[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5069-5075]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. 
Christensen) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  I just wanted to start off by saying in response to some of what I've 
just listened to--and I'm not going to take it point by point. I just 
want to point out that what we passed last year is not ObamaCare. To 
the people of this country it is your care. And if you allow it to be 
repealed, defunded, or picked apart piece-by-piece, President Obama 
will still have his health care insurance and so will many of the 
people who are trying to take away yours, your care.
  Just remember that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was 
not to provide care for us. It was to provide care and access to 
quality, affordable health care for you. It is not ObamaCare. It's your 
care.
  At this time I'd like to yield to my colleague from Maryland, 
Congresswoman Donna Edwards.
  Ms. EDWARDS. I would like to thank Congresswoman Christensen for the 
time.
  And just a reminder that today, April 4, is a sad remembrance in some 
ways of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, 
Tennessee,

[[Page 5070]]

some 43 years ago. It is such an irony that we're here this evening at 
this time because there are so many things for which Dr. King fought 
and struggled that are ever-present today both in our policy and our 
politics and in our national culture and through our social fabric.
  During this year also we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 
Congressional Black Caucus. It's important for us to remember that the 
Congressional Black Caucus was founded to tackle the injustices that 
Dr. King pointed to and to promote equity in the United States and with 
and through our United States political process.
  Dr. King dedicated his life to the then-uncomfortable conversations 
on injustice faced by African Americans across the country. Dr. King 
knew that tackling discrimination in the United States could not only 
focus on knocking down social barriers but also economic barriers that 
held African American workers, held low-wage workers from economic 
wealth to sustain their families.
  I want to thank Dr. Christensen and so many of my other colleagues 
who've joined me in the introduction of House Resolution 198, 
recognizing the coordinated struggle of workers during the 1968 Memphis 
sanitation workers strike to voice their grievances and reach a 
collective agreement for rights in the workplace. What an irony here in 
2011 that the battles for which Dr. King fought so valiantly are 
today's battles.

