His leadership brought together a coalesence of communities and disciplines that demonstrated the unity in diversity that portends a greatness unparalleled in nationhood *** under God.

His leadership personified the spirit of a people whose historic dedication to liberty caused them to tread the unknown, dare to do the dangerous, pioneer into the perilous *** knowing that the reward of liberty is more precious than the price the struggle compels us to pay. Willing to pay that price, Martin Luther King, Jr., sought freedom for all God's children knowing that those who mind the chains that bind (others) are also bound.

His leadership taught us that revolutionary change can occur within the context of non-violence when a people inspired and motivated by a sense of justice and the efficacy of love are so determined.

Yes, the designation Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday will do deserved honor to him, and will likewise honor the nation and the family of man * * * and I respectfully urge and support its immediate implementation. Such an act could very well be the force that launches nationally a new and urgent journey toward brotherhood. Believe me, the nation needs such leadership today. Yet, I am compelled to say that such legislation *** isolated and apart from the continuing enactment of measures that contribute to the goals delineated by King's life and "dream" 1” * * * will ring with hollow sound, and echo the frustration which currently enfolds us.

I am certain that you, the members of this panel are aware that such a victory would be empty and Pyorhic, nevertheless, as a co-founder of SCLC with Martin, and as one who served as vice-president and chairman of the board with him *** and as one who now holds the awesome responsibility of sitting where he sat, I am compelled by conscience and driven by sacred duty to remind us that his "dream" remains woefully unfulfilled. In 1970 *** 20 months following Martin's tragic death *** black family income reached as high as 61% of white family income. Today, however, I am saddened to report that black family income has declined to 57-59% of whites, which is only slightly better than 1957 when SCLC was founded and Martin Luther King, Jr., led the beginning of that historic movement. Black unemployment today is officially indexed at 2 and 1/3 times the rate of white unemployment. It is more accurately stated at 3 to 4 times higher. So to be truly meaningful *** as important and urgent as it is *** this legislation designating Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday must be enacted as one of many important steps in an accelerated march toward the realization of the dream of this great and martyred American. A dream which is in essence the American dream: that this land will truly become the land of the free as well as the home of the brave. The bravest of whom *** as did Martin * * * gave their lives for that dream* * * not realizing the promise themselves but having seen it afar * * * SO willed it for their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters that they lay down their lives *** in the hope that we will carry on that struggle toward the day when "every man might sit under his own vine and fig tree and none need be afraid" *** nor hungry *** nor unemployed *** nor ill housed *** nor without adequate health care * * * nor lacking educational opportunity. * * *

In the hope that we will carry on the struggle toward that day when in Martin's words "empty stomachs *** will be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words at the close of a prayer, but rather the first order of business on every legislative agenda. ***"

*** in the hope *** that we will carry on the struggle toward that day when in the halls of social and economic justice *** color will be irrelevant; toward that day when black will not be asked to get back; when brown can with dignity stick around; red can get ahead * * * and white will act all right. Thank you.

Dr. LOWERY [continuing]. SCLC, whose first president was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has sponsored petitions across the Nation since 1968 until this day for this legislation, and we are grateful for your leadership, Chairman Kennedy, Senator Bayh, Congressman Conyers, Congressman Garcia, and others.

This recognition and honor of the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., would moreover contribute to the designation of America as a land whose national resolve is to seek justice, cherish peace, offer

equality of opportunity, and hold in highest esteem a man whose life characterized and epitomized such resolution.

No American has embodied these principles in his life and work in more eloquent fashion than Dr. King. He was, and his legacy remains, a living crusade against racism, poverty, and war.

To bestow congressional affirmation upon such embodiment is to declare to the world that we are a Nation willing, even compelled, to enact into legislation a national observance which proudly recognizes the noble struggle of the human spirit for dignity, fulfillment, and liberation.

While it is regrettably true that in our more than 200-year history, we have not so honored a black American, the designation of Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday would transcend the issue of race and color.

Martin Luther King's leadership gave all Americans, white, black, yellow, red, and brown, a new sense of worth and purpose. His leadership helped Americans gain a new understanding and appreciation for our interdependence in the journey toward our national goals. Martin lifted our level of awareness that the paths to fulfillment for all Americans, regardless of race or color, are intersecting paths.

Establishing Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday will especially help American youth of today and tomorrow recognize the nobility and worth of his life and work.

Dr. King's prophetic denunciation of war as a denial of universal brotherhood and a violation of the sacredness of human personality strengthened our alliance with people of peace and good will around the world.

