Walter Mondale’s Decades-Long Crusade for Fair Housing and the Full Promise of Civil Rights (The Nation)

On April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the youngest members of the United States Senate took the floor of the chamber and declared, “The foremost proponent of a nonviolent confrontation between the races is dead. His generosity to the white man, his belief in the basic good will of all men, and his dramatic, nonviolent action enabled him to speak to both races,” declared Walter Mondale, a 40-year-old Democrat who had emerged as one of chamber’s most ardent advocates for civil right.

“In the days ahead, we must act to fulfill King’s dream,” said Mondale, who died Monday at age 93.