                              {time}  2020

  House Resolution 198 has among it, today, 55 cosponsors. We recognize 
that we may not be able to move this measure to the floor, but it is an 
important remembrance, commemoration of the struggle of those 
sanitation workers, those city workers, those municipal workers as they 
tried to organize.
  As Dr. King knew, organized labor is a cornerstone of our democracy, 
and the organizations of organized labor have altered many facets of 
our Nation. They've changed our Nation for the better. Organized 
workers will forever change the labor debate in Memphis through their 
collective will. That's what happened in Memphis on those days 43 years 
ago.
  Just 2 weeks ago, we recognized the 100-year anniversary of the 
deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which ushered in improved 
safety standards for workers. And decades later, the deaths of two 
sanitation workers in Memphis resulted in a movement to grant workers 
in Memphis, Tennessee, the basic rights in a workplace. Dr. King 
believed that the struggle in Memphis for workers' rights was akin to 
the civil rights movement. It was a partner to the civil rights 
movement.
  The motto of the sanitation workers strike was, ``I am a man,'' 
signifying the demeaning way in which African American men had been 
treated and referred to as boys. ``I am a man.'' What powerful words 
urging the city to grant them the full rights to equality and justice 
guaranteed under the principles of our Nation. Dr. King stood in 
solidarity with the strikers in the fight for justice and the basic 
human rights for all men and women in the workplace and in society.
  Indeed, there are many of us in this Congress who stand in solidarity 
with the strikers and workers across this country, municipal workers, 
private sector workers, public sector workers who are fighting every 
day for justice in their workplaces. Indeed, 43 years ago is the 
struggle of today. And thanks very much to the legacy of those strikers 
in Memphis and to Dr. King, we actually live in a Nation where workers 
all over the United States can indeed demand justice and fair working 
conditions.
  These basic rights allow men and women to pursue economic wealth and 
pursue the American Dream. But in recent days, we face a virtual 
assault on basic workers' rights, things that we have known for 
generations in this country. And even though those events are unfolding 
in Wisconsin, the outcome of whether the unions have the right to 
collective bargaining in that State will affect union members across 
this country. Indeed, that was the fight and the struggle for justice 
of sanitation workers.
  I want to refer to Dr. King's speech in Memphis at a rally on behalf 
of sanitation workers. He said, ``We've got to give ourselves to this 
struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at 
this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through.''
  We face the same challenge today. We have to push through in States 
like Wisconsin and Indiana and Ohio and across this country to help 
public employees and, indeed, all employees fight against the 
injustices that they face in their workplace.
  In Dr. King's last speech, he highlighted the perils at which he 
sought equality and justice for all men and women. In his words, I 
quote, ``I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight 
that we as a people will get to the promised land.'' And for workers, 
what is that promised land? It is the promised land of a workplace that 
is safe. It is the promised land in which one makes wages that allow 
one to take care of one's family and contribute to the community. It is 
a workplace that actually respects workers as partners in the success 
of a company and a workplace.
  Dr. King at this time, when he addressed workers in Memphis, had 
already faced threats against his life, including a stab wound that he 
had suffered at a book signing in New York. In his speech, Dr. King 
recalled the doctors saying that had he sneezed following the attack he 
would have died, but noted he was glad that he did not or else he would 
have missed the progress in the civil rights movement.
  Today is a day of remembrance for so many of us. On the point of 
injustice, Dr. King said so poignantly the issue is injustice. The 
issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings 
with its public servants, who happened to be sanitation workers. Now we 
have got to keep attention on that. And just as he reminded us 43 years 
ago, we have to keep the attention on our workers, who struggle every 
day.
  Dr. King was determined to be in Memphis with those workers. And 
let's think about where we are here 43 years from that fated day in 
April. Our country is moving out of recession. We continue to stand 
with workers and stand with job creation, some of us do, to reverse the 
effects of the recession on our most vulnerable communities, and to 
empower all Americans, empower workers.
  The unemployment rate among the African American population remains 
far too high, at 16.6 percent in March of this year. Now, the overall 
unemployment rate has fallen. We are grateful for that. But I think 
were Dr. King alive today, he would probably acknowledge the struggle 
of those who are working and those who want to work, the many who are 
chronically unemployed in their communities across this country.
  The unemployment rate among African American men was 20.2 percent in 
March of this year, just last month. The unemployment rate among 
African American women was 11.7 percent in March. Put these numbers up 
against national numbers of unemployment of 8.8 percent. While those 
numbers again, thanks to the brilliant efforts of the President of the 
United States, of the Democrats in Congress during the 111th Congress, 
who actually brought us to a point where we put in some policies that 
could bring down the unemployment rate, those numbers are still 
troubling among minority groups.
  But I will say, Mr. Speaker, that one of the challenges that we have 
is that in this country, where workers struggle every day, we look at 
stagnant wages that have really crippled the American workforce, the 
public sector workforce, the private sector workforce in this country, 
that we still have a lot to do when it comes to creating jobs. And yet 
here we are again this week--I don't know what day we are on--89 days 
not having created any jobs to address those very concerns that Dr. 
King had just 43 years ago.
  Just a reminder to us all that according to Dr. King, he said so 
profoundly about the American labor movement, and I quote again Dr. 
King, and I wish that I could do it with his eloquence,

[[Page 5071]]

but I think it is important for us to be reminded of his words. ``The 
labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and 
despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and 
social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, 
government relief for the destitute, and above all, new wage levels 
that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life.'' He continued, 
``The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they 
resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of 
union organization crested over our Nation, it carried to secure shores 
not only itself but the whole society.''
  Dr. King recognized so profoundly the connection between the struggle 
of workers, the struggle of the sanitation workers in Memphis to the 
struggles of the American labor movement, and, in fact, to its 
foundation.
  With that, I recognize that my colleague from New York, Paul Tonko, 
has joined us on the floor. Perhaps he would care to join in this 
discussion.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Edwards, for bringing us 
together this evening on what I think is a very timely discussion.
  You know, it seems as though 43-year-old history resonates profoundly 
today. The same battles for which Martin Luther King had fought, the 
eloquence with which he raised America's consciousness is needed today, 
not only in the halls of government but across America, to understand 
that there is an attack, I believe, on workers.

