the story of my 
chairman, Cedric Richmond. But I have been fortunate in my life 
because, you see, I had a father who felt that the most important thing 
to do was to serve this country and this world. He instilled that in 
me. A lot of his teachings come from Dr. Martin Luther King.
  Fifty years after his death, Dr. King's legacy has been shrouded in 
myth by people who prefer being comfortable to being real. Mr. Speaker, 
at this time, as young people back in my district say, I am going to 
keep it real. His personal truths have been twisted into lies by people 
who want to appear woke but whose eyes are blind to the harsh reality 
of injustice.
  This year, in 2018, we must reclaim Dr. King's legacy for those who 
are apt to quote ``I Have a Dream'' as they seek to silence people of 
color for fighting to preserve that dream.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. King understood that nonviolence does not mean 
nonconfrontational. He knew that social change requires sacrifice. He 
knew that doing what is right does not mean doing what is always easy.
  When Black Lives Matter protesters peacefully rally in the streets to 
protest police brutality against young men of color, conservatives and 
White moderates shout that Black Lives Matter incites violence and 
should be peaceful like Dr. King.
  What they are really saying is: Sit down, boy, and know your place.
  That is the same thing they said 55 years ago, when Dr. King led 
peaceful protests against racial injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. 
Conservatives shouted that Dr. King was causing hatred and violence. 
They told him to sit down and to know his place, but he persisted. Dr. 
King was not in Birmingham to make everyone comfortable. He was there 
to upset the status quo and to change our democracy.
  Then, 4 years later, Dr. King proclaimed that the Vietnam war was 
morally unjust. He pointed out that profit had become more important to 
the government than people who were sacrificing their lives overseas. 
Conservatives, once again, attacked Dr. King. They said he was being 
slanderous and that he was tragically misleading people.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, you see the great outcry and support that we have 
for our soldiers and our military people now in this country. We honor 
and revere them now. That came out of the struggle of the Vietnam war, 
where they were spat on and told that they weren't worth anything. That 
is where it came from, Dr. King bringing up the unjust war that this 
was. So out of Dr. King's protests against the Vietnam war, we began a 
great reverence for our soldiers once again.
  That is what we see now in the streets when we see a Vietnam vet and 
we tell them: Thank you for your service.
  Or whether they were in Afghanistan: Thank you for your service.

                              {time}  2015

  It was Dr. King who first raised that issue. They told him to be 
quiet and to know his place. But like Dr. King told one of his friends 
at the time, he might have been politically unwise, but he was being 
morally wise, and that is what mattered. This year, in 2018, we must be 
morally wise.
  Dr. King's life and legacy show us that doing right is rarely the 
same thing as doing what is easy. We, too, must persist.
  As we head into a consequential year when Americans will go to the 
polls, let us not lose sight of the fact that to protect and preserve 
Dr. King's legacy demands that we protect and preserve our democracy 
from voter suppression, cybersecurity weakness, and foreign meddling.
  We must expand voting rights for all Americans.
  We must modernize our voting systems.
  We must appoint an independent commission to investigate foreign 
meddling into the electoral system before the 2018 Federal election.
  We must break down barriers to voting, not build them.
  We must make registering to vote easier, not harder.
  We must ensure elections are competitive, not guaranteed.
  We must restore the right to vote, for felons who have served their 
prison sentences.
  We must end partisan gerrymandering.
  We must protect the sanctity of our elections.
  We must restore the Voting Rights Act. Dr. King knew that it was 
important.
  As I go to my seat, I just want to thank my colleagues for their 
endurance. As ``Amazing Grace'' says: ``I once was lost, but now am 
found.'' Serving with these great people in the United States Congress 
has saved a wretch like me.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, we had the gentleman from the East. Now we 
will go to the West, to someone whom I have watched. She is an educator 
and is always teaching.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), who 
is from the Third Congressional District.
  Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congressman Dwight 
Evans, who hails from the Second District of Pennsylvania. I thank him 
for leading us tonight. I also thank Congressional Black Caucus 
Chairman Cedric Richmond for allowing us to come tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in coming to the floor tonight to 
mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin 
Luther King. We have made progress in these past 50 years, but the 
legacy and example of Dr. King show us that much remains to be done.
  Although many marches and protests were met with violence, we had Dr. 
King and the women and men who stood with him, like our very own 
colleague and Congressional Black Caucus member, Congressman John 
Lewis.
  As I listened to Congressman Lewis tonight--as I sit on this House 
floor and have the privilege and honor to call him a colleague and a 
friend--it reminded me of his courage and how much more work we have to 
do.
  It was through these peaceful protests, it was through their courage, 
it was through the power of the messages that they sent that they stood 
up against the establishment.
  Dr. King was able to bring the injustices felt by African Americans 
nationwide to the forefront of American politics. His work culminated 
in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where hundreds of 
thousands of individuals of all stripes and communities came for a call 
to justice and equality for all.

[[Page H16]]

  It was on that day, August 28, 1963, when Dr. King gave one of his 
most powerful and famous speeches, that passionate speech, ``I Have a 
Dream,'' calling for the end of racism and the expansion of civil 
rights and economic rights.
  I am so proud that Mother Beatty's mother, my husband's grandmother, 
was an invited platform guest to witness that speech. We have that 
picture in our office to remind us and to remind our children and 
grandchildren of the power of Dr. Martin Luther King and Congressman 
John Lewis.
  With the emotions and the will of the march that it encapsulated in 
such powerful words, civil rights rose to the top of the agenda of 
reformers and facilitated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
Still, Mr. Speaker, Dr. King's work was not done.
  The next year, Dr. King helped to lead the Selma to Montgomery march. 
How proud I am that I was able to participate in the reenactment of 
that on its 50th anniversary. The march route spanned some 54 miles, 
from Selma, Alabama, to the State capital in Montgomery.
  The marchers were in response to the Southern States' legislatures 
passing and maintaining discriminatory laws and practices over decades 
where it meant to deny, Mr. Speaker, African Americans across the 
State, across the South, the right to vote.
  What is our message? What is our message tonight?
  We are here because we are still walking in it. We are still fighting 
for civil rights and voting rights and economic rights. We are still 
fighting for equal pay for equal work.
  But we are not afraid. Mr. Lewis led us on this House floor in 
fighting for gun safety. We are not afraid because we are continuing 
the legacy of Martin Luther King.
  Lastly, let me just say that we must break this cycle of economic 
inequality, racism, and poverty. We must stand up to the GOP and to 
President Trump, because when we look at this tax reform bill, it 
brings those injustices to economics and equality, a financial gain.
  So we are here tonight to say there is still a dream. There is still 
a stone of hope.
  Again, I thank my colleague for leading us in this celebration and 
this tribute to Martin Luther King.
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I, too, thank my colleague for those eloquent 
words and those comments which were very succinct and provided a lot 
for us.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus 
for allowing me to have this opportunity to speak, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.

                          ____________________