Thank you very much.

My friends, as you may know, on weekends, when Congress is not in session, I often travel back home to the Central Coast. But one weekend I had the opportunity to make an extraordinary trip far from our home here in California.  I joined dozens of my colleagues on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama. 

I will never forget standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  This, of course, was the site of “Bloody Sunday,” where freedom marchers led by Hosea Williams and my colleague John Lewis were brutally beaten.  Of course, two weeks later Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led 25,000 people on the unforgettable march from Selma to Montgomery, and the history of our nation changed forever.

Today we honor the memory of an American who changed history.  We honor a man who changed the lives of millions of people he would never know.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life – and indeed gave his life – to healing the most terrible wounds in our society.  The example set by Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, Robert F. Kennedy and so many other heroes in the struggle for civil rights of the late 60’s lives on through the decades for us to follow.

Today, all over the nation, we pause to recall Dr. King’s heroic efforts to right the wrongs of intolerance, hatred, segregation, and racial oppression.  Today, we pause to recall Dr. King’s commitment to human rights, freedom, and democracy in every corner of the globe.  Today, we pause to recall a man who preached the word of God and taught us that loving God means loving our fellow men and women.

In the nearly thirty-nine years since Dr. King was taken from us, we have made such great strides to fulfill his dream.  From civil rights at home to human rights abroad, we have made important progress.  But today, as we celebrate the successes that Dr. King would have welcomed, we must also recommit ourselves to continuing his legacy.  This is especially true at this unique and challenging moment in our history. 

Each day we – as individuals and as a nation – are confronted with new challenges and new opportunities to renew our commitment to the principles that Dr. King stood for, indeed the principles he died for.  His voice can still lead us through our challenges even after all this time.  In 1967, Dr. King began to forcefully speak out against the Vietnam War.  Many of his allies criticized him, saying that civil rights and the war should remain separate.  But Dr. King knew better.

He understood that it was minorities and poor in our country – and the poor in Vietnam – who were fighting and dying in that terrible war.  Dr. King knew that the war twisted our budget priorities and damaged our moral standing in the world.  He said, “it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war.”  And it should be incandescently clear today that we must speak out against the present war in Iraq.

We must not escalate this war.  No, it is time to end this war.  We must also safeguard the constitutional freedoms that Dr. King held so dear.  His message was so effective because he appealed to the Constitution and America’s highest ideals.  You know, even though African-Americans had been denied the promise of the Constitution for more than 150 years, Dr. King never stopped believing in that great document.

Dr. King convinced us that segregation and racism were unconstitutional and un-American.  Today, in the War on Terror, we have to believe in our Constitution and in the values that make America great.  And remembering that when Dr. King was fighting for civil rights, the FBI was illegally wiretapping his phone, we have to make sure that we don’t try to win the War on Terror by losing the battle for our civil liberties.  

As we face so many choices about security of our society and the liberty of our people we should remember his choice and his example.  A few days ago, I attended a reception in Dr. King’s memory in the Capitol.  This was such a priority for the new Democratic majority that it was the first non-legislative meeting that we’ve had in the 110^th Congress.  And it was so well-attended that it had to be moved out of the Speaker’s office into a larger room.

Martin Luther King III spoke, as well as James Clyburn, the new Majority Whip and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress.  My colleague John Lewis, who walked alongside Dr. King, told us that Dr. King would be proud of Nancy Pelosi.  He said that just as Dr. King had broken down barriers of racism, Nancy Pelosi was breaking down barriers of sexism to become the first woman Speaker of the House.

I also believe that our agenda in this new Congress would make Dr. King proud.  His final great campaign was for economic justice, and we have taken a major step in that direction.  The House overwhelmingly voted to raise the federal minimum wage—which hasn’t changed for nearly ten years—by more than two dollars, to $7.25.  It’s unjust that in America today that you can work hard, can work a full-time job or even two, and still find yourself living in poverty.

We are also working for justice for our seniors, by reducing the cost of prescription drugs and protecting Social Security from privatization.  And I promise you that we will do much more for social justice.

Let me conclude by quoting from Dr. King’s very last speech.  Most Americans remember his ringing phrase; “I’ve been to the Mountaintop.”  But in that same speech, he charged his listeners with a challenge that is just as relevant today.  Dr. King said

“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness.  Let us stand with a greater determination.  And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be.  We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.  And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you today.”

Thank you very much.

Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.