                              {time}  2030

  There is a diminution of the impact of our middle class, our working 
families in this country, when we look at the fact that the top 10 
percent of Americans now own or earn around 50 percent of our national 
income.
  We look at stats from 1950 that has the executive salaries somewhere 
in a 30-to-1 ratio compared to the American worker. By the year 2000, 
that had changed drastically to some 300-to-1 to 500-to-1. So it's 
obvious that the gap between those who are drawing large paychecks and 
the workers, the masses that make things work, that have the need to 
have purchasing power so as to enable our economy to function and 
function well, have been threatened. They have been at risk.
  And I think the whole moral fabric that Martin Luther King embraced, 
the entire mission to raise America's people as one by providing for 
the dignity of the American workers, was a tremendously strong 
statement in defense of all people, not just people of color, people of 
every demographic, people of every racial persuasion that could provide 
for a stronger America. It was that vision that he had and he shared it 
so eloquently, and his climb to the mountaintop was bringing all of 
America's children and people along.
  He knew that the empowerment of the individual meant the empowerment 
of the society. As we weave the strands of diversity into the fabric of 
America, our mosaic growing stronger and brighter and more vibrant 
enables us to be a Nation that really, truly is unique if we could just 
empower the American worker.
  I see the raid now on this middle class in these Chambers, in the 
congressional Chambers, both the House and the Senate being so focused 
on a dismantling of the power of the working families, of the true 
middle class of our society. That is a wrong move. That is one that 
will devastate our economy and one that is not utilizing, embracing the 
intellectual capacity of this great Nation.
  Cuts to our children through Head Start or in classroom experience is 
the worst cut of any because it's our future that we are playing with. 
We are not allowing for the dignity, again, of which Martin Luther King 
spoke, to be felt in the classroom; and that magic of learning is 
dulled, is dulled, by these painful cuts.
  So we have got to respond, respond with compassion and with our eyes 
wide open knowing that that message of 43 years ago and that powerful 
statement made about the dignity of labor, the evening before he was 
brought down, still speaks to every one of us, or at least ought to, so 
that we can provide for the sorts of policy and the resource advocacy, 
the distribution of income across this country in a way that really 
empowers the individual and families.
  That, I think, is the mission that is still there for each and every 
one of us. So many of us were inspired by the words of John F. Kennedy, 
Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy. It drew people to the public 
arena. They wanted to be involved; they saw government as a noble 
mission. And that tarnished atmosphere that's prevailing today has 
allowed for misrepresentation of facts or denial of data that really 
should guide our process here, as Martin often called for fairness, for 
equitable treatment, for justice.
  Those are the factors that drive the dignity. So it is a challenge to 
us, but I think we are up for that challenge, and I remain optimistic. 
If we just provide the boost to our Nation's working families, to our 
middle class, then we are all empowered. I think that tide would lift 
all boats.
  So, thank you, Representative Edwards, for bringing us together on a 
very important discussion.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I would like to thank my colleague from Maryland 
for helping to organize this hour and our colleague from New York for 
joining us. I was in medical school here in Washington D.C. on the day 
that Dr. King was assassinated, and it was obviously a very dark day 
and weekend that followed.
  But I recalled, and I think it would have had to have been the Sunday 
of the following week, was a Sunday dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther 
King. On that day, as you went to church or were out and about D.C., 
there was such a feeling of fellowship and brotherhood and respect for 
each other, and even, I would say, love for each other as neighbors in 
this country and on this planet.
  It would be wonderful to see the spirit of that day revived in this 
Congress and across our Nation as we remember not only the day but, 
more importantly, the words and the legacy of Dr. King and as we 
remember all that he was fighting for. Specifically tonight we remember 
the sanitation workers whose strike he went out to Nashville to support 
on that fateful evening.
  And in his speech he mentioned a few things that he said in that 
speech the night before he was killed. He called also for his listeners 
to develop a ``dangerous unselfishness'' and said that the question 
before them, and I would say the question before us today, is ``not if 
I stop to help the sanitation workers,'' and I am going to add in here, 
as we would say today, not if we stopped to help the sanitation 
workers, the teachers, the firefighters, the policemen and all workers 
whose rights are under attack in our country today, what will happen to 
my job?
  But he said the question is: ``If I do not stop to help the 
sanitation workers what will happen to them?'' And as our colleague 
from New York said, his concern went beyond that. It was also what 
would happen to our Nation.
  He also then said right after that: ``Let us rise up tonight with a 
greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let 
us move in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America 
what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better 
Nation.''
  These words are an urgent call to us today as well, as both of my 
colleagues have said, to stand with a greater determination on behalf 
of the working men and women in this country; to stand with a greater 
determination for help for the poor; to stand with a greater 
determination for clean air and clean energy for us and our children, 
clean air for our children and us to breathe, and clean energy and 
responding to this threat of climate change; to stand with greater 
determination for jobs and economic opportunity, especially for the 
most distressed parts of our country; to stand with greater 
determination for a quality education for every child and to stand with 
greater determination for equal access to quality health care and 
wellness for everyone in this country regardless of race, ethnicity, 
gender identity or geography.
  Another quote from Dr. King that I use often as we talk about health 
disparities is this quote. He said:--Of all

