[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 124 (Friday, July 28, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1535-E1536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  ON THE PASSING OF GEORGE L.P. WEAVER

                                 ______


                        HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 27, 1995
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call to my colleagues' 
attention the following obituary for George L.P. Weaver which appeared 
in the July 18, 1995 issue of the Washington Post. With the passing of 
George Weaver, the country has lost a great American--one who dedicated 
himself to ensuring equal opportunity and justice for all Americans. 
The principles for which George Weaver dedicated his life--an abiding 
respect for the dignity of workers and the worth of labor and an 
unshakable commitment to ending the scourge of segregation and racism--
both in his service to the labor movement and in his work in 
Government, are the principles that have served to make this country 
what it is today. This House turns its back on those principles at its 
own and the Nation's peril.
               [From the Washington Post, July 18, 1995]

            George L.P. Weaver, Assistant Secretary of Labor

       George L.P. Weaver, 83, a former labor union official who 
     served as assistant secretary of labor for international 
     affairs during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, died 
     July 14 of complications related to emphysema and asthma at 
     George Washington University Hospital.
       Mr. Weaver spend most of his working life in activities 
     related to the labor movement, beginning in the 1930s when he 
     carried passengers' baggage as a redcap at railroad stations 
     in Chicago. As a young man, he joined the United Transport 
     Service Employees Union.
       Later, he was assistant to the secretary-treasurer and 
     director of the civil rights committee of the old Congress of 
     Industrial Organizations. After the CIO's merger with the 
     American Federation of Labor in 1955, he became executive 
     secretary of the new union's civil rights committee.
       In his capacity as assistant secretary of labor for 
     international affairs, Mr. Weaver was the U.S. representative 
     on the governing body of the International Labor 
     Organization. He was chairman of that body in 1968. After 
     stepping down as assistant secretary of labor in 1969, he was 
     assistant to the president of the ILO for about six years.
       Mr. Weaver, a Washington resident, was born in Pittsburgh 
     and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He attended what now is 
     Roosevelt University in Chicago and Howard University law 
     school.
       In 1941, he came to Washington as a member of the CIO's War 
     Relief Committee. A year later, he became assistant to the 
     secretary-treasurer and director of the civil rights 
     committee. During the next dozen years, he took leaves of 
     absence to serve on special government assignments and on 
     overseas missions. The assignments included service in 1950 
     as special assistant to Stuart Symington, chairman of the 
     National Security Resources Board, and assisting in the 
     reorganization of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

[[Page E 1536]]

       He participated in investigations of labor conditions in 
     various Asian countries for the International Confederation 
     of Free Trade Unions.
       In 1958, Mr. Weaver resigned from the AFL-CIO to become 
     assistant to the president of the International Union of 
     Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and director of the 
     union's political education program. He remained in that job 
     until joining the Labor Department in the Kennedy 
     administration.
       In 1963, he was the first American to receive the Malayan 
     honorary award of Panglim Mangku Megara. He had served on the 
     boards of trustees of Washington Technical Institution and 
     the University of the District of Columbia, was chairman of 
     the Finance Committee of the United Negro College Fund and 
     was a life member of the NAACP.
       Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Mary S. Weaver of 
     Washington, and two sisters, Vivian Belden of Detroit and 
     Annalouise Jenkins of Cleveland.
     

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