His vision of the day when peace with justice would "roll down like waters" challenged all of us to turn from greed to generosity, callousness to caring, violence to nonviolence, and from death to life.

His commitment to nonviolence undoubtedly spared the Nation the trauma of the destruction that would have accompanied the social change that might have come through alternative means, for change had to come.

His leadership provided the opportunity for a Nation which claimed to "trust in God" to translate our profession into a procession of judicial, legislative, and executive acts which Martin clarified as moral imperatives.

His leadership brought together a coalesence of communities and disciplines that demonstrated the unity in diversity that portends a greatness unparalleled in nationhood-under God. If Columbus discovered America, Martin helped America discover itself.

If Washington established a Nation, Martin led the Nation to understand that there can be no nationhood without brotherhood.

His leadership personified the spirit of a people whose historic dedication to liberty caused them to tread the unknown, dare to do the dangerous, pioneer into the perilous-knowing that the reward of liberty is more precious than the price the struggle compels us pay. Willing to pay that price, Martin Luther King, Jr., sought freedom for all God's children knowing that those who mind the chains that bind [others] are also bound.

Senator KENNEDY. You are beginning to preach a little bit here. Dr. LOWERY. Yes. I am about to take an offering. [Laughter.]

His leadership taught us that revolutionary change can occur within the context of nonviolence, when a people inspired and motivated by a sense of justice and the efficacy of love are so determined.

Yes, the designation of Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday will do deserved honor to him, and will likewise honor the Nation and the family of man, and I respectfully urge and support its immediate implementation.

Such an act could very well be the force that the Nation so vitally needs that launches a new and urgent national journey toward brotherhood and justice. Believe me, the Nation needs such leadership today. Yet, I am compelled to say that such legislation, isolated and apart from the continuing enactment of measures that contribute to the goals delineated by King's life and "dream," will ring with hollow sound, and echo the frustration which currently enfolds us.

I am certain that you, the members of this panel are aware that such a victory of legislation without continuing movement toward the goals of his dream would be empty.

Nevertheless, as a cofounder of SCLC with Martin, one who served as vice president and chairman of the board with him, and as one who now holds the awesome responsibility of sitting where he sat, I am compelled by conscience and driven by sacred duty to remind us that his "dream" remains woefully unfulfilled.

In 1970, 20 months following Martin's tragic death, black family income reached as high as 61 percent of white family income.

Today, however, I am saddened to report that black family income has declined to 57-59 percent of whites, which is only slightly better than 1957 when SCLC was founded and Martin Luther King, Jr., led the beginning of that historic movement.

Black unemployment today is officially indexed at 2 times the rate of white unemployment. It is more accurately stated at three to four times higher. So to be truly meaningful, as important and urgent as it is, this legislation designating Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday must be enacted as one of many important steps in an accelerated march toward the realization of the dream of this great and martyred American.

A dream which is in essence the American dream: That this land will truly become the land of the free as well as the home of the brave. The bravest of whom, as did Martin, gave their lives for that dream, not realizing the promise themselves but having seen it afar, so willed it for their brothers and sisters, sons and daughters that they lay down their lives, in the hope that we will carry on that struggle toward the day when "every man might sit under his own vine and fig tree and none need be afraid"-nor unemployed-nor ill housednor without adequate health care-nor lacking educational opportunity-in the hope that we will carry on the struggle toward that day when in Martin's words:

Empty stomachs will be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words at the close of a prayer, but rather the first order of business on every legislative agenda.

In the hope that we will carry on the struggle toward that day when in the halls of social and economic justice, color will be irrelevant; toward that day when black will not be asked to get back; when brown can with dignity stick around; red can get ahead, and white will act all right.

Thank you.

Senator KENNEDY. We will give you a little round of applause on that one.

Dr. LOWERY. I would rather have an offering. [Laughter.]

Senator KENNEDY. I think you must do all right if you can preach like that.

Reverend, I have two comments for you. We are delighted to have you. And I value the point that you made about the importance that as we consider this legislation, and I think as one who is strongly committed to it, we also continue the march on these other issues of social justice and social equality.

I think it is important that we be reminded. You have very eloquently today mentioned that.