[[Page 5072]]

the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking 
and inhumane.''
  I want to focus on that for a moment because among the many 
challenges that we face today is that of eliminating the injustice in 
health care. We Democrats took a major step forward in this effort with 
the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the 
111th Congress. Not only does it expand coverage to millions of 
Americans and families who have never had insurance before, but it also 
includes provisions that would end the travesty which Dr. Martin Luther 
King called the most shocking and inhumane.
  Now that the health care door is finally being opened to all; now 
that we have furthered the effort to end the discrimination that exists 
in our health system; now that we have a chance to end the tens of 
thousands of premature, preventable deaths in people of color, and the 
poor, and those who live in our rural areas and our territories; now 
that we have done all of that, the Republican majority is doing 
everything they can think of to try and slam that door shut again.

                              {time}  2040

  In this 40th anniversary year, the Congressional Black Caucus is 
committed to building upon the legacy of our founders. In the area of 
health, we are particularly committed to specifically building on the 
legacy of Congressman Louis Stokes to not let that door or any door be 
closed to African Americans or to anyone anywhere in this country. We 
will not let those doors be closed.
  And we know that our Democrats will stand with us with greater 
determination to protect the Affordable Care law and the lives of 
countless Americans who would continue to be in jeopardy without that 
law. And it's time for the good people of this country to stand with 
us.
  Let us not have to repent, as Dr. King said, not for actions of bad 
people, but for the appalling silence of good people.
  This country should no longer tolerate that African Americans, 
Latinos and Native Americans have a much higher infant mortality than 
our white counterparts; that diabetes and its complications should be 
so much higher in those same populations as well as in Native Hawaiians 
and other Pacific Islanders; or that African Americans should have 
higher death rates from cancer and diabetes than all of the other 
population groups; or that Native Americans should have higher deaths 
from sudden infant death syndrome and chronic liver disease than all of 
the other population groups combined; or that Asian Americans should 
have such high incidences of tuberculosis, about 24 times the average 
national rate, and higher incidences of hepatitis B; and no longer 
should this country tolerate that in 2010, after 8 years, that the 
Department of Health and Human Services would still be reporting in the 
national health disparities report that fewer than 20 percent of 
disparities faced by African Americans, American Indians, Alaska 
Natives and Hispanics showed any evidence of narrowing. Fewer than 20 
percent showed any evidence of narrowing.
  It is time for all of us to rise to our better nature, as Dr. King 
would call us to do, and to begin to work together to close gaps faced 
in many different areas by large segments of our population. We must 
stand in stronger determination to build that better nation and to 
realize the beloved community that Dr. King envisioned.
  In our 40th year, the Congressional Black Caucus remains more 
committed, more determined than ever to realizing his dream, a dream 
that still burns brightly in the hearts of all of us who honor Dr. 
Martin Luther King and the life that he gave to ensure freedom and 
justice on behalf of all of us.
  With that, I yield to the gentlewoman from Maryland.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you, Dr. Christensen.
  I just want to take a moment to yield to my colleague, vice chairman 
of the Congressional Black Caucus from the great State, my original 
