    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [January 21, 2002]
    [Pages 88-90]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Celebration
    January 21, 2002

        Well, thank you all very much for coming. Mrs. King, thanks for this beautiful portrait. I can't wait to
    hang it. [Laughter]
        I want to welcome you all to the White House. We've gathered in
    tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the ideals he held and the
    life he lived. We remember a man who brought much good into the world by
    the power of his voice and the truth of his words.
        For some of you here this afternoon, Dr. King was and is a special
    part of your life as a colleague and a friend and a brother. Four call
    him ``Dad,'' and we are pleased that two of his children are here with
    us today. We welcome Bernice and Martin Luther
    King III. I know your dad would be
    incredibly proud of you. I also welcome Christine King Farris, Dr. King's sister.
    Alveda King, Isaac Farris, Jr., Arthur
    Bagley, and Arturo Bagley, family members, are here as well. Thank you all for
    coming. And of course, we're honored to be in the presence of such a
    distinguished and delightful lady, Coretta Scott King.
        I appreciate Secretary Rod Paige for
    being here. In honor of Dr. King, the Department of Education will soon
    announce the Martin Luther King, Jr., scholars program to promising
    students all across America.
        I appreciate all the members of my team who are here, in particular,
    Condoleezza Rice, the National Security
    Adviser. Thank you for coming, Condi. It's good to see the Mayor. Mr.
    Mayor and the first lady,
    Diane, are with us today. Thank you all for
    coming. The Mayor is a good man. I can assure you, Mr. Mayor, we paid
    our property taxes. [Laughter]
        I appreciate so many members of the diplomatic corps for being here.
    Ambassadors from all across the world are here to say hello to Mrs.
    King and her family. And thank you all
    for coming to pay honor to such a great American. Thank you very much.
        On a summer night in 1964, right here in the East Room, President
    Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and handed a pen to
    Martin Luther King, Jr. The law marked a true turning point in the life
    of our country. As Dr. King put it, ``The Civil Rights Act was the end
    of a century of slumber.'' More laws would be needed, and more would
    follow. But on that day, our Federal Government accepted the duty of
    securing freedom and justice for every American.
        Standing in the White House, marking a national holiday in Dr.
    King's memory, we are now two generations and a world

    [[Page 89]]

    away from Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham as he knew them. It would be
    easy to forget the great obstacles he overcame and the years of effort
    and the daily courage that turned a cause into a movement. Perhaps
    without Martin Luther King, there might still have been a Civil Rights
    Act. There's no doubting that the law came as it did, when it did,
    because of him.
        Yet, he was not one to claim credit for himself. The civil rights
    law, he said, was first written in the streets by many thousands of
    black citizens and others who shared their goals. Their movement rose
    from generations of bitter experience, the slights, the cruelties, the
    pervasive wrongs that marked the lives of many black Americans.
        As a small boy, Martin had seen his father, a gifted and learned
    man, retain great dignity while being insulted, ordered about, and
    spoken down to. ``I don't care how long I have to live with this
    system,'' said Martin Luther King, Sr., ``I will never accept it.'' The
    son would not accept it either. Years afterwards, he related the story
    of going to the back of the bus, day after day, putting his mind up in
    the front seat. He told himself, ``One of these days I'm going to put my
    body where my mind is.''
        In time, he did so, as did others, some of whose names are also
    honored in our history. Along the way, he was beaten and stabbed,
    jailed, and came close to losing his wife and baby daughter when their
    house was bombed. At a certain point, even a strong man might have
    yielded. Dr. King never did, and he never gave up on his country. He
    believed that whatever one would change, one must first love--and he
    loved America.
        His most powerful arguments were unanswerable, for they were the
    very words and principles of our Declaration and Constitution. When he
    came to this Capital City and stood before the figure of the Great
    Emancipator, it was not to assail or threaten. He had come to hold this
    Nation to its own standards, to live out the true meaning of its creed.
        We see Martin Luther King in many ways. Perhaps, above all, we
    should see him as a minister of the Gospel. He said, ``I decided early
    to give my life to something eternal and absolute, not to these little
    gods that are here today and gone tomorrow but to God, who is the same
    yesterday, today, and forever.''
        That faith gave Dr. King the grace to forgive and the strength to
    love. He refused to answer hatred with hatred or meet violence with
    violence. He appealed not to resentment but to reason, not to anger but
    to conscience. He was on this Earth just 39 years. On the last night of
    his life, he did seem to sense that grave danger was lying in wait. But
    he trusted in the ways of providence, not fearing any man, certain that
    no man could ever finally prevent the purposes of Almighty God.
        ``Here on all the roads of life,'' said Dr. King in a sermon, ``God
    is striving in our striving. As we struggle to defeat the forces of
    evil, the God of the universe struggles with us. Evil dies on the
    seashore, not merely because of man's endless struggle against it but
    because of God's power to defeat it.'' Martin Luther King, Jr., lived in
    that belief and died in that belief.
        Some figures in history, renowned in their day, grow smaller with
    the passing of time. The man from Atlanta, Georgia, only grows larger
    with the years. America is a better place because he was here, and we
    will honor his name forever.
        It is now my honor to sign the proclamation.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:12 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House, after receiving a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., for the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Coretta Scott King, widow of
    Dr. King, and their children Bernice King and Martin Luther King III;
    Alveda King and Isaac Farris, Jr., niece and nephew of Dr. King; and
    Mayor Anthony A. Williams of the

    [[Page 90]]

    District of Columbia and his wife, Diane. Following his remarks, the
    President signed and presented to the King family a commemorative copy
    of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday proclamation of January
    17, which is listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.