[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 73 (Monday, June 13, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       IN TRIBUTE TO KNOX BANNER

                                 ______


                         HON. HENRY B. GONZALEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 13, 1994

  Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of 
our colleagues and to commemorate the life, achievement and dedicated 
service of the late Knox Banner. Mr. Banner died on April 9 in his home 
State of Texas.
  It may seem cliche to say that Knox Banner's legacy lives on, but 
nothing could be more true. The fruits of his long years of hard work 
are with us each and every day here in our Nation's Capital. At the 
helm of the National Capital Downtown Committee--better known as 
Downtown Progress--Knox Banner strove to save and revitalize the heart 
of downtown in the District of Columbia. This was especially true of 
downtown in the District of Columbia. This was especially true of the 
Pennsylvania Avenue corridor between the Capitol and the White House.
  He served from 1960 to 1977 as executive director of Downtown 
Progress and for the next 3 years as the District's business and 
economic development director. Many specific achievements can be 
attributed during this time to Mr. Banner, including contributions to 
the world-class Metro system, the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, 
the restoration of Ford's Theatre, and many others. These 
accomplishments continue to benefit all of us that live and work in the 
District of Columbia and all of the millions of people who come from 
around the world to visit our Nation's Capital. More than this, his 
spirit and vision for improvement live on in the continued efforts to 
keep the city a vital place.
  My correspondence with Mr. Banner goes back to the first month of my 
service in the U.S. House of Representatives--November 1961. Mr. Banner 
was a friend to many in Congress and throughout the city. I share with 
him professional roots in service in housing and community agencies, 
experience which still motivates me today as I continue to serve in the 
House of Representatives, particularly as chairman of the House 
Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development.
  It is this drive and vision that makes Knox Banner stand out. In my 
hometown of San Antonio, TX there were similar individuals whose 
dedication and work have indelibly changed and improved the life of the 
city there. One such person was the architect O'Neil Ford who 
contributed to the restoration of the historic La Villita; helped 
design much of Trinity University--including the use of construction 
techniques that were revolutionary at that time; participated in the 
design of the first phase of the University of Texas at San Antonio; 
and designed the Tower of the Americas that stands in Hemisfair Plaza, 
home of the 1968 World's Fair, which I worked hard to make sure came to 
fruition in San Antonio.
  Included in the same distinguished category was a planner, who worked 
with O'Neil Ford, by the name of Sam Zisman. These individuals not only 
had the necessary talent and vision, but they also possessed the drive, 
dedication and motivation to put these into action. Our lives are 
better today for the likes of Knox Banner, O'Neil Ford, and Sam Zisman. 
I continue to be deeply impressed, indebted and thankful for their 
efforts. They also continue to inspire my own work, especially in the 
capacity of my charge as chairman of the House of Representative's 
committee and subcommittee dedicated to community development and 
improvement. I believe they can be an inspiration to us all
  Mr. Speaker, I wish to submit here for the Record three recent 
articles on the life and achievement of Knox Banner.

               [From the Washington Post, Apr. 11, 1994]

  Knox Banner, Key Figure in Efforts To Revitalize Downtown D.C., Dies

                          (By Richard Pearson)