home State of North Carolina, G.K. Butterfield.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Let me thank the gentlelady for yielding the time 
this evening and thank her for her leadership in the Congress. The 
Congressional Black Caucus goes out of its way each week to try to 
present to the Nation issues that are critically important to African 
Americans residing in this country, and Congresswoman Donna Edwards and 
Congresswoman Christensen have been in the forefront of making that 
happen. And so I want to thank them so very much for their leadership.
  I especially want to thank them for their willingness to come to the 
floor tonight to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. April 4 always brings back memories of a very tragic day in 
the life of our country. It is a day that I shall never, ever forget.
  The civil rights movement and the voting rights movement took place 
during my years in high school. Those were very precious moments in my 
history, and I remember so well the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
The world must remember, our country must remember, we must understand 
that Martin Luther King's leadership was very profound, but it only 
lasted for about 13 years. So many people don't recognize that.
  Dr. King started his leadership at age 26, and it tragically ended at 
age 39. It was on December 1 of 1955 that Dr. King was drafted, at age 
26, to lead the Montgomery bus boycott. That was the day in Alabama 
history when the black citizens of Montgomery decided that they would 
boycott city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted instead of 
being relegated to the back when a white citizen boarded the bus. A 
black seamstress named Rosa Parks was denied a seat of her choice 
because of the color of her skin, and Dr. King at the age of 26 took 
the leadership of that movement and focused the attention of the world 
on this injustice. And the Supreme Court of this country, the following 
year, agreed with his position.
  Then several years later, in April of 1963, it was on a Friday 
evening, it was Good Friday, Dr. King again led a march in Birmingham, 
Alabama, to end segregation in public accommodations. Dr. King was 
arrested and spent the next 11 days confined in jail. During that time, 
Mr. Speaker, he wrote that great document called ``Letter from 
Birmingham Jail.'' I would only wish that our citizens would look up 
that letter on the Internet and read for themselves ``Letter from 
Birmingham Jail.'' And several weeks later, the Birmingham leaders 
announced that local accommodations would be integrated.
  After that great victory in Birmingham, and after Dr. King wrote his 
letter, Dr. King and other civil rights leaders planned and then they 
executed the 1963 March on Washington. So many of us have heard of and 
some of us participated in that march. It was a hot summer day here in 
the Nation's capital on August 28, 1963. I was there as a young 16-
year-old high school student.
  That march was a demand. It was a demand for civil rights 
legislation. President John F. Kennedy had agreed with the movement and 
had made a historic speech on June 11, 1963, calling on this Nation to 
end segregation in public accommodations. And on June 20, 1963, a bill 
was introduced into this House of Representatives here on Capitol Hill, 
and that bill was fiercely debated to provide civil rights for all 
citizens. But then the march took place in August of 1963. It was a 
great day; 250,000 people descended on the Nation's capital demanding 
civil rights. And less than 90 days later, President Kennedy was 
tragically assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
  As a result of his assassination, President Johnson, becoming the 
President of our country, promised the Nation that the civil rights 
bill that was pending in the Congress would continue to be debated, and 
it would be signed into law, and it was, on July 2, 1964.
  And so after that civil rights bill was passed, Dr. King received the 
coveted Nobel Peace Prize. And we honor and we celebrate that great 
history.

