Marc Veasey: “I thank Mrs. Lawrence for her comments, which are very timely in light of everything that is happening right now. Mr.…”

“I thank Mrs. Lawrence for her comments, which are very timely in light of everything that is happening right now. Mr. Speaker, before I close out, the one thing that I would like to make note of is that I think, with this COINTELPRO 2.0 that is going on right now, we should take this very seriously. And I just want to remind everybody that may be out here listening right now, we talk a lot about extremist groups. We talk a lot about alt-right and KKK and White supremacist groups, but one thing that we have to keep in mind is that, in the 1960s, when Dr. Martin Luther King came to town, he was not treated like he is now. I hear so many people--conservatives, liberals, Democrats, and Republicans--talk about how much they admire and respect Dr. King, and rightfully so, because he earned the respect and the admiration that he has now, posthumously, in this country. I don't think that anyone would argue that. But if we could travel back in time to the 1960s, we will find that he was not that welcomed. And let's just put aside the White supremacists. Let's put aside the alt-right. Let's put aside these hateful forces that, again, all of us agree on are bad people. But remember, when Dr. King came to some of these Southern towns in the 1960s, he was not welcomed. He was not welcomed by people at the Lions Club, people at the Elks Club, people at the First Baptist Church, people at the Methodist Church. People thought that Dr.…”