[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      FANNIE LOU HAMER POST OFFICE

  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 4452) to designate the Post Office building at 
115 North Chester in Ruleville, MS, as the ``Fannie Lou Hamer United 
States Post Office,'' as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4452

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The United States Post Office building located at 115 North 
     Chester in Ruleville, Mississippi, shall be known and 
     designated as the ``Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the building referred 
     to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the 
     Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Michigan [Miss Collins] will be recognized for 20 minutes, and the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] will be recognized for 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins].
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4452 will designate the U.S. Post Office building 
located at 115 North Chester in Ruleville, MS, as the ``Fannie Lou 
Hamer United States Post Office.''
  Fannie Lou Hamer was an agricultural worker in the Mississippi Delta. 
She was a human rights activist who dedicated her life to the struggle 
for equal rights for all Americans. Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the 
organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was 
established in 1964 to organize disenfranchised citizens. The party's 
primary goal was to challenge the exclusion of African-Americans from 
the Mississippi Democratic Party.
  I am pleased to join Congressman Thompson and the citizens of 
Ruleville, MS in their desire to name the postal facility located at 
115 North Chester in Ruleville, MS, as the ``Fannie Lou Hamer United 
States Post Office.'' I support the passage of H.R. 4452, and urge my 
colleagues to support the measure.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4452, legislation 
designating the Post Office building at 115 North Chester in Ruleville, 
MS, as the ``Fannie Lou Hamer United States Post Office.''
  As an agricultural worker in the Mississippi Delta, Ms. Hamer was a 
human rights activist who dedicated her life to the struggle for equal 
rights for all Americans. Ms. Hamer was one of the organizers of the 
Democratic Party whose primary goal was to challenge the exclusion of 
African-Americans from the Mississippi Democratic Party, established in 
1964 to organize disenfranchised citizens.
  I am pleased to join Congressman Thompson and the citizens of 
Ruleville, MS to name a postal facility in honor of Fannie Lou Hamer. 
Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Thompson].
  (Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I introduced H.R. 4452 to 
name the post office in Ruleville, MS after the late civil rights 
leader, Fannie Lou Hamer, because she inspired many Americans by her 
strong commitment to civil and human rights for all Americans.
  Mrs. Hamer, a native of Ruleville, MS, was an agricultural worker in 
the Mississippi Delta before beginning her career as a human rights 
activist. She was one of the organizers of the Mississippi Freedom 
Democratic Party, which was established in 1964 to organize 
disenfranchised citizens. The party's primary goal was to challenge the 
exclusion of African-Americans from the Mississippi Democratic Party. 
Mrs. Hamer was a powerful orator and courageous leader who led by 
example. She encouraged people to register and vote and ran for 
Congress on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party ticket.
  Because of the discriminatory practices of the State Democratic 
Party, Mrs. Hamer led the fight to challenge the seating of the 
delegates of the Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic 
National Convention in Atlantic City, NJ. Even though she was 
unsuccessful in this effort, the State Democratic Party eventually 
became a diverse party.
  The most visible result of her struggle is the fact that an African-
American is now serving as chairman of the Mississippi Democratic 
Party. In addition, Mississippi currently has more African-American 
elected officials than any other State in the Nation.
  She was the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from numerous 
colleges and universities across the country. Her biography, ``This 
Little Light of Mine,'' which was written by Ms. Kaye Mills, was 
published last year. Naming the post office in Ruleville, MS after Mrs. 
Fannie Lou Hamer is an excellent way to honor her for her many 
contributions to our Nation. I encourage my colleagues to support this 
important legislation.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from California [Mr. Edwards].
  Mr. EDWARDS of California. Mr. Speaker, I also rise in favor of the 
bill to designate the Ruleville, MS Post Office, to be known as the 
Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office. I guess it was in 1964, during the long, 
hot summer that was so crucial to the civil rights movement, that I 
visited Ruleville.
  My son, Leonard Edwards, now a superior court judge in Santa Clara 
County, was staying with Fannie Lou Hamer and assisting the students in 
registering voters. It was a dangerous time. Mickey Schwerner and his 
two colleagues had disappeared. Their bodies had not been found. They 
would have been found later.
  Mrs. Hamer showed me around the town, around the town of Ruleville, 
in Sunflower County. Two of the churches had been bombed. My son and I 
drove around that area to Liberty and to Macomb, MS, where we spent the 
night with young students who were peacefully registering voters. Five 
minutes after we left the home of these young people, the next morning 
it was bombed, and some of them were quite badly hurt.
  Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the great heroines of the civil rights 
movement, an inspiration to all of us. She was a candidate for Congress 
representing the Mississippi Freedom Party, which party claimed to have 
won the election in 1964, and probably had some pretty good 
credentials, because they came here and sat right over there, Mr. 
Speaker.
  A couple of us, Bill Ryan and I, sat with them, because it was very 
scary for two Mississippi African-American women to come into Congress, 
and under the rules of the House, they were entitled to sit here, even 
though the House later turned them out.
  However, Mr. Speaker, we should remember those days, and the people 
who were heavily involved, especially the African-Americans of 
Mississippi and Georgia. They taught us all a lesson about equality and 
about progress in this country.
  They had very much to do with the enactment of the civil rights bill 
of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which by a stroke of the pen 
outlawed apartheid in the United States, the two greatest civil rights 
laws ever enacted by any nation.
  Mr. Speaker, therefore I think it is absolutely suitable, and I am 
honored to be able to speak about Fannie Lou Hamer, and to join my 
colleagues in ensuring that this post office bears her name.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank].
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I did not know when I came 
on the floor that I would be doing this. I cannot think of a more 
appropriate thing for us to do.
  I had the great privilege of meeting Fannie Lou Hamer when I went to 
Mississippi as a young person in 1964 for the Mississippi Freedom 
Summer. She was such an extraordinary individual that this is wholly 
appropriate.
  We also want to mark that in 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer considered herself 
to some extent an adversary of the Federal Government, and she was 
right to do so. She was someone who was fighting constantly for the 
most basic rights that we now take for granted.
  Mr. Speaker, the progress that has been made, and there is obviously 
still a lot to be done, owes a great deal to her force and her 
determination and her courage. It is both a reminder of how far we yet 
have to go, but also a symbol of the progress we have made, to note 
that Fannie Lou Hamer went from, in 1964, being someone who was being 
beaten by officials for trying to exercise her rights and being frozen 
out, to someone whom today we honor in this way.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for taking the 
lead on this extraordinary occasion.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4452, the Fannie 
Lou Hamer U.S. Post Office naming bill. Fannie Lou Hamer's role as a 
national civil rights leader and personal mentor make me especially 
pleased and proud that Congress, with this act, now recognizes her 
importance to our country. Ms. Hamer was not only a great leader of her 
people; she was a unifying figure in the best tradition of the civil 
rights movement, proudly composed of blacks and whites. Her work to 
bring the means to produce meat and grow vegetables for the poor of 
Sunflower County was only one of her notable actions that helped to 
unify blacks and whites under the same banner. Fannie Lou Hamer lived 
to see ``Fannie Lou Hammer Day'' declared in their home county. This 
post office naming bill symbolizes the memory of one of America's great 
women, an American of such importance that her memory will live across 
the country even where no monument stands to commemorate her life.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins] that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4452, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to 
designate the United States Post Office building located at 115 North 
Chester in Ruleville, Mississippi, as the `Fannie Lou Hamer Post 
Office'.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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