[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1921-S1922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank my colleague from the neighboring 
State, Senator Toomey, for joining us. I thank all of my colleagues who 
were here today, Senators Warnock and Murkowski, Toomey and Cassidy, 
Cortez Masto, and Padilla for joining to read these powerful words 
today.
  This is about as diverse a group as we could assemble in the U.S. 
Senate, a group of seven Senators who really reflect our country today: 
a reverend in a Black church, the son of a union electrical worker, a 
doctor from the Deep South, an Independent born in the Alaska country, 
a son of Mexican immigrants, a daughter of Mexican Americans who made 
this country home for a century, and a son of the Midwest whose father 
came from Mansfield, OH, and mother came from Mansfield, GA.
  We come from different backgrounds, and we disagree on many things, 
but we love this country--all seven us--and we know we can do better 
for the people who make it work.
  Dr. King and the civil rights leaders of his generation did more than 
just about anyone to push this country to live up to our founding 
ideals and make the dream of America real for everyone.
  Protesting, working for change, organizing, demanding our country to 
do better--those are some of the most patriotic things all of us can 
do. That is Dr. King's charge of this letter:

       Progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability.

  That is our charge. I think about the campaign Dr. King was waging 
when he was assassinated. You can't forget he was martyred in Memphis 
when fighting for some of the most exploited workers in this country, 
sanitation workers. He understood the deep connection between workers' 
rights and civil rights. As he put it, ``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 and a cup of coffee?''
  Until all Americans have the dignity they have earned, Dr. King's 
work will remain unfinished. That means paying all workers a living 
wage, giving them power over their schedules, providing good benefits 
and safety on the job, letting them, if they choose, organize a union. 
That means all workers should get a fair share of the wealth they 
create. It means recognizing the dignity of communities that Black 
Americans have built over generations.
  They were denied wealth and investment. The schools were underfunded. 
Banks wouldn't lend. Highways tore down businesses and tore apart 
neighborhoods in the Presiding Officer's largest city in Milwaukee, as 
they did in the largest cities in my State: Columbus, Cleveland, and 
Cincinnati.
  In the face of all of that, Black Ohioans and people all over the 
country built businesses and churches and vibrant neighborhoods and 
loving families. But they should not have to do it on their own.
  As we emerge from this pandemic and we work together to build a 
stronger country out of this crisis, we can't make the mistakes of the 
past. We learned in the Banking, Housing Committee this week that 
President Roosevelt's collective bargaining laws and investment in 
housing with the creation of housing agencies created a middle class 
for Americans who look like me but didn't create a middle class for a 
whole lot of other Americans.
  Think about the infrastructure investments that we made in the 1930s 
and the years after World War II. Think how we created millions of new 
homeowners and grew the middle class. Think of how we expanded economic 
security, with overtime and workers compensation and Medicare and 
Social Security.
  There is no reason we can't do that again, the same thing again, but 
this time we bring along everyone. We invest in all communities. We 
bring us closer to the society Dr. King envisioned, where all labor--as 
he would say, where ``all labor has dignity.''
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S1922]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.