109 HRES 919 IH: Honoring Retired Lieutenant Commander U.S. House of Representatives 2006-07-17 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 109th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 919 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 17, 2006 Ms. Norton submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary and Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned RESOLUTION Honoring Retired Lieutenant Commander Wesley Anthony Brown for his historic achievement as the first African American graduate of the United States Naval Academy and paying tribute on the occasion of July 4 to Wesley Anthony Brown and other residents of the Nation’s capital who have served in the armed forces and have continued to pay taxes, both without representation in Congress.

Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander and joined William F. Halsey, Jr., and Chester W. Nimitz, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and Hyman G. Rickover with the rare honor of having a United States Naval Academy building named after him, the Wesley Brown Field House; Whereas July 4 is an appropriate occasion to pay tribute to Wesley Anthony Brown as an especially fitting representative of the citizens of the District of Columbia, who for 230 years have served in the armed forces of the United States, always without equal representation in the Congress and always paying taxes without representation, notwithstanding that this form of tyranny was one of the major causes of the War for Independence which led to the founding of the United States; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown and other residents of the District of Columbia continue to meet all of the obligations of citizenship without equal representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate; Whereas July 4, 2006, is a particularly fitting occasion to remind the Nation of H.R. 5388, the District of Columbia Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006, a bipartisan bill pending in the House of Representatives which was recently voted out of one committee with an almost equal number of Republican and Democratic votes, and of Wesley Anthony Brown and other residents whose service in the armed forces of the United States entitles them to all elements of citizenship, including voting representation in the House of Representatives and the Senate; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown, a resident of the District of Columbia, attended Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School before entering the Naval Academy in 1945; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown served his country in three wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War; Whereas after graduating, Wesley Anthony Brown joined the Civil Engineering Corps, where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander; Whereas before Wesley Anthony Brown, 5 African Americans during the period between Reconstruction and World War II met the highly competitive standards of excellence for entrance into the United States Naval Academy but encountered such harsh physical and mental racial abuse that they were unable to finish; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown met the rigorous academic and physical challenges of the United States Naval Academy despite racial discrimination and abuse; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown’s pioneering effort to integrate the United States Naval Academy has inspired more than 1,600 African Americans who have since graduated from the Academy; Whereas today nearly 23 percent of the Academy’s students are from minority groups; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown has remained committed to public service by chairing the Service Academy Selection Committees for former District of Columbia Congressman Walter Fauntroy from 1988 through 1991, and also was the first Chair for Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Selection Committee; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown was inducted as an honorary member of the United States Naval Academy graduating class of 1999; Whereas author and historian Robert Schneller chronicled the life of Wesley Anthony Brown in his book Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy’s First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality; Whereas Wesley Anthony Brown’s graduation was a pivotal moment in the Nation’s efforts to integrate the armed forces of the United States and to improve racial conditions, and he should be honored for this pioneering accomplishment and the service he rendered to the cause of equal treatment for all Americans by courageously accepting the challenge, and Whereas on Independence Day 2006, the best way to appreciate the groundbreaking service of Wesley Anthony Brown and other District of Columbia veterans and members of the armed forces is to pass H.R. 5388, affording the residents of the District of Columbia the full vote in the House of Representatives for the first time in American history: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives commends Retired Lieutenant Commander Wesley Anthony Brown for his commitment and dedication to serving the people of the United States and recognizes the dedicated efforts of all residents of the District of Columbia who serve and have served in the armed forces, as well as the bipartisan work in the House of Representatives to bring equal citizenship to the residents of the District of Columbia.