[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 803]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING AND PUERTO RICO STATEHOOD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Puerto Rico (Mr. Pierluisi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PIERLUISI. Mr. Speaker, yesterday this Nation, including Puerto 
Rico, celebrated Martin Luther King Day. It is important to pause and 
reflect upon Dr. King's legacy and its relevance to the issue of Puerto 
Rico's political status.
  In the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. King was the most prominent leader of the 
civil rights movement for racial equality in the United States. He was 
physically brave, leading peaceful marches and other protests in parts 
of the country where some government officials and residents were 
willing to use violence and intimidation to maintain a system of 
segregation and discrimination.
  Dr. King was also remarkably eloquent. His speeches and writings 
inspired men and women who already supported the campaign for racial 
equality, but they also changed the hearts and minds of individuals who 
initially opposed the cause. He helped many Americans who were living 
in moral darkness to see the light.
  Dr. King was motivated by a sense of urgency. In a letter written 
from an Alabama jail, he stated that ``justice too long delayed is 
justice denied.'' But Dr. King was also strategic. Every action he took 
was carefully designed to advance the cause. He knew that means matter 
as much as ends, and he had little patience for advocates who lacked a 
sense of tactics and timing.
  Dr. King traveled to Puerto Rico on at least two occasions, but it 
does not appear that he expressed a considered opinion about the 
island's political status. Nevertheless, based on Dr. King's 
philosophy, it is fair to presume that he would be very troubled by the 
situation in Puerto Rico.
  Dr. King regarded the right to vote as sacred. In a 1957 speech 
delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, he said:

       So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the 
     right to vote, I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my 
     mind; it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic 
     citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact; I can 
     only submit to the edict of others.

  Nearly 50 years after Dr. King's death from an assassin's bullet, the 
right to vote in Federal and local elections is guaranteed to all 
American citizens regardless of race, but only if they reside in a U.S. 
State. The 3.6 million American citizens residing in the U.S. territory 
of Puerto Rico are denied this sacred right, unable to vote for the 
Federal leaders who make the laws that govern every aspect of their 
lives. We lack the very right that Dr. King lived for and the right he 
died for.
  The movement that Dr. King led was a quest for equal rights and equal 
opportunities for African Americans. However, the principle that lay 
behind the movement and that gave it such moral power has broader 
application. It is the belief that there is only one category of 
American citizenship, not a first-class citizenship for some and a 
second-class citizenship for others. Every day that Puerto Rico remains 
a territory, an undemocratic and undignified status, this principle is 
violated.
  Dr. King taught us that achieving equality requires hard, determined, 
relentless work. It requires leaders who are both passionate and 
strategic, just as Dr. King was, but above all, it requires thousands 
upon thousands of ordinary men and women to unite around the principle, 
the principle of equality, and to fight for it until it is attained.
  Dr. King's life is a testament to the fundamental truth that there is 
no force on Earth strong enough to stop a righteous cause pursued by 
righteous means. Our struggle to obtain equal rights and equal 
opportunities for the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico is a struggle for 
justice, and with tireless effort, we will prevail.

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