Today, on the 38th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I urge my colleagues to join me in remembering this solemn day.   Yet while we reflect on Dr. King’s death, we should also celebrate his legacy of service and justice -- for he was ever hopeful about the future of our nation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.  He was one of three children of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King, in Atlanta, Georgia.   Dr. King  graduated high school two years early and went on to study at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University.  He began his career as an assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

During his time leading the civil rights movement, Dr. King was arrested on more than thirty occasions for doing the right thing.  He served as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.  He founded and led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1957 until his death in 1968.  He led the March on Washington in 1963, delivering the “I Have A Dream” speech to thousands, and focusing the eyes of the world on the American civil rights movement. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. worked tirelessly to promote the political, economic and social rights of millions of Americans, particularly those who felt that equal justice was beyond their reach.  His passion was unmatched, his strength and perseverance were remarkable, and his enduring commitment to peace has provided an example to us all.
 
On April 3, 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis to support the striking Sanitation Workers’ Union.  The night before his assassination, Dr. King  prophetically declared that the movement for racial equality may have to continue without him.  That night, he and other civil rights activists stayed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. 

The next afternoon, April 4, Dr. King, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and Memphis minister Rev. Billy Kyles, met at the Lorraine motel.  The three of them spoke briefly before Dr. King and Rev. Kyles stepped out onto the balcony.  His colleagues,  including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Reverend James Bevel,  Hosea Williams, and  the Reverend Andrew Young  Jr. waited in the parking lot below with the car that would have taken  Dr. King to his dinner.  At 6:01 PM, a single shot rang out.  One hour later, Dr. King, the icon of peaceful, nonviolent change, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

The following day, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Sunday, April 7 a day of national mourning.  Attending his funeral on April 9 were nearly 100,000 mourners who had felt Dr. King’s impact and had come to pay their respects.  His coffin traveled through his hometown of Atlanta from Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College, his alma mater.
 
In the years since his death, his widow, Coretta Scott King, whom we mourned in January, carried on his work and his legacy.  So many others who fought alongside Dr. King have also dedicated themselves to keeping  the dream alive.  I consider it an honor to serve on the Ways and Means Committee with my friend and colleague, John Lewis, who spoke so eloquently this morning of his friendship with Dr. King.    

The anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination should remind us that America has far to go in the struggle to recognize all its citizens as equals.   I look forward to the vote in this chamber to renew the Voting Rights Act before its provisions expire in the summer of 2007, and I would hope that we would remember and honor Dr. King’s commitment to end poverty and injustice in all our work in the House.

At Dr. King’s funeral, former Morehouse President Dr. Benjamin Mays spoke these words: “Martin Luther King Jr. believed in a united America. He believed that the walls of separation brought on by legal and de facto segregation, and discrimination based on race and color, could be eradicated.”  Let us all share in Dr. King’s beliefs and his dream for a better America.