[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 27 (Friday, March 11, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              RECOGNITION OF DOUGLASS SPEAKERS' ELOQUENCE

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                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 11, 1994

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, last month, in recognition of Black 
History Month, students in my district participated in the national 
Frederick Douglass Oratorical Competition. The contest is designed to 
help educate young people about the life of Frederick Douglass, who is 
described by many as the ``father of the civil rights movement.'' Born 
into slavery, Douglass escaped in 1838 and spent the rest of his life 
championing emancipation, the end to Jim Crow laws and segregation, and 
the right to vote for both blacks and women. In my district of 
Rochester, NY, he published the North Star, a weekly abolitionist 
newspaper, and founded a Rochester station of the underground railroad. 
He was also a major contributor to the first women's rights convention 
in Seneca Falls in 1848.
  In Rochester, the contest has been an annual event for many years, 
under the able leadership of Dr. Juanita Pitts. Students participating 
in this contest each choose the words of Frederick Douglass that mean 
the most to them, and perform these speeches with a true depth of 
feeling. I would like to share with you excerpts from a few of the 
students' speeches for this year, because the words these youngsters 
have chosen are as true today as when Douglass first spoke them.
  Deepa Premnath, a fifth grader at school #58, won first prize in the 
Rochester competition with these thoughts on education:

       Without education, a person lives within the narrow, dark 
     and grimy walls of ignorance, a prisoner without hope. 
     Education, therefore, means emancipation. It means light and 
     liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul into the glorious 
     light of truth, the light by which all can be made free. To 
     deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes 
     against nature. Each person has a right to liberty, 
     education, and to an equal chance with all others in the 
     common race of life and in the pursuit of happiness.

  Jason Friday, a sixth grader at school #30, won first prize in the 
Rochester contest for middle schools, with Douglass' words about 
freedom of speech:

       Our rulers are the agents of the people, and it is no 
     evidence of a factious disposition that a man presumes to 
     condemn a public measure if, in his judgment, that measure is 
     opposed to public good.

  Chandra Wilson, a senior at Greece Athena High School, placed second 
in the national competition. Chandra chose one of Douglass' speeches on 
women's suffrage:

       [W]e are free to say that in respect to political rights we 
     hold women to be entitled to all that we claim for men . . . 
     All that distinguishes man as intelligent and accountable 
     being is equally true of woman; and if that government only 
     is just which is governed by the free consent of the 
     governed, then there is no reason in the world to deny to 
     women the exercise of the elective franchise or a hand in the 
     making and administering of the laws of the land. Our 
     doctrine is that Right is of no sex. We therefore bid the 
     women engaged in this movement our humble Godspeed.

  Arthur Bryant, Jr., a sixth grader at school #39, won the elementary 
division of the national competition. He chose Douglass' remembrance of 
the day of the Emancipation Proclamation:

       You want to know what the colored people think--I will tell 
     you how joyfully they received the Proclamation of Abraham 
     Lincoln, in Boston on the first of January. We were not all 
     colored, either, but we all seemed to be about of one color 
     that day . . . I never saw such enthusiasm before. Men, 
     women, young, and old were up. Hats and bonnets were in the 
     air and we gave three cheers for Abraham Lincoln and three 
     cheers for almost everybody else . . . There was shouting and 
     singing . . . I never saw such enthusiasm, such joy.

  Finally, Marie Adjivon tied for first place in the Rochester contest 
and placed first in the national competition on the high school level. 
She is a senior at East High School, and she gave a very interesting 
speech concerning Douglass' thoughts on Abraham Lincoln:

       Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer 
     denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his 
     administration . . . He was assailed by the men who were for 
     peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a 
     more vigorous prosecution of the war; he was assailed for not 
     making the war an abolition war; and he was most bitterly 
     assailed for making the war an abolition war . . . He calmly 
     and bravely heard the voice of doubt and fear all around him; 
     but he had an oath in heaven, and there was not power enough 
     on the earth to make this honest man evade or violate that 
     sacred oath.

  Mr. Speaker, these students have demonstrated an understanding of, 
and appreciation for, the ideals which form the foundation of our 
Nation--democracy, freedom, equality, and opportunity. I am proud that 
the words of Frederick Douglass live on in their hearts as I hope they 
live on in ours.

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