Mike Michaud: “today our nation has lost a great champion of civil and human rights. Coretta Scott King's courage and commitment should…”

“today our nation has lost a great champion of civil and human rights. Coretta Scott King's courage and commitment should be an example to all of us. After the assassination of her husband, the late Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. King devoted herself to carrying on his legacy. Only four days after his death, she took her husband's place at the head a march in support of sanitation workers in Memphis. She went on to found and lead, for over two decades, the King Center. The Center stands as a memorial to her husband, but also is an active force in the struggle to achieve equality between all people, confronting issues of hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. King remained active throughout her whole life, participating in protests against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980's and speaking out against the war in Iraq in early 2003. It is the responsibility of each of us, who sit in this House and pledge to uphold the Constitution, to continue to fight for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of equality, which Coretta worked so unselfishly to sustain.”