[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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