[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1762-E1763]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     THE ALBERT V. BRYAN COURTHOUSE

                                 ______


                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 12, 1995
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce legislation today 
naming the new Eastern District Federal Courthouse at Courthouse Square 
South and Jamieson Avenue South in Alexandria, the Albert V. Bryan 
Courthouse.
  Appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1947 by President Truman and 
promoted in 1961 to the Appeals Court by President Kennedy, Judge Bryan 
is best known for his 1958 order that four black students be enrolled 
in Arlington's all-white Stratford Junior High School. Implementation 
of this order produced the first day of school desegregation in 
Virginia history.
  Judge Bryan was also a member of the judicial panel that ordered the 
desegregation of public schools in Prince Edward County during the 
height of Virginia's massive resistance to integration. The Prince 
Edward case later became part of the Supreme Court's historic 1954 
decision in Brown versus Board of Education.
  In his 37 years on the Federal bench, Judge Bryan built a record as a 
legal conservative and a strict constructionist. He was renown for 

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his fairness, firmness, and thoroughness. Of the 322 opinions written 
as a circuit judge and the 18 opinions written as a district judge, he 
was reversed in only 4 cases, a record few can equal. His colleagues 
knew him as a courtly, conservative Virginia gentleman whose personal 
style was low key, modest and polite, often with a dry wit.
  According to his son, U.S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr., Judge 
Bryan, Sr. thought of the court as a jewel of the Constitution. 
Following through on the jewel metaphor, the Washington Post editorial 
marking the death of Judge Bryan, stated that: ``those who knew the 
senior Judge Bryan might well add that this appraisal came from a 
expert who valued that gem and protected it with integrity and 
eloquence.''
  With great reverence and pride, I am pleased to introduce legislation 
today to honor and commemorate this distinguished Alexandria jurist.


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