Honoring the Life of Coretta Scott King
HONORING THE LIFE OF CORETTA SCOTT KING
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in 1968, I was a law student at Georgetown University here in Washington, DC. It was a tumultuous year, and I recall sitting in the library working for my class assignments when a law professor walked in and said: I would like all of you students who are second- and third-year law students to come outside. We walked outside, and he said: We need to ask for your help. The District of Columbia is in an uproar. With the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, there are riots all over our Nation's Capital and many cities across the country, and our legal system has broken down. They have arrested people for a variety of charges and have filled up the DC jails. They have no room for them and no attorneys to represent them. We would like to ask you as a law student to walk across the street to the DC courts and provide some legal advice to the people who are being arrested.
I couldn't believe that as a law student they would ask me to serve as a lawyer, but it was an emergency situation.
As I went over there and saw the DC courts in turmoil over the uproar and the riots, if you will, in the streets of the District of Columbia, I reflected on that terrible year and all that we had been through. Dr. Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy--it was a year no one will ever forget.
I did my part and recall shortly afterwards watching as the television was filled with the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King. I can recall his casket being drawn by a team of mules to his final resting place. I can recall his brave wife walking in the front of the line behind him.
Many of us still recall when Jackie Kennedy faced that same awful burden with the assassination of her husband, John Kennedy, the exceptional courage she showed under what must have been the most stressful and terrible moment of her life.
Coretta Scott King showed that same courage that day, leading the followers of Dr. Martin Luther King to his final resting place. She could have easily retired from public life at that moment and become honored in her own right for having given so much to this country, but she did not. She decided to carry on his legacy, and she led a public life from that point forward in his memory.
The strength we saw on the day of his burial was the strength that continued until her last moment of life a few hours ago. We were all saddened this morning to wake up to the news of the death of Coretta Scott King, a champion of justice and human rights. We honor her memory and send our deep condolences to her family.
A few days ago, Martin Luther King, her son, spoke at Mayor Daley's Martin Luther King breakfast in Chicago, IL. He did an exceptional job. He spoke to us about the challenges his mother faced even in her illness and told us about the continued commitment of his family to civil rights.
Because of her deep humility, there is a tendency to think of Coretta Scott King as her husband's supporter. In fact, as Dr. King himself made clear, she was his indispensable partner. Listen to what Dr. King told an interviewer in 1967. Speaking of Mrs. King, he said:
I never will forget [that] the first discussion we had when we met was the whole question of racial injustice and economic injustice and the question of peace. In her college days, she had been actively engaged in movements dealing with these problems.
And then he added:
I must admit, I wish I could say, to satisfy my masculine ego, that I led her down this path; but I must say we went down together, because she was as actively involved and concerned when we met as she is now.
For more than 50 years, Mrs. King called America toward greater justice and equality. She spoke with dignity and a quiet authority that challenged us to fulfill our American obligation to create a more perfect union by embracing equal rights and genuine economic and social justice for all Americans, regardless of race, religion, gender, national background, or sexual orientation.
Coretta Scott King was the driving force behind the establishment of the Martin Luther King, Jr., national holiday, for which I was proud to vote, and of the construction of the King Center in Atlanta which I visited with Congressman John Lewis. Yet she reminded us that the best way to honor her husband's legacy was to devote our lives to his work.
It is perhaps no accident that as Coretta Scott King laid her head down for the last time, it was the very day that a decision was made to locate the new Museum of African-American History and Culture near the Lincoln Memorial where her husband delivered his immortal ``I Have a Dream'' speech. It was a dream they shared and to which they both dedicated their lives.
Now Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, Jr., rest together in eternal peace, and it is up to us to keep that dream alive.
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