[[Page 5073]]

  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the Civil Rights Act was not enough. There had 
to be a voting rights bill that was debated and passed by this 
Congress. Finally, in 1965, Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act 
because of the work of Dr. King.
  Because of the Voting Rights Act, there has now been a 
transformation, a political transformation in the southern part of our 
country where I am from. I represent eastern North Carolina, which is a 
community in my State that suffered from years of discrimination and 
electoral discrimination. But I'm proud to say that in my congressional 
district alone, there are more than 300 African American elected 
officials elected to office, and we attribute much of this success to 
the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  I want to thank the gentlelady for recognizing this great American on 
this day. My home town of Wilson, North Carolina, was supposed to have 
been the visit of Dr. King on this day in 1968. But because of the 
events in Memphis, Tennessee, he diverted and went to Memphis to aid 
with the garbage strike and to help those who could not help 
themselves. And so we celebrate this great legacy tonight.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you, Congressman Butterfield, for your leadership 
as vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, but also for your 
reminder of our so important history that is linked both to the 
struggle of African Americans in this country, to the struggle of 
labor, and for a reminder also historically of the fact that Dr. King 
was supposed to have had a next place to be when his life was ended on 
April 4, 43 years ago today.

                              {time}  2050

  I would like to take just this moment, if I could, to recount for us 
the history of the 1968 American Federation of State, County and 
Municipal Employees Memphis sanitation workers' strike, the chronology.
  Beginning on Sunday, January 31 of that year, the rain sent workers 
home. Then beginning on Tuesday, February 1 of that year, two 
sanitation workers were killed in an accident on a city truck.
  Then just days later on Monday, February 12, Memphis sanitation and 
public employees went on strike after last-minute attempts to resolve 
their grievances had failed. While the newspapers claimed that 200 
workers of the 1,300 remained on the job, really only 38 of 180 trucks 
moved. The mayor of the city said the strike is illegal, but that his 
office stood ready to talk to anyone about legitimate questions of the 
time.
  Little did these workers know that through the month of February, as 
black leaders and ministers gathered from city-wide organizations in 
support of the strike, through the days of March when the ministers and 
the city announced that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., would come to 
Memphis, 116 strikers and supporters were arrested for sitting at city 
hall. And then through the month of March, the newspapers claimed that 
the strike was failing as scabs were operating 90 garbage trucks. But 
17,000 Memphians attended a rally where Dr. King called for a citywide 
march on March 22.
  Then as Dr. King returned to Memphis on April 3, and he addressed the 
rally, delivering his famous ``I've Been to the Mountaintop'' address, 
then that day, on April 4, on April 4, 1968, as he prepared to march 
with the workers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on the 
balcony of his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.
  In the days following his assassination, the workers continued their 
strike in honor of Dr. King and with renewed courage and resolve to 
demand safe working conditions. It is this simple phrase ``I am a man'' 
that drove him, a simple phrase, one that acknowledged their humanhood, 
one that acknowledged them as workers: I am a man.
  And then finally on April 16, some 3 months after the start of their 
strike, the sanitation workers of the American Federation of State, 
County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, agreed and reached an agreement 
with the city officials, granting an increase in pay, a grievance 
procedure, and overtime pay.
  This is the history of the sanitation workers of Memphis. It is the 
history of workers throughout this country, and it is the history of 
workers today.
  With that, I would like to yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Tonko).
  Mr. TONKO. You know, the dignity that was addressed, the respect 
factor of ``I am a man,'' that rhetoric that speaks to the working 
individual, that speaks to humanity, the man, the woman, the child, the 
dignity of the individual, the respect shown, was all that was embraced 
in that message, that struck all of America, touched all Americans.
  I am of the age that I remember that tragic day. It came so 
clustered. In a short 5 years, we lost three great leaders to bullets. 
It is just really a tragic outcome that you can't help but find 
yourself questioning what if their march continued, how different would 
America be?
  I find it so interesting that his last major appearance and effort 
was for workers, fighting for workers, for the dignity of work and the 
dignity of workers.
  The assault on workers' rights that he was addressing we see today in 
the news. We see it in Wisconsin. We see it in Michigan. We see it in 
Ohio. And it is like the same battles are here to be fought and won.
  So the spirit of Martin encourages, I think, builds our determination 
and our resilience to make a difference. The efforts that America needs 
to associate with the overall cause and concern for job creation and 
job retention is so vitally important. Many would choose to have us 
believe that it is a high rate of firings that is occurring out there, 
but it is really a low rate of hirings, which is a different sort of 
saga. We need to invest now in worker opportunities, in training, 
retraining, in education, and in job creation.
  I am a firm believer, and I know many are, that unemployment is 
driving our deficit and that if we invest in jobs, if we invest in the 
worker, we will see a corresponding benefit on the flip side of a 
reduced deficit for this Nation.
  I think the stats tell it all. The bottom 50 percent of income 
earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent 
of the Nation's wealth. That is a startling fact. And we need to make 
certain that there is more justice that is produced out there. As I 
said earlier, I really do believe that the purchasing power that we can 
enhance for America's working families, for our middle class, for the 
mainstream worker out there is an empowerment for all of us. Someone 
needs to purchase the products that those perched on the top may 
produce by their ownership. But the worker to build that product and 
the worker to buy that product is an important key, perhaps the most 
important ingredient in the equation.
  When we look at the fact that some five people are lined up for every 
job opportunity in this country, and when we look at the fact that 
workers' rights are under assault today in many areas across this 
country, there is a great amount of unfinished business.
  And on this anniversary commemoration of a great leader's death, it 
is important for us to recommit our energies and our spirit to speaking 
to the needs of America's workers. Nothing could honor Dr. Martin 
Luther King's legacy and the man more vibrantly than speaking to job 
creation, job retention, workers' rights and prevention of what we are 
seeing where there is an assault on those rights across this country.
  Thank you, Representative Edwards, for bringing this solemn 
opportunity together on this floor where so many issues were addressed 
in favorable measure, that were driven by the courage and the boldness 
and the noble vision of Dr. Martin Luther King and other great leaders, 
like JFK and RFK, who traveled that same era in history.
  Ms. EDWARDS. I thank the gentleman from New York and appreciate your 
leadership and your being here this evening to mark this day with us 
for workers.

[[Page 5074]]

