[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 5 (Monday, February 8, 1999)]
[Pages 190-191]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for the ``Marching Toward 
Justice'' Exhibit

February 3, 1999

    Thank you very much. Judge Keith, it's good to be in your presence 
again. Mrs. Marshall, Rosa Parks. Mr. Hill, I'm honored to be in your 
presence, sir. President Swygert, President Reid, Mr. Mecham; to 
Congressman Clyburn and members of the Congressional Black Caucus and 
any other Members of Congress who may be here; Mr. Holder, Mr. Lee, and 
Justice Department officials who are here; to all the members of the 
White House staff, but especially Thurgood Marshall, Jr., I thank you 
for permitting me to be a small part of this momentous day.
    ``We are all created equal,'' the simplest, most powerful idea about 
human beings ever articulated. Our history is largely the story of 
Americans of courage and vision who have stepped forward, often at risk 
to their lives, to lead us in our ongoing march toward justice and 
equality. I thank you for chronicling their journey in this exhibit.
    Perhaps no one in this century did more to open the doors to ``the 
glorious temple of American liberty'' than the man we honor and remember 
tonight, Justice Thurgood Marshall. You honor with this exhibit the 
courage of a man who traveled to towns of the segregated South, places 
where he couldn't find a bite to eat when he was hungry, a bed to rest 
when he was tired, a police officer's protection when he was threatened. 
He did all that to argue that we are all created equal.
    We honor the genius of a man who masterminded a strategy to 
dismantle Jim Crow, case by case, trial by trial, decision by decision, 
from Baltimore to Topeka to Little Rock to the United States Supreme 
Court.
    The 14th amendment, with its promise of equal protection under law, 
was Thurgood Marshall's sword and shield. It was pretty moribund when he 
began to work on it, but he breathed life into it and transformed it 
into a living charter of freedom. The legacy of the 14th amendment--the 
legacy of Justice Marshall, the legacy of his mentor, Charles Houston, 
his colleagues such as

[[Page 191]]

Wiley Branton and Jack Greenberg and Oliver Hill, the legacy of others 
we have lost, like that great lion, Leon Higginbotham, our friend--that 
legacy can be seen every day, everywhere in America, in classrooms, in 
libraries, in restaurants, and in the lives and careers of so many of 
the men and women standing here tonight.
    Because the road to freedom and justice is long and never ends, we 
can honor Thurgood Marshall best not only with grand buildings and 
museum exhibits but with great vision and vigorous action, to make 
equality ever more real and discrimination that some day will be 
something that can only be found in museum exhibits. No one should be 
denied a home or a job, a world-class education or equal pay for equal 
work or, indeed, any part of the American dream, because of race or 
disability or gender or sexual orientation or religion.
    During some of the darkest days of Jim Crow, a single phrase 
whispered in African-American communities all across the South would 
give hope to millions: ``Thurgood is coming.'' Today, at the dawn of a 
new century, it is up to each and every one of us to ensure that 
Thurgood is still coming.
    So let us pick up his sword and his shield and fight for that more 
perfect Union, that one America that was his great and lasting gift to 
all of us.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 7:15 p.m. in the atrium at the Thurgood 
Marshall Federal Judiciary Building. In his remarks, he referred to 
Judge Damon J. Keith, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit; Justice 
Marshall's widow, Cecilia Marshall; Rosa Parks, civil rights activist; 
Oliver Hill, attorney who worked with Justice Marshall while at the 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund; H. Patrick Swygert, president, Howard 
University; and Irvin D. Reid, president, Wayne State University.