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“THIRTY-SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1056 on March 21, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THIRTY-SIX YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana
(Mr. Jefferson).
Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I will speak very briefly now to try and end this, but there is so much to say.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) at the very end, we came back here from the gentleman's trip to hear remarks that Senator Byrd had made and indiscreet remarks that he had made on a television program, and all of us were in an uproar about it, but I saw it in a different paradigm, because of my trip with the gentleman, honest to goodness.
I thought about what the gentleman said when the gentleman talked about nonviolence being more than a tactic but a way of life, and the fact that the part of the movement was not just to win the struggle but to redeem those who were on the other side of it, those who were the enemies of the right to vote, the enemies of freedom.
I felt that I should approach that in a different spirit, and it was all because of the gentleman's teaching in that short time that we had there about the love and the community, about the value of nonviolence and about how we ought to internalize how we dealt with other people. I called to talk to him about what he had said in a way very different from the way I would have had I not gone with the gentleman. There is some strength, tremendous strength, in the nonviolence movement that comes, as the gentleman said, from the inside out.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for teaching me that, and I thank the gentleman for serving with me as a colleague. I thank the gentleman for allowing me to come on the trip. It is a life-changing experience, and I thank the gentleman for it.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), my friend and my colleague, for those kind and extraordinary words. I think we all can come together and help build up a loving community and really help build the truly interracial democracy in America.
We are really one family. We are one house, the American house, the American family or the world house or the world family.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to just say a few words here.
Mr. Speaker, first, I want to say that I am grateful to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my colleague, and to the Faith and Politics Institute for giving me and my wife, Lisa, the opportunity to not only learn more about the great struggle for civil rights in this country but to be inspired to do more right now to make this country an even better country, to have this experience, to be there with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, and Bernard Lafayette and Bob Zelner and Betty Fikes, all giants in the movement, was a real privilege.
Let me add that I have never heard a voice sing more beautifully than Betty Fikes.
We have had the opportunity to walk through history and to retrace the steps of Martin Luther King, of Rosa Parks, of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and Fred Shuttlesworth, but we also had the opportunity to reflect on our current challenges in this country.
I think we all agree that we still have a long way to go before we achieve the dream that Martin Luther King spoke so passionately about. As Members of Congress, I think we need to realize that we need to act. We need to do more to fight racism and bigotry and prejudice in this country. We need to ensure voting rights in this country, and we need to do that through more than just rhetoric.
We need to pass legislation for real election reform here in this country. We need to fight to make sure that every child has the opportunity for a first-rate education. We need to make sure that everybody in this country gets health care. We need to make sure that there is funding existing in the Department of Justice to enforce our civil rights laws.
We have a long way to go, and I want to thank my colleague from Georgia for giving my wife, Lisa, and I the great privilege to not only travel with the gentleman but to learn and to be inspired. So I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis).
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me just thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my friend, my colleague, my brother, and thank the gentleman and his wife for making the trip. It is my hope and my prayer that we will continue, all of us, to work together to make real the very essence of our democracy, the idea of one person, one vote, not only that people must have a right to vote but also have their vote counted.
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