It is not at the sacrifice of one in favor of the other, it is really the challenge of both. I am glad you brought that up and mentioned it to

us.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Pat Brown, National Education Association Black Caucus. STATEMENT OF PAT BROWN, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION BLACK CAUCUS

Ms. BROWN. Good morning. I am Pat Brown. I am a third grade teacher in the Indianapolis public schools. For the past 4 years, I have been a chairperson of a 1,300 member black caucus of the 8,000delegate NEA Representative Assembly.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Patricia Brown follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. PATRICIA BROWN

My name is Patricia Brown. I am an elementary teacher in the public schools of Indianapolis, Indiana. For the past four years, I have been chairperson of the 1,300-member Black Caucus of the 8,000-delegate NEA Representative Assembly. I am the spokesperson for over 100,000 black educators who belong to the NEA Four nearly four years, I have been a member of the NEA Minority Affairs Committee which advises the 1,700,000 members of NEA on the sensitive matters concerning First Americans, Chicanos and other Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Black Americans, and other minorities.

I am happy to be invited here today to testify in behalf of the NEA Black Caucus. In 1968, the NEA adopted a resolution calling for making January 15 a national holiday. At every subsequent Representative Assembly it has adopted a similar resolution. The Black Caucus wholeheartedly supports the efforts on the part of the Congress and the President to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a national holiday.

By making January 15 a national holiday. America would honor itself, not Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The holiday would be symbolic of this nation's ability to turn away from the path toward self-destruction, the process which Dr. King started in the fifties and early sixties.

A holiday on January 15, if properly observed, could allow all Americans, white, brown, red, yellow, and black, an opportunity to annually reflect on the progress we have made and to contemplate together those yet unfulfilled "Dreams,' to measure anew the distance we still have to go before we are indeed "Free at Last."

No doubt this committee has heard and will hear much testimony to the fact that Dr. King was not just a great black American but a great American, not just a great American but a great person, a great universal spirit spanning oceans and continents, embracing people of all lands, all faiths, and all languages.

And while all that is true, the Black Caucus of the National Education Association would remind you that Dr. King, though universal, is a symbol for the poor, the black, and the downtrodden.

46-506-79-3

A holiday on the birthdate of the descendant of a former slave would not only commemorate Martin Luther King. It would also honor and thank the millions of persons of African ancestry, whether brought to this country or born in this country, who by the labor of their bodies and brains, with or without compensation, helped to make this nation great.

To the masses of jobless, to those working every day but still living below the poverty line, to the relatively comfortable but yet struggling middle class, the holiday would stand as a beacon of hope and a reminder that we shall yet overcome. To the powerful and rich of the nation, a holiday on January 15 would say: I am my brothers' and sisters' keeper. It would serve as a periodic reminder of the promise of our ancestors "that all men are created equal" and that the quest for equality after creation still has not been achieved.

To those born since the heroic deeds in Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, St. Augustine, Albany, Cicero, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, and to millions of all races yet unborn, a holiday on January 15 would raise questions to be answered. Who was Martin Luther King? What did he do that the greatest nation on earth would set aside a day in his honor? What debt of gratitude is owed him? What can I do to follow in his footsteps? What can I do to be like him?

I submit to you that the most important contribution of this holiday will be in the quality of the answers afforded to these and other questions which arise in the hearts and minds of our grandchildren and their grandchildren.

I thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Ms. BROWN [continuing]. I am the spokesperson for over 100,000 black educators who belong to the NEA.

For nearly 4 years, I have been a member of the NEA Minority Affairs Committee which advises the 1,700,000 members of NEA on the sensitive matters concerning first Americans, Chicanos and other Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, black Americans, and other

minorities.

I am happy to be invited here today to testify in behalf of the NEA Black Caucus. In 1968, the NEA adopted a resolution calling for making January 15 a national holiday. At every subsequent representative assembly, it has adopted a similar resolution.

The Black Caucus wholeheartedly supports the efforts on the part of the Congress and the President to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a national holiday.

By making January 15 a national holiday, America would honor itself, not Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The holiday would be symbolic of this Nation's ability to turn away from the path toward selfdestruction, the process which Dr. King started in the fifties and early

sixties.

A holiday on January 15, if properly observed, could allow all Americans, white, brown, red, yellow, and black, an opportunity to annually reflect on the progress we have made and to contemplate together those yet unfulfilled "dreams" to measure anew the distance we still have to go before we are indeed "free at last."

No doubt this committee has heard and will hear much testimony to the fact that Dr. King was not just a great black American, but a great American; not just a great American, but a great person, a great universal spirit spanning oceans and continents, embracing people of all lands, all faiths, and all languages.

And while all that is true, the Black Caucus of the National Education Association would remind you that Dr. King, though universal, is a symbol for the poor, the black, and the downtrodden.