[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        TRIBUTE TO WINSON HUDSON

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                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 21, 1994

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I stand today to pay 
tribute to Mrs. Winson Hudson of Leake County, MS. Mrs. Hudson's 
contributions to Leake County, the State of Mississippi, and the Nation 
are numerous.
  Working with slain civil rights leader, Medgar Wiley Evers, Mrs. 
Hudson and her sister were the first African-Americans to file a 
lawsuit against the State of Mississippi to desegregate the public 
school system. In her effort to register to vote, Mrs. Hudson recruited 
a Justice Department lawyer to investigate the registration process 
which resulted in her becoming a registered voter after she interpreted 
the constitution in this manner: ``It said what it meant and meant what 
it said.''
  Mrs. Hudson is a founder and current president of the Leake County 
NAACP were she has served for more than 25 years. She is also the 
cochairman of the Leake County Democratic Party. Through these 
positions, she has worked to organize programs that benefit the poor 
and underserved population. Some of those programs include establishing 
a local Head Start Program; a community health center for a tricounty 
area; Women, Infants, and Children [WIC] and other nutrition programs 
for school aged children and the elderly; obtaining a multipurpose 
building for Leake County; and challenging the county's revenue 
distribution to ensure that streets and roads were paved in African-
American communities.
  Her numerous accolades include being the recipient of the following 
awards: Fannie Lou Hamer Award from Jackson State University; 
Mississippi Council of Aging Award; Leake County NAACP Meritorious 
Awards; Medgar Evers Award from the Mississippi NAACP; Senior Counsel 
Advisor Award from President Jimmy Carter and her biography was listed 
in the book ```I Dream A World': Seventy-Five Portraits of Black Women 
Who Changed America.'' She has also been a delegate to several 
democratic national conventions and testified before Federal 
commissions for social and medical programs.
  Recently, Mrs. Hudson was honored by the Leake County Chamber of 
Commerce for her outstanding contributions. Mrs. Hudson reflects on the 
social progress that has been achieved since the 1960's and says if she 
could talk to Fannie Lou Hamer she would tell her that there is an 
African-American in Congress from Mississippi and African-Americans 
throughout the Nation are serving in greater numbers in State 
legislatures, county boards of supervisors, and city councils.

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