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WorldView

Clinton Calls for More Civil Rights Spending; Martin Luther King Jr. Nominated for Martyrdom

Aired January 15, 2000 - 8:04 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: On what would have been the 71st birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Clinton said Saturday it's time to increase funding for civil rights enforcement and is renewing his call for Congress to pass strong hate crime legislation.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace reports his goals may be tough to achieve in the Republican-controlled Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLOTTE FILMORE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYEE: But I'm glad I lived to see this day.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One hundred-year-old Charlotte Filmore entered the White House through the front door on Saturday for the first time. She worked at the White House during the Eisenhower years but entered through a side door because she was black. President Clinton used her example to highlight progress in civil rights but said more needs to be done to end discrimination and fulfill the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Dr. King taught us that the most important civil right is to provide every citizen with the chance to live the American dream.

WALLACE: Mr. Clinton announced what he calls the largest investment ever in civil rights enforcement, $695 million, a 13 percent increase over last year. And the president urged Congress to pass hate crime legislation, recalling the dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, the brutal killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, and the shooting at a Los Angeles Jewish community center.

CLINTON: Such hate crimes leave deep scars not just on the victims but on our larger community.

WALLACE: The proposed legislation expands the federal hate crimes law passed after Dr. King's assassination in 1968 to include violence based on gender, disability and sexual orientation. Congress failed to act on it in 1999, and many Republican lawmakers still oppose it. REP. BOB BARR (R), GEORGIA: The best way to attack hate crimes or any other crime is simply strong, consistent, aggressive enforcement of existing laws. That's what we need, not more laws and not huge increases in budgets.

WALLACE: But administration officials charged with enforcing civil rights say without a stronger hate crimes law, many criminals may go free.

BILL LANN LEE, ACTING ASST. ATTY. GEN. FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: If civil rights protections mean anything, they mean the sanctity of person. But yet we in the civil rights division can't prosecute many cases that need to be prosecuted.

WALLACE: President Clinton escorted Mrs. Filmore out the same front door she entered.

(on camera): An aide says Mr. Clinton drew a lot of inspiration from meeting Mrs. Filmore, and this aide says the president wants a new hate crimes law before he leaves office. And that's a point Mr. Clinton is expected to hammer home in his final State of the Union address less than two weeks away.

Kelly Wallace, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HALL: Dr. King is among five U.S. nominees for Christian martyrdom. The pope is expected to name the group of 20th century martyrs during a May 7th ceremony.

And to explain what this honor means, we are joined by Bishop Tod Brown of the diocese of Orange. He is in our Los Angeles bureau.

Thank you, sir, for being with us.

Typically a martyr dies because of his faith. But in the case of Dr. King, he died because of his message. Why martyr status, and why Martin Luther King Jr.?

BISHOP TOD BROWN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ORANGE DIOCESE: Well, I think, Andria, if Dr. King is so honored it would be because everything he did in terms of civil rights and social justice was based on his very strong spiritual life, his belief in God and his conviction that this was what God was calling him to do. So he was motivated totally from a religious standpoint.

HALL: So does this represent the fact that Martin Luther King Jr.'s message was heard worldwide?

BROWN: You know, I think Martin Luther King was -- is a figure which is definitely a worldwide known individual. You can go to practically any country, certainly in the Western world, including much of Europe, and that King -- the name of Dr. Martin Luther King is one that brings recognition. HALL: Some people say that this is an effort, or representative of an effort, for the Catholic Church to reach out and embody others in the Christian faith. Can you speak to that and how this honor plays into that objective?

BROWN: Well, when our holy father, Pope John Paul II, announced the plans for our church to celebrate what's called the Great Jubilee Year 2000, because of his great interest ecumenism and enabling Christian churches to draw closer together, he said that he wanted to make this not just a Roman Catholic celebration but very much a Christian celebration and to involve other Christian churches as much as possible.

One of the key events where this will take place is going to be at that service in the Coliseum in Rome on May 7th, where martyrs, Christian martyrs of various Christian churches, are going to be honored and recognized, martyrs of this century.

HALL: So, and historically speaking, it was only a few hundred years ago that Catholics and Protestants were at odds with each other to the point of killing one another. And to see now the Catholic church honoring what some would term just a Black Baptist preacher, can you speak to that gesture and how significant this will be when we look at it in history?

BROWN: Well, I understand, Andria, that there are about 10,000 names that have been sent to the Vatican of people who might be so recognized, and, of course, I'm sure there are countless others. It's going to be a ceremony, which, I think, really takes these people as a group and honors them. There will be few individuals singled out at that ceremony, I understand, but recognition will be given to those whose names have been submitted. And hopefully Dr. Martin Luther King will be one of those names so honored.

HALL: Bishop Tod Brown, this is significant and we thank you for being with us on WORLDVIEW.

BROWN: Thank you for the opportunity.

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