[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 21874-21875]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      A MALL MEMORIAL FOR DR. KING

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, this morning, our Nation took an important 
step toward honoring one of our most preeminent leaders. The National 
Mall in Washington, DC, is graced with memorials to America's greatest 
presidents. Today we broke ground on a memorial to honor the Reverend 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although never elected to national office, 
Dr. King courageously led the Nation through a crucial chapter of 
American history and became the voice of the entire civil rights 
movement.
  In his famous ``I Have A Dream'' speech on the National Mall, Dr. 
King noted that ``[w]hen the architects of our republic wrote the 
magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of 
Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every 
American was to fall heir.''
  This past summer we reaffirmed and reauthorized one of the most 
important methods of enforcing this promise and upholding the 
Constitution--the Voting Rights Act. Over the course of dozens of 
Judiciary Committee hearings and markups, we recalled the great 
historic struggle for civil rights led by American heroes of vision and 
strength, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and his widow, Coretta 
Scott King.
  The pervasive discriminatory tactics that led to the original Voting 
Rights Act were deeply rooted. As a Nation, this effort to ensure equal 
protection dates back more than 135 years to the ratification of the 
15th amendment in 1870, the last of the post-Civil War Reconstruction 
amendments. It took the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for 
people of all races in many parts of our country to effectively begin 
exercising the rights granted 95 years earlier by the 15th amendment. 
Despite the additional gains we have made in enabling racial minorities 
to participate fully in the political life of our country, the work of 
the Voting Rights Act is not yet complete, and the dream of Dr. King 
has not yet been fully realized. But his dream lives on, as vital and 
as inspirational as the day it was delivered.
  Just last week, we had an historic national election. Men and women 
of every color and creed came to polling places around the country to 
have their voices heard. Nonetheless, some citizens experienced 
problems casting their votes. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold 
a long-overdue oversight hearing this week to examine shortcomings in 
the enforcement of our civil rights laws and the guarantees of 
political equality enshrined in the 14th and 15th amendments. In doing 
so, we continue to honor the promissory note written to all Americans.
  I look forward to bringing my children and grandchildren to the 
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial when it is completed in 2008. I trust 
it will be a moving tribute befitting one of our Nation's greatest 
leaders.

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