       Knox Banner, 80, a retired director of the D.C. Office of 
     Business and Economic Development and longtime head of the 
     Downtown Progress organization, died of pneumonia April 9 at 
     a nursing home in Dallas. He had diabetes.
       Mr. Banner, who had lived in Dallas since leaving 
     Washington two years ago, was named executive director of 
     Downtown Progress, a private organization whose formal name 
     was the National Capital Downtown Committee when it was 
     created in 1960. He held that post until the organization 
     disbanded in 1977, then served as the city's business and 
     economic development director until January 1980.
       He made his greatest impact as head of Downtown Progress, a 
     private, nonprofit development organization that planned and 
     promoted the revitalization and renewal of the city's 
     downtown business core and sought to modernize and brighten 
     the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor between the White House and 
     the Capitol.
       During his years as executive director of Downtown 
     Progress, Mr. Banner spoke out for changes that ranged from 
     the majestic to the mundane to improve downtown. He spoke of 
     underground corridors for delivery trucks to ease traffic 
     congestion and called for mini-buses that could run more 
     quickly and more often, causing fewer traffic snarls than 
     regular buses. He worked for a world-class subway system and 
     a modern convention center.
       He also once told reporters that his vision of a new, 
     majestic ``city on the hill'' most certainly did not include 
     the used-furniture store displays on the sidewalks of 
     Pennsylvania Avenue.
       Over the years, Downtown Progress was instrumental in such 
     projects as the Metro subway system, improvements at the 
     Martin Luther King Memorial Library, the restoration of 
     Ford's Theatre, plans for tourmobiles and the 
     establishment of the F Street Plaza. The organization also 
     worked for passage of D.C. urban renewal plans in 
     Congress.
       In 1977, Mr. Banner was appointed by Mayor Walter 
     Washington as the city's first business and economic 
     development director. His job was to work to retain 
     businesses in the city and help attract new ones. His 
     appointment was applauded by many who pointed out that he had 
     the confidence of the mayor, the Board of Trade and City 
     Council President Sterling Tucker. Mr. Banner stayed on in 
     office after Marion Barry was elected mayor, resigning at the 
     end of 1979.
       Barry accepted his resignation ``with great regret'' and 
     praised Mr. Banner for fostering a ``spirit of Co-operation . 
     . . between the public and private sectors'' of Washington.
       Mr. Banner, a Texas native, was a 1935 Phi Beta Kappa 
     graduate of Rice University. Before World War II, he worked 
     for what is now the Social Security Administration in Texas. 
     During the war, he served with the Navy in the Pacific.
       After the war, he worked for the Public Housing 
     Administration. He spent three years as assistant to its 
     regional director in Fort Worth before serving from 1954 to 
     1960 as executive director of the Little Rock (Ark.) Housing 
     and Redevelopment Authority.
       In 1956 and 1957, he was national president of the National 
     Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. From 1965 
     to 1969 he served on the First Lady's Committee for a More 
     Beautiful Capital. He had served on the board of the National 
     Housing Conference and was a member of the National Urban 
     League.
       He had lectured at George Washington University.
       His first marriage, to Mary Banner, ended in divorce, His 
     second wife, Myrtle Banner, died in 1992.
       Survivors include two children from his first marriage, Tim 
     and Susan Banner, both of Dallas; and four grandchildren.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Apr. 15, 1994]

                              Knox Banner

       There was Pierre L'Enfant, there was Benjamin Banneker and 
     then there was the faithful guardian of this capital city's 
     grandeur--20th century Washington's Mr. Downtown--Knox 
     Banner. His devotion to the life and looks of the central hub 
     became marvelously apparent over the two decades he labored 
     to improve it. Mr. Banner, who died last week at the age of 
     80, worked both outside and inside avenues of power--first 
     with a private, nonprofit development organization and then 
     with the city government--to rejuvenate the heart of 
     Washington at a critical time in its physical history. His 
     mission: to retain as well as recruit business downtown in 
     appealing surroundings. Given the pressures of change on 
     living patterns and business decisions, it was to prove a 
     mission without end but not without critical successes.
       Mr. Banner came to it initially as a kind of lobbyist/
     representative for local business leaders made anxious by the 
     drift of people and stores from the city to the suburbs in 
     the late 1950s. F Street, the city's premier shopping center 
     in the 1940s, was battling deterioration. The once bustling 
     pathway to the grand department stores, the big stage-show-
     sing-along and first-run-movie palaces and the first-class 
     historic hotels were running down. The concerned business 
     leaders formed the National Capital Downtown Committee--
     better known as Downtown Progress--and Mr. Banner became the 
     evangelist of delivery from urban decay.
       Uptown as well as downtown, on the Hill, in the District 
     Building and wherever he found ears of influence, Mr. Banner 
     shared his vision of a brighter, livelier Pennsylvania Avenue 
     linking the streets and personalities at each end; and he 
     talked vividly of a city with a world-class subway system, a 
     modern convention center, a public library filled with 
     residents from all walks of local life, a plaza, a lively 
     Chinatown and a reborn Willard Hotel. Sound familiar? At that 
     time, it sounded doubtful. But Mr. Banner hammered 
     relentlessly on merchants of little faith to stay the course, 
     to organize and to work for new retail commerce and tourist 
     attractions.
       Today on the streets where Knox Banner toiled, the 
     struggles for urban vitality continue. Some of the big stores 
     are gone, but The Shops are there. The Warner is back. The 
     Willard impresses, and the Old Post Office bustles. Mr. 
     Banner would like what he would see. And he would be talking 
     up a downtown home for the Bullets, Caps, Hoyas, Colonials 
     and other attractions galore. And as others in years ahead 
     look out and like what they see, it will be in no small part 
     the legacy of the man who not only worked for, but also 
     delivered, Downtown Progress.
                                  ____


