Dick Durbin: “in 1968, I was a law student at Georgetown University here in Washington, DC. It was a tumultuous year, and I recall…”

“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.…”