[