[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S10578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            SAMUEL L. BANKS

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I am proud to join with the 
Baltimore community and the friends of education throughout Maryland in 
honoring the memory of Dr. Samuel L. Banks who was a longtime champion 
of civil rights and education in our State.
  Dr. Banks was an outspoken advocate for expanding educational 
opportunities and was particularly concerned in fostering the potential 
of Afro-American students. He was fervent in his pursuit for 
educational equality as was evidenced in his frequent contributions to 
the Baltimore Sun, both in letters to the editor and in the commentary 
section.
  Most importantly, Dr. Banks was an extraordinarily well-read and 
learned person who displayed throughout his professional life 
intellectual excellence and personal generosity.
  I extend my most sincere sympathies to Elizabeth, his wife, Gayle and 
Allison, his daughters, and to all of the family and friends of Samuel 
Banks. Mr. President, I ask that an editorial from the Baltimore Sun 
that pays homage to Dr. Banks be inserted in the Record as follows:

                [From the Baltimore Sun, July 21, 1995]

                            Samuel L. Banks

       Regular readers of this newspaper's letters to the editor 
     knew Samuel L. Banks as an inveterate correspondent always 
     ready to take on the powers-that-be with rhetorical flourish 
     that both enlightened and entertained.
       Dr. Banks, who died Wednesday at 64, was for 36 years a 
     teacher and administrator in the Baltimore City public 
     schools. But it was through his innumerable letters to the 
     editor, his feisty opinion-page pieces and his sometimes 
     prolix prose that he became known to thousands of Marylanders 
     as a tireless champion of equal opportunity.
       Most people write letters to the editor to let off steam, 
     express a personal opinion or simply for the thrill of seeing 
     their name in print. The letters columns are a forum for all 
     manner of complaints, grudges and passionate appeals as well 
     as for the occasional gem of lucidity and sweet reason. A few 
     people develop virtual second careers as letters column 
     correspondents, vying with other letter writers and the 
     newspaper's own staff members for pride of placement and 
     frequency of publication.
       For Dr. Banks, however, a letter to the editor or an 
     opinion page article was a means to an end, not an end in 
     itself. He addressed the issues of the day not out of vanity 
     but because he believed fervently that change would never 
     come unless the status quo was challenged. He made it his 
     business to do so as forcefully as possible. He wanted to 
     wipe out every trace of bigotry and discrimination so that 
     the nation might at last fulfill its historic promise of 
     justice and equal opportunity for all.
       Applying the dictum of old-time labor leader Sam Gompers--
     always demand more, more, more--Dr. Banks brought to his 
     advocacy an unquenchable demand for improvement in the lives 
     of his fellow African Americans. This newspaper was his 
     special focus. He would rise in righteous fury against news 
     stories or editorials he considered unfair to his 
     constituency or his several causes. Yet when writers 
     displayed what he regarded as greater sensitivity, he would 
     dispense gentlemanly praise before launching into a lecture 
     of what could be done better. He was one of our most 
     persistent bed bugs, albeit a beneficent bed bug. We suspect 
     that description would please him.
       Dr. Banks' style often mimicked the stately cadences of a 
     church sermon. But he was fond of spicing up his phrases with 
     unusual and sometimes arcane words that lent his expressions 
     a peculiar dignity and sly humor. He knew readers delighted 
     in his seemingly inexhaustible stock of adjectives, which he 
     piled atop one another.
       Editors could pare words, phrases or whole paragraphs from 
     his letters and still have more than enough left to fill the 
     allotted space. Dr. Banks' vision of America and its 
     possibilities was as generous as his use of words, and as 
     wise.
     

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