[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15596-15597]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          DEDICATION OF THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., MEMORIAL

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, Thomas Jefferson originally penned the 
Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal. But it was 
Dr. Martin Luther King and civil rights workers that made those words 
ring true. It took almost 200 years for that to happen.
  On Sunday, in this Nation's Capital, Dr. King will be honored with 
the dedication of a monument to him on the Mall, and it's a monument to 
a great man who deserves recognition. But it should be considered a 
monument to all the civil rights workers, the sit-ins, the Freedom 
Riders, the students that went to Mississippi, that marched from Selma 
to Montgomery, the John Lewises, the Julian Bonds, the Joseph Lowerys, 
the Harry Belafontes, the Vasco Smiths, Maxine Smiths, Russell 
Sugarmans, and all the great civil rights leaders who made this 
country's promise be fulfilled.
  All men now are created equal, but we have a long way to go. I thank 
the civil rights workers. They are veterans fighting who had to fight 
their own

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country to secure the rights that we now enjoy.

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