Speech by Rep. Eric Pettigrew on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Remarks on House Floor Resolution 4604 (2007)

January 15, 2007

I never plan to stand and talk but I am always moved to stand and say something in honor of Dr. King and all the people that he had and still has an impact on.

Some of you guys know that I have been doing a lot of reading about history. I've become kind of a history buff. The good member from the 9th District and I spend a lot of time talking about historical things, and reading and sharing books. The period that I'm into right now is the time right after the Civil War which is called the Reconstruction Period. And specifically around the African American community during that period.

One of the things I discovered is that early on, just after the Reconstruction Period, there was a euphoria – African-Americans were excited that finally they would have the equality and the freedom, and that things were going to be better for them. Unfortunately, when the power went to the States, things didn't happen as quickly as was hoped.

It wasn't until Dr. King and his movement that a lot of those generations and those thoughts were brought to light.

I spent a lot of my time with my grandfather who is 96 years old. The interesting thing about my grandfather is that he was born and raised in Tennessee. He had, at a very early age, burned his hand into a ball. So for the rest of his life he actually operated with one hand. He worked in the fields; he was a cotton guy – married my grandmother and became a sharecropper. He became this one armed sharecropper and became very good at it.

In talking to him, going over to talk to him, for the first time in my life, I heard him singing. I had never heard my grandfather sing a note, nothing and he was singing. It reminded me of the song we just heard, “I Sing Because I'm Happy, I Sing Because I am Free.”

He was that hope; he held onto that hope until Dr. King came along and opened those opportunities not only for us as African Americans but for us as a country.

When we are sworn in every other year, we get this document. Every year I think about who I'm going to give it to. I kept one, I gave one to my mom.

This is going to go to my grandfather. Because standing here before you, humbly, is a grandson of a one-armed, African-American sharecropper.

I urge your support.

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