[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1512-1513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, this year, as we celebrate Black History 
Month, we also mourn the loss of two great civil rights leaders: Rosa 
Parks and Coretta Scott King.
  These women were both pivotal figures in the civil rights movement, 
leaders who inspired all of us with their commitment, their dignity, 
and their incredible courage.
  Both dedicated their lives to the cause of freedom--to ridding the 
South of the cruelty of segregation and ridding our society of the 
scourge of racism.
  Both lived to see tremendous progress in America and both lived to 
see how much is still left undone.
  As we mourn the passing of these heroic figures of the civil rights 
movement, we must ensure that the cause of justice for which they 
worked so hard, and sacrificed so much--marches on.
  As we mourn these great leaders, and celebrate their lives, we must 
also ask ourselves what we can do to honor the contributions they made, 
and the way they worked to transform our Nation. I am reminded of 
something Rosa Parks once said about Dr. King. She was concerned that, 
while the birthday of Dr. King had become a national holiday, he was 
being depicted as merely, ``a dreamer.'' As I remember him,'' she said, 
``he was more than a dreamer. He was an activist who believed in acting 
as well as speaking out against oppression.''
  Once again, Rosa Parks was right: It is not only Dr. King's dream 
that endures, although it does endure, and has given strength to so 
many. It is the actions of Dr. King, and Coretta Scott King, and Rosa 
Parks, and the actions of so many millions of others, that have brought 
us forward in an inexorable march to freedom.
  Dr. King said it himself, in a different way, when he spoke about the 
Montgomery Bus Boycott: ``We came to see that, in the long run, it is 
more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation. So, in a 
quite dignified manner, we decided to substitute tired feet for tired 
souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery.''
  They met injustice with action. They walked in dignity, for 381 days, 
until they met with victory. And today we, too, must move forward on 
the civil rights issues that press us to action--

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on racial profiling, on voting rights, on the death penalty; and also 
on access to good education and good health care, on addressing the 
HIV/AIDS crisis, and all the issues where inequality still plagues our 
Nation.
  Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks--they, and so many others, 
would rather have tired feet than tired souls, and so must we.
  During Black History Month, as we pay tribute to their 
accomplishments, and as we rededicate ourselves to the goals we have 
yet to achieve, we know that those great Americans would never be 
complacent, would never tire, would never be satisfied with anything 
less than justice. And neither must anyone in this body, or in this 
country.
  We must commit to walk on together in that march for equality in this 
country, and justice in this world, resolving that we, too, may have 
tired feet but never a tired soul.

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