    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 3 (Monday, January 23, 2006)]
    [Pages 76-77]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at Georgetown University's ``Let Freedom Ring'' Celebration

    January 16, 2006

        Thank you all. Thanks for the kind introduction, and thanks for the
    invitation to be here. It's an honor to join you on this national
    holiday celebrating one of America's most important lives: Martin Luther
    King, Jr.
        Every year on this day, we reflect on the great movement for civil
    rights that transformed our country. We remember leaders like Rosa
    Parks, who today is being honored with the John Thompson, Jr., Legacy of
    a Dream Award. And we recommit ourselves to working for the dream that
    Martin Luther King gave his life for: an America where the dignity of
    every person is respected; where people are judged not by the color of
    their skin--by the content of their character; and where the hope of a
    better tomorrow is in every neighborhood in this country.
        I'm sorry Laura is not with me. She's leading a delegation to
    Liberia for the swearing-in of President Johnson Sirleaf, who, by the
    way, is the first elected woman President on the Continent of Africa.
        I want to thank Dr. DeGioia and the good folks at Georgetown
    University. I want to thank the members of my Cabinet who are here. By
    the way, Condoleezza Rice is not here, because she's with Laura.
    [Laughter] I want to thank Majority Leader Bill Frist and his wife,
    Karyn, other Members of Congress who are here. I appreciate Bruce
    Gordon, the president of the NAACP, for his strong leadership.
        It is such an honor always to be in the presence of Dorothy Height.
    And I want to thank Tiffany Thompson for being here to represent her
    good dad--wondering where your brother was. [Laughter] DeGioia hired
    him, and he's working. [Laughter] Thank you all for being here.
        When our Founders declared America's independence, they invoked the
    self-evident truth that all men are created equal. Our Constitution was
    written to put the principles of a free and equal society into practice.
    It is a living document. It required amendment to make sure that promise
    was fulfilled, amendments like the abolishment of slavery, the guarantee
    of equal protection, and the right to vote for all Americans. Dr. King
    called these documents America's great ``Charters of Freedom,'' and he
    continued to trust in their power even when the practice of America did
    not live up to their promise.
        As children of the South, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks both
    came to the civil rights movement with long personal experience of the
    evils of discrimination and segregation. Dr. King called the daily
    humiliations endured by black Americans ``the jangling discords of our
    Nation.'' And Rosa Parks famously experienced it when that bus driver
    had her arrested for refusing his order to give up her seat to a white
    man.
        But Mrs. Parks and Dr. King shared a deep belief in a hopeful
    future. They strongly believed that segregation could not stand once it
    was held up to the light in all its ugliness. And because of their
    spirit and their work, the cruelty and humiliation of Jim Crow is a
    thing of the past.
        As well, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mrs. Parks' faith in the
    future reflected their faith

    [[Page 77]]

    in a Higher Being. Martin Luther King and Mrs. Parks both believed that
    the answer to hate and discrimination was love. Dr. King once wrote,
    ``It is quite easy for me to think of a God of love, mainly because I
    grew up in a family where love was central and where lovely
    relationships were ever-present.'' Mrs. Parks was a devout member all
    her life of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a woman who saw
    the face of God in every human being. These two leaders knew that
    freedom was not a grant of government but a gift from the Author of All
    Life.
        So when they made their appeal to equal rights, they aimed straight
    for America's soul, and they roused the dozing conscience of a
    complacent nation. By calling us to be true to our founding promise of
    equality, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mrs. Parks helped African
    Americans gain their God-given rights.
        As leaders, Martin Luther King and Mrs. Parks believed their calling
    was to be involved, to be active, to work for change. Long before Mrs.
    Parks refused to move from her bus seat, she'd been active in community
    efforts to advance opportunities for African Americans and to register
    them to vote.
        At the dawn of this new century, America can be proud of the
    progress we have made toward equality, but we all must recognize we have
    more to do. The reason to honor Martin Luther King is to remember his
    strength of character and his leadership but also to remember the
    remaining work. The reason to honor Mrs. Parks is not only to pay homage
    to her strength of character but to remember the ideal of active
    citizenship. Active citizens in the 1960s struggled hard to convince
    Congress to pass civil rights legislation that ensured the rights of
    all, including the right to vote. And Congress must renew the Voting
    Rights Act of 1965.
        Martin Luther King did not live to celebrate his 40th birthday. Yet
    in the short time he walked upon this earth, he preached that all the
    powers of evil are ultimately no match for one individual armed with
    eternal truths. And one evening, on a bus ride home from work, a tired
    but brave woman named Rosa Parks proved that Dr. King was right.
        And so today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. We ask
    for God's blessings on their legacy, and we ask for God's blessings on
    our great Nation.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:50 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Center for
    the Performing Arts. In his remarks, he referred to President Ellen
    Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; John J. DeGioia, president, Georgetown
    University; civil rights leader Dorothy I. Height; and former Georgetown
    University head men's basketball coach, John Thompson, Jr., and his
    daughter Tiffany and son John Thompson III.