  With that, I yield to the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. 
Christensen).
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. It should give all of the workers who are fighting 
for their rights today extra incentive, some extra inspiration as we 
commemorate this day and all that Dr. Martin Luther King fought for as 
they continue that fight and we continue to support them in that fight.
  I am reminded that on April 7 in the capital of Illinois, in 
Springfield, I was out there a week ago, they will be having a major 
rally on behalf of working people in this country. I want to salute the 
folks in Springfield on that march.
  In addition to fighting for workers' rights, when Dr. King died, he 
was planning the Poor People's Campaign in Washington. I was here 
studying for my boards. I went over to volunteer in the medical tent. 
It rained and it poured; but people came in from all over this country, 
particularly the South, to the Poor People's Campaign to call attention 
to the plight of the poor in this country.
  As we are celebrating as a Congressional Black Caucus our 40th 
anniversary, we are still carrying on that fight. Our main agenda, 
theme, is ``Creating Pathways Out of Poverty.'' We have had that as our 
agenda for the last 2 years, and we continue with that for this 
Congress as well.
  That was a remarkable time as well. I think it did a lot to change my 
life in the middle of my medical studies and the course of my career. 
It probably has something to do with why I am here today. I wanted to 
also just remind everyone that as we fight for the workers, and 
remember Dr. King's fight for working men and women, he also was 
steadfastly working to help define pathways out of poverty for those 
who were poor then; and we continue in our 40th year to fight for the 
poor and help them find ways to lift them up and lift their families 
out of poverty.
  Ms. EDWARDS. I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership and in 
bringing us together in these important hours on the floor of the House 
of Representatives to discuss the issues that are of the deepest 
concern to communities of color, to working families across this 
country, and a reminder of the reason why many of us have chosen to 
serve.

                              {time}  2100

  Dr. King knew so deeply that the middle class is, indeed, the 
backbone of the American economy and that by strengthening the middle 
class we move our Nation forward. He would understand today that, by 
giving tax breaks to oil companies and special privileges to the 
wealthy, we forget our allegiance to the most populous among us--the 
middle class. He understood the importance of the struggle of 
sanitation workers, of organizing workers, of making sure that workers 
were able to take care of themselves and their families as a way of 
moving workers into the middle class. He understood, like so many of us 
do, particularly for African American people, that our connection to 
organized labor is so important because it is through the ability to 
organize and to fight for our rights against injustice that we are able 
to move our families into the middle class.
  Dr. King knew so tremendously the connection between the plight of 
Negroes and working people. He said at the AFL-CIO convention in 
December 1961: ``Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There 
are pitifully few Negro millionaires and few Negro employers. Our needs 
are identical with labor's needs--decent wages, fair working 
conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare 
measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for 
their children and respect in the community.'' Dr. King spoke those 
words in December 1961. Those words could be spoken today.
  Dr. King reminded the workers of the United Auto Workers at the 
District 65 convention in September 1962 that in the area of politics 
that labor and African Americans, Negroes, have identical interests. He 
said: ``Labor has grave problems today of employment, shorter hours, 
old age security, housing, and retraining against the impact of 
automation. The Congress and the administration are almost as 
indifferent to labor's program as they are toward that of the Negro. 
Toward both, they offer vastly less than adequate remedies for the 
problems which are a torment to us day after day.''
  Those words spoken today speak to the plight of the workforce, to 
minority communities and to working families across this country. Those 
words spoken in 1962 could be spoken today in 2011, some 40 some years 
later.
  One of the things that I continue to be touched by is that I was just 
a young girl when Dr. King died on April 4, but I always remember that 
day. I remember that day in my family. I remember the sadness and the 
tragedy, but I also remember the struggle. I think generations since my 
own and up until now recall that struggle and, I think, today, for the 
sanitation workers and remembering their struggle of some 3 months to 
gain the respect and dignity in the workplace: I am a man.
  Now, if we had to create this placard today, we might write ``I am a 
woman; I am a man; I am a human being''; but it still speaks to the 
same value, to the value of humanity and justice in the workplace. 
That's the value that Dr. King spoke to. It is a value for which he 
died. It is a value that lives in his legacy.
  So, again, I am just pleased that my colleagues have been able to 
join with us today, not on a day of sadness, April 4, but on a day of 
remembrance, on a day of reinvigoration and recommitment to those 
ideals that have guided us and that continue to guide us in our 
struggle with and for the workers across this country.
  With that, I would like to yield again, just very briefly, to my 
colleague from New York, Paul Tonko.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Edwards.
  I would have to say that I truly believe that, if Dr. King were in 
our presence today, he would remind us that a budget is a series of 
priorities. What we place high, what we place most precious in that 
budget, we would see as a document that speaks to a family. Just like a 
household will balance its needs, its concerns with its ability to pay 
and put together the balancing, so too does the family of America 
require that sort of tender balancing.
  He would remind us, whether they are employed, critically unemployed 
or marginally underemployed, whatever the situation might be, that 
today America's middle class families are living paycheck to paycheck. 
That's becoming more and more the scenario. He would have suggested, 
look, we need to take that concern for mortgages, that concern for 
college tuition, that concern for just pay, that concern for utility 
bills, that concern for food costs and energy costs, and we need to 
invest in the American working families.
  Contrast that with what the other scenario might look like: handouts 
to oil companies, corporate loopholes that are not shut, tax breaks for 
the most comfortable in society. That is the contrast he would 
challenge us to face head on and to understand it's about social and 
economic justice. It's about bringing more balance, more fairness into 
the equation.
  As a clergyman, he embraced the faith and brought it into the 
community; he brought it into America; he challenged us to respond in 
compassionate measure. We have it within our means to do this in a fair 
and just way, and that's why we are at a tipping point in this Nation's 
history where we need to look at revitalizing the middle class.
  I represent many modest annual income households. They have told me 
their fear is about maintaining their homes; their fear is about 
educating their children; their fear is about tomorrow having the 
opportunity. I'm optimistic that we can do it because we have the 
skills here within the Congress to make it happen and to make it work 
in a progressive fashion. Do we have the will? That would be the 
challenge. That would be the challenge from Dr. King this very evening: 
Do we have the will to move forward in a progressive fashion?

