Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Floor Speech

Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 1061, authored by my good friend from the Georgia delegation, Mr. JOHN LEWIS.

Since his death 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has come to be known as a visionary who drove political and social change in our country. And, as the Civil Rights movement evolved, he was an indispensable figure who made historic progress toward fulfilling the country's promise of freedom and justice for all.

As a student at Morehouse, I was greatly influenced by his faith-oriented philosophy--something which still guides me today. I remember meeting him on the Morehouse campus, where he had been a student himself a few years before and where he often returned.

Before deciding on Emory Law School, I entertained the notion of going to seminary just as Dr. King did. In the end I decided to become a lawyer, in part because I realized that every time Dr. King went to jail, he needed a lawyer to help to get him out.

Unfortunately I never had the privilege of helping him get out of jail. Forty years ago this month, I marched behind the mule-drawn wagon that carried his coffin, and I sang at his funeral as a member of the Morehouse Glee Club. It was an experience that will always remain vivid in my memory.

Of course, Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a perfect person. He never claimed to be. Like all of us, he was a human being. But he possessed an abundance of qualities that ultimately made him an heroic and patriotic figure.

He had unwavering faith not only in God, but also this country. He possessed limitless courage and sacrifice in the name of that faith, and endured numerous beatings, jailings, and dangers. He showed tremendous organizational skill by bringing people together and forging a consensus when no one else could.

And his brilliant oratorical skill--eloquence and logic coupled with an appeal to better ourselves.

In his eulogy for Dr. King, Dr. Benjamin Mays said:

"[Dr. King] had faith in this country. He died striving to desegregate and integrate America to the end that this great nation of ours, born in revolution and blood, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created free and equal, will truly become the lighthouse of freedom .....''

Martin Luther King, Jr. will be remembered this week as a great leader of the civil rights era, a humanitarian, a man of God, a crusader, and by his family, as a loving husband and father.

Additionally, many of us remember a man who lived his life in pursuit of this country's founding principles. So as we commemorate his life with this resolution in the United States House of Representatives--I would also like to remember him as one of America's great patriots.

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