[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING SAMUEL ``BILLY'' KYLES

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the city of Memphis and the United States 
lost a great clergyman and civil rights leader this past week in 
Reverend Samuel ``Billy'' Kyles.
  Samuel ``Billy'' Kyles was born in Mississippi, moved to Chicago, but 
found his home and his purpose in Memphis, Tennessee, where he founded 
Monumental Baptist Church and served there for 55 years.
  He was a courageous man who helped integrate the Memphis schools. One 
of his daughters was one of the 13 young children that integrated the 
schools. He got on a bus and refused to go to the back of the bus in 
1964 with six others and helped integrate the buses in Memphis. His 
life was dedicated to civil rights, making Memphis better, and serving 
his church members.
  He is well known and remembered for being at the Lorraine Motel on 
the day that Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. On that 
occasion, he was near Dr. King and was a witness to the assassination, 
which he told people about throughout the country and is part of a 
documentary film called ``The Witness.''
  He remembered Dr. King's work to all, witnessed what he did and what 
happened in Memphis. He lived his life as Dr. King would have wanted: 
trying to move civil rights forward and making America the country that 
it was supposed to be. A life well lived.

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