                [From Sallyport magazine June/July 1993]

                             A Banner Alum

       When Knox Banner retired from urban planning in 1979 he 
     made a list of things he hoped to do with his newly acquired 
     leisure time.
       ``For years,'' he wrote, ``I have been wanting to . . . go 
     to the Air and Space Museum again . . .; Spend a month on 
     Lake Balaton in Hungary and catch and eat fogas, washed down 
     with Badacsonyi Szurkebarat . . .; Find the crappie hole in 
     the Potomac between Fletcher's Boathouse and Thompson's 
     Boathouse and fish it and fish it and fish it. . . . ''
       After spending more than four decades making life more 
     enjoyable for city dwellers in the nation's capital and other 
     cities, Banner deserved a few fishing trips.
       Banner was born in Fort Worth and came to Rice in the early 
     1930s. He supported himself during his college years by 
     working long hours as a biology lab assistant, as a grader 
     for the history department and, for three years, as a waiter 
     for the seniors' table. His exertions took their toll. He 
     developed a habit of napping in Latin class, much to the 
     chagrin of the professor.
       ``When the bell was about to ring,'' says his daughter 
     Susan, ``the professor would turn to the student next to him 
     and say, `Would you please wake Mr. Banner so the bell won't 
     startle him?''
       Banner still made top marks in Latin and in his other 
     courses. In 1935 he received a B.A. in liberal arts with 
     distinction and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
       After college, Banner worked for the U.S. Social Security 
     Board, the U.S. Public Housing Administration and the Housing 
     and Redevelopment Authority in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1960 
     he became executive director of the National Capital Downtown 
     Committee, better known as Downtown Progress. This nonprofit 
     corporation was created to revitalize downtown Washington 
     between the White House and the Capitol--an area that was 
     rapidly being abandoned by business and residents when Banner 
     arrived.
       Under Banner's direction, Downtown Progress reversed the 
     trend of decay that was turning the capital into a ghost 
     town. He played a critical role in developing the METROrail 
     subway system, restoring Ford's Theater, revitalizing the 
     Pennsylvania Avenue area, developing the F Street Plaza as a 
     precursor of Streets for People, renovating the old Post 
     Office and constructing the Martin Luther King Jr., Library 
     and the Washington Convention Center.
       Banner also helped establish and direct Jubilee Support 
     Foundation, a subsidiary of the Jubilee Ministries. Jubilee 
     Ministries is a nonprofit organization that works to improve 
     the quality of life for low-income residents in the Adams-
     Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. Banner was especially 
     instrumental in launching Jubilee's job and housing programs.
       ``Jubilee gave him every award they had,'' Susan says, 
     ``and they wanted to give him another, so they made up a new 
     one.''
       Susan, who has been companion and assistant to her father 
     since her stepmother died last year, says her father has ``a 
     great love'' for Rice. ``It gave him some of the best 
     memories of his life and prepared him for all the successes 
     he has had,'' she says.
       Banner has generously supported Rice throughout his career 
     and has made provisions for a bequest to the university in 
     his will. In his dedication to Rice he exemplifies the spirit 
     of the Captain James Addison Baker Society and the spirit of 
     support that has helped make Rice what it is today.
       By the way, he hasn't found the crappie hole in the Potomac 
     yet.

                          ____________________