[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11657-11658]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1927, which 
is on the floor this afternoon, the African American Civil Rights 
Network Act. This is to honor the sad, yet heroic struggle for civil 
rights in America, a struggle for those who participated in the civil 
rights movement, a struggle for people that were, in fact, soldiers in 
a war for justice and democracy.
  We appropriately and regularly honor the soldiers who wore uniforms 
and went to Europe and Asia to defend our country, and we appropriately 
and properly give them benefits that they deserve for what they did to 
protect democracy and justice.
  But what we forget is those citizens in America who had to fight 
their own government and their own country for those same rights of 
justice and democracy.
  Enslaved for over 250 years, and then treated in a netherworld of 
segregation for 100 years, and then slowly creeping in after Brown v. 
Board of Education in 1954 and the Voting Rights Act and the Civil 
Rights Act of the sixties and to this day, those who fought for civil 
rights deserve to be recognized as soldiers for justice and democracy, 
and this bill will honor their work with the Civil Rights Network Act 
in our country.
  They used protests to gain public attention and, eventually, to spur 
judicial and legislative action. It goes all the way back to W.E.B. 
DuBois and others who fought when they weren't so popular and on 
television.
  H.R. 1927 would establish a Civil Rights Network to commemorate and 
honor the history of the civil rights movement. And I want to encourage 
that the proposed sites include the Memphis Heritage Trail, which has 
applied for funding as part of that historical network.
  It was in Memphis, unfortunately, in April of 1968, where Dr. Martin 
Luther

[[Page 11658]]

King, Jr., was slain. Dr. King gave his last speech in Memphis the 
night before at the Mason Temple, the ``I Have Been to the 
Mountaintop'' speech. And it was in Memphis where he started his last 
march about a week earlier, marching from the historic Clayborn Temple 
with the AFSCME workers--the American Federation of State, County, and 
Municipal Employees--who were garbage workers not recognized as a union 
and not recognized as men. ``I am a man.'' Dr. King came to Memphis as 
part of his fight for justice and freedom.
  The Clayborn Temple has risen from the ashes and is being renewed in 
Memphis as a place for events, worship, concerts, and protests. The 
National Civil Rights Museum has risen at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. 
King was slain; the National Civil Rights Museum, which is outstanding 
and, next year, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 
assassination. Our own John Lewis will be there.
  H.R. 1927 would help to memorialize these events and these places 
across the United States and others, from North Carolina, where the 
sit-ins started, and Nashville, to the voting rights march in Selma, 
the atrocities in Birmingham, and Rosa Parks and the bus boycott in 
Montgomery.
  Julian Bond, our own John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo, Ida B. 
Wells, Michael Schwerner, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Joseph Lowery, 
Roy Wilkins, and others will be recognized.
  I look forward to voting for H.R. 1927 and saying that it more 
appropriately represents and remembers heroes, fighters for justice, 
democracy and freedom; not recognized as such, but, in fact, such.

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