Black History Month

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Mr. DURBIN. Today, I would like to take the opportunity to honor the contributions of African Americans, particularly since this year marks the 80th anniversary of historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson's launch of Negro History Week in 1926. Since then, the contributions of African Americans to American history have been recognized and celebrated, and February has been designated ``Black History Month.''

I especially want to pay tribute to Mrs. Rosa Parks and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the mother and the first lady, respectively, of the modern civil rights movement, who inspired ordinary African Americans to demand equal rights as American citizens. Their recent deaths remind us, during this month in particular, to take the time to reflect on the vital heritage and important contributions of African Americans.

This year also marks what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 77th birthday, and it is important that we continue to honor the values of faith, compassion, courage, truth, and justice that guided his dream for America. We have made great progress, especially in the area of racial justice, but we still haven't reached the Promised Land. If he were alive today, what would Dr. King, leader of the civil rights movement and the Poor People's Campaign, say about the fact that one in five American children are living in poverty today? What would he say about the fact that here, in the wealthiest Nation on Earth, 45 million people have no health insurance and millions more are underinsured?

What would Asa Philip Randolph, the labor leader who organized the Pullman car porters and fought against discrimination and segregation in the Armed Forces, say about the growing income inequality in America and the fact that corporate profits have increased 50 percent in the last 5 years--but low wage workers haven't had a raise in 7 years because the Congress of the United States refuses to raise the minimum wage? A parent who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year for minimum wage today doesn't even earn enough to lift herself and her child out of poverty. Would Asa Randolph call that progress? Would he call that justice?

What would Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist who fought for low-income housing, school desegregation, and daycare, have said if she had seen the pictures of people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans and left homeless by Katrina in Biloxi, Pearl River, and so many other communities throughout the gulf coast? I suspect she would ask the same questions we all asked: How could this happen in America? In 2005?

This year, America lost Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement. Many others of those who marched and worked with her have passed on as well. How do those of us who believe in their dream keep it alive? We keep it alive by continuing the fight begun by them and by remembering and acting on what Dr. King said: America has no second- or third-class citizens. We should all have an equal voice, and an equal chance to succeed.

Yes, we have made progress in some areas. I think Charles Hamilton Houston, civil rights attorney who as a faculty member at Howard University prepared Thurgood Marshall to argue cases against discrimination, would be pleased to see my colleague from Illinois--the son of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother--serving in the U.S. Senate. I think he would have smiled in sad approval as he saw Rosa Parks lay in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol--one of the highest honors we can accord a person and one she so rightly deserved. I think Mr. Houston would be pleased that at least one of the murderers of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman has finally been convicted of that horrible deed. Dr. King would also approve of the fact that the U.S. Senate finally, finally last year, condemned lynching.

I think another civil rights leader, John Jones, the first African American to hold elective office in Illinois, would also approve of the fact that 81 percent of African Americans aged 25 and older had at least a high school diploma, an increase from less than 1 in 5 in the 1950s. Today, African Americans own 1.2 million businesses that generate $69.8 billion or about $735,586 per firm. Mr. Jones would also be proud to hear that 60 percent of African Americans age 18 and older voted in the 2004 Presidential election, which equaled 14 million voters.

Yes, African Americans have made great achievements, but Dr. King would also remind us that we have further to go. One example is Georgia's new voter-identification law, which was approved over the objections of noncareer lawyers at the Department of Justice who warned that the plan would unfairly disenfranchise minority voters. Therefore, in the spirit of Dr. King's message of equality and racial justice, we need to reauthorize and strengthen the Voting Rights Act--with all of its sections--this year.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, those in the civil rights movement worked to secure basic civil rights and voting rights in statute. The cost for those in the movement was high: church burnings, bombings, shootings, and beatings. I walked in those same footsteps during my recent pilgrimage with U.S. Representative John Lewis to Selma and Montgomery, AL. It is important that we recognize the contributions of these extraordinary people because the legacy they left behind is an expression of important American values--equality, nondiscrimination, fairness, and ensuring the full participation of everyone in our society. Therefore, I celebrate this month with pride and reflection, knowing that although we have come a long way, we still have a great distance to go in order to fulfill our Nation's ideals of equality and equal opportunity.

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