Charles Rangel: “I thank former chairman Conyers for yielding me this time. It is really ironic that you would be on the Judiciary…”

“I thank former chairman Conyers for yielding me this time. It is really ironic that you would be on the Judiciary Committee during all of the years that it took to get the King holiday there; and also that, as a Member of Congress, you lived through the civil rights movement with the people that we have honored in the past and with Dr. Coretta King. I think if we had to review where we are with Coretta King, it is that she wasn't that woman behind a successful man. She was truly a partner and a leader in her own right. Somehow she knew when to speak out and when just to leave it to Martin Luther King. What I have found over the years is that she has such a personality and such a soothing voice; but, boy, I am telling you, if it dealt with a challenge against what is right, against inequality and injustice, this very soft spoken, beautiful woman knew how a civil rights leader is supposed to take risk and go to the mat. {time} 1730 When we lost Dr. King, how quickly she was able to pick up that torch and to give to this Nation the leadership that really turned us around from a Nation that was struggling with racism and even today continues in that fight for equality for all Americans. Those of us that were able to march with Dr. Martin Luther King cannot think of a time when she was not there marching with him. Any pictures from the past, Coretta Scott King was there.…”