William H. Frist: “it was about 3 weeks ago that I joined President Bush on a trip to Memphis, TN, where we were joined by a close personal…”

“it was about 3 weeks ago that I joined President Bush on a trip to Memphis, TN, where we were joined by a close personal friend of mine, a man who is legendary in Tennessee and, indeed, throughout the country, the Rev. Dr. Ben Hooks. Dr. Hooks is a widely recognized, widely acknowledged champion of civil rights. He presided with great courage and bold vision over the NAACP for 15 years as its executive director. He is in town this week for the NAACP meeting which is going on as I speak. He guided President Bush and myself, my wife Karyn, and the First Lady through the remarkable and inspiring National Civil Rights Museum which has been constructed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, which was the actual site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. It was an inspiring visit, those moments as we walked through the exhibits, room to room, in that wonderful museum. In many ways, it shook my own conscience. To hear Dr. Hooks speak, to hear him recount the events surrounding that time, was to have history come alive. It was an ugly moment in our collective history, and certainly not America's finest hour. As we wandered through those rooms, listening to those words of Dr. Hooks, what struck my conscience most was how we as a Nation pushed through that time, how we as a Nation persevered to correct injustice just as we have at other points in American history.…”