[[Page 5075]]

  So thank you, Representative Edwards, for bringing us together 
tonight in tribute to a giant of an individual, an icon in our midst.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you, Mr. Tonko.
  With that, I'd like to yield to Congresswoman Christensen.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you.
  Just briefly, I want to again thank you for helping us to commemorate 
not only the sanitation workers' strike but the life and legacy of Dr. 
King.
  It is unfortunate, as we are here tonight, remembering the day that 
the assassination took place of this great American and great human 
being, that the day after, we expect a budget that is going to do just 
the opposite of what Dr. King would have wanted us to do.
  In the last Congress, we were able to strengthen Medicare, to expand 
its solvency 12 years. We were able to pass the Affordable Care Act, 
which would expand Medicaid and make sure that, even though you were 
poor, you would have the ability to have quality health care. Tomorrow, 
we expect a budget that's going to talk about privatizing Medicare, 
ending it as we know it--sacrificing the health care for seniors and 
children--making an enormous cut in Medicaid, and really taking away 
the hope that people had when we passed the Affordable Care Act that 
they could not only have health care but that they could really aspire 
to improving their health--their own well-being as well as that of 
their families and their communities.
  So we meet here this evening to talk about Dr. King, to talk about 
the challenges that our working men and women have, and to talk about 
the challenges of health care for those who are poor--those of all 
races and ethnicities--and to recommit ourselves in the memory of Dr. 
King to fight for working men and women and for those who need that 
extra hand to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

                              {time}  2110

  I just want to say that the Congressional Black Caucus has been doing 
this for 40 years now.
  I want to again recognize our founding members for their perspicacity 
and their perseverance--we still have two of those members serving with 
us, Congressman Charles Rangel and Congressman John Conyers--and to let 
the American people know that we will continue to fight on their behalf 
tomorrow and every day as long as it is necessary.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Christensen.
  I am so proud to be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus with a 
40-year history and legacy of fighting for justice and looking out for 
the most vulnerable and giving voice to people who would not have a 
voice in this United States Congress.
  We are about ready to close, and I would like to end the evening and 
the hour by pointing those at home, those in this Chamber to an op-ed 
in today's paper that actually brings together the two forces that Dr. 
King was bringing together even just before he was so tragically 
assassinated, bringing together the civil rights movement and the labor 
movement.
  In an op-ed today in today's Washington Post entitled, ``The Middle 
Class Dream That Cannot Die,'' Benjamin Todd Jealous, who is the 
president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People, the NAACP, and Mary K. Henry, who is the international 
president of the Service Employees International Union, draw together 
that middle class dream for the American people that's built on a 
foundation of civil rights and social justice and partnered with labor 
and working people.
  ``I Am a Man.'' I would like to close this evening by reminding 
again, all of us, that April 4 and the years we remember in between are 
years about building upon a tragedy to build a legacy. ``I Am a Man.'' 
Dr. King reminded us again about the fight for jobs and retirement 
security and health care and care for the most vulnerable.
  Those are still today's struggles: the workers that we've spoken 
about in Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana and all across this country who 
struggle for that dignity. ``I Am a Man,'' Dr. King's words, in his 
famous speech, ``I've Been to the Mountain Top'' that he spoke just 
before he was assassinated. And I just want to read a portion of that 
that really speaks to me as a Member of Congress, as a member of the 
Congressional Black Caucus.
  Dr. King said: ``Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let 
us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on these 
powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought 
to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better Nation.''
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________