[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 35 (Friday, February 24, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                THURGOOD MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL DEDICATION

                                 ______


                          HON. CARDISS COLLINS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 23, 1995
  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
accomplishments of Mr. Charles Baxter, proviso township trustee, and 
Ms. Marilyn Thurman, school board member of district 88 of Bellwood, 
IL, and the alumni, faculty, students and parents of the Thurgood 
Marshall High School, on the occasion of the dedication and renaming of 
their high school.
  Choosing a name or changing an existing one is an act of great 
significance for there is more force in names than most men dream of.
  I commend you on your choice of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-
American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the only Justice who 
experienced segregation in the back of the bus. Thurgood Marshall 
demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty, 
conscience, and freedom from oppression, ignorance and deprivation 
throughout his life.
  From his early life in Baltimore to the turn of the century to his 
retirement in June of 1991, after serving 24 years on the Court, 
Marshall was a man of passion and fury, a pioneering lawyer who became 
America's most prominent civil rights attorney, winning 29 of the 32 
civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court. His crowning 
achievement was the decision reached in Brown versus Board of 
Education, which struck down the ``separate but equal'' doctrine that 
had upheld racially segregated schools throughout America.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to the alumni, faculty and students, 
you have chosen one of this century's greatest American Patriots, 
Thurgood Marshall, to rename your school after, and it is my hope that 
Thurgood Marshall will serve as an inspiration to each of you and to 
future students.
  I hope that each of you will not forget these remarks from Justice 
Marshall's 1992 Fourth of July speech at Philadelphia's Independence 
Hall on our Nation's 216th birthday:

       The battle has not yet been won; we have barely begun, 
     Americans can do better * * * America has no choice but to do 
     better to assure justice for all Americans, Afro and white, 
     rich and poor, educated and illiterate * * * Our futures are 
     bound together.

  Mr. Speaker, Justice Thurgood Marshall was the legal conscience of 
Americans, not just African-Americans.


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