[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 13, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E340-E341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE ON ITS 
                            50TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______


                           HON. GLEN BROWDER

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 13, 1996

  Mr. BROWDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of the 
House to the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine and its 
50 years of service to the State of Alabama and to the United States of 
America.
  A 12-month observance of the school's founding in 1945 will culminate 
this weekend with a special celebration in Alabama on Sunday, March 17.
  Tuskegee Institute, which was renamed Tuskegee University in 1984, is 
one of the outstanding educational institutions in the Third 
Congressional District of Alabama, which I have the privilege to 
represent.
  Tuskegee's school of veterinary medicine was the first in the 
southeastern region of the United States that would give African-
Americans an opportunity to obtain an education in veterinary medicine. 
In this capacity, the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine 
fulfilled an urgent health manpower need during the 1940's and 1950's 
by educating African-Americans who provided significant service to the 
rapidly growing livestock industry in the southeast.
  Even after the legal desegregation of the United States in 1964, the 
school continued to serve as a national resource for training of 
minority veterinarians. It has the distinction of having educated over 
72 percent of all African-American veterinarians educated in the

[[Page E341]]

 United States since 1945. In the last 5 years, 10 percent of all 
Hispanic-American veterinarians educated in the United States and 59 
percent of all African-American veterinarians have come from the 
Tuskegee school.

  The Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, which 
continues to be the only school of veterinary medicine on the campus of 
a historically black college/university, is also the most racially, 
culturally, ethnically, and geographically diverse school of veterinary 
medicine in North America.
  The Tuskegee school was accredited by the American Veterinary Medical 
Association before its first class of five students were awarded the 
degree of doctor of veterinary medicine in 1945. It has maintained that 
accreditation every year since then.
  Since its founding, The Tuskegee University School of Medicine has 
graduated 1,376 men and women. Most of them still maintain productive 
careers in various specialties and sub-specialties in clinical and non-
clinical practices in 43 States, the District of Columbia, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 17 foreign 
countries.
  Ten years ago, on May 14, 1986, the school established an 
International Center of Tropical Animal Health. It was the first center 
of its kind in the United States to offer the combination of education, 
research, and consultation services to Third World countries.
  Graduates of the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine 
have contributed significantly to the betterment of their State and 
Nation. For 50 years, they not only have ministered to the medical and 
surgical needs of the pets and livestock of Alabamians, but they served 
on the frontlines of the war against disease, malnutrition, and animal 
and human suffering. They have worked to safeguard human and animal 
health and the environment through their knowledge of medicine and 
surgery, veterinary public health, food safety, epidemiology, and the 
human-animal interdependent relationship.
  Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine truly is a national 
resource for veterinary medical education and a leader in minority 
veterinary medical education. And for this, we salute the Tuskegee 
University School of Veterinary Medicine and congratulate it on 50 
years of service.

                          ____________________