    [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
    [House]
    [Pages H89-H90]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

             HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING

      The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
    Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes,
      Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the well of the
    Congress of the United States of America as a proud, liberated
    Democrat. A liberated Democrat, by my definition, is one who cannot
    only speak truth to power, but can also speak about power.
      So I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to honor and celebrate the life and
    legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. And in so doing, I want to encourage
    persons to not only read the masterpiece that Dr. King wrote when he
    was in the Birmingham jail, but also read the letter that he was
    responding to.
      This letter was written by eight persons, in my opinion, none of whom
    were bigots, none of whom taught or preached hate; eight persons who
    were of the religious community; eight persons who were beyond
    reproach, high moral standards, impeccable character.
      You need to read the letter that Dr. King was responding to, the
    letter that was written by eight members of the clergy. And when you
    read this letter, as you go through it, you will get to the last
    paragraph.
      I shall read the last paragraph and excerpt from it, if you will, not
    in its entirety, but I shall read an excerpt from the last paragraph,
    and then I want to contemporize the excerpt from the last paragraph.
      Read it in its entirety. Read the letter from the Birmingham jail.
    But, my friends, please read the letter that he was responding to. If
    you do not read this letter, you cannot totally appreciate the message
    that Dr. King was conveying.
      Here is what I shall read as an excerpt. It reads: ``When rights are
    consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in
    negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets.''
      I just want to contemporize that sentence.
      In the courts, let somebody else take care of this problem. There are
    other people who are prepared for this. They know best how to handle
    this. Let someone else do what we could take upon ourselves the duty to
    do. Let someone else be responsible for liberty and justice for all.
    Let someone else be responsible for government of the people, by the
    people, for the people. Let someone else do it.
      Contemporizing this language, let the special prosecutor do it. The
    special prosecutor will give us a decision that we can appreciate, that
    we can take forth, that we can then claim has given us the foundation
    to do something significant.
      Mr. Speaker, these were persons of honorable standing, great stature.

    [[Page H90]]

    They meant well, but they wanted to let someone else do what they
    themselves could have had a hand in doing.
      Mr. Speaker, Dr. King was a man who believed that bigotry and hatred
    must be confronted, and he understood this one basic premise: those who
    will tolerate bigotry and hatred, they will do very little to change
    it. They will find reasons why they can't change bigotry and hatred
    when given the opportunity.
      There is always an excuse. It won't be the Good Samaritan response:
    If I don't help people who are being discriminated against, who are
    being kicked off of jobs because they are LGBTQ, who can't get loans
    because of their ethnicity, because of religiosity--invidious
    religiosity, I might add. They are being barred, banned.

                                  {time}  1045

      They won't look to see what is happening to them. What they will do
    is ask: What will happen to me if I step out there and try to help
    them?
      I don't think they are persons of ill will. I think that they are
    persons who mean well. But I ask people to understand the context of
    this time by understanding and reviewing the context of the time that
    Dr. King lived in and review that letter from the Birmingham jail--the
    masterpiece--but also read the letter that he was responding to.
      Those who will tolerate bigotry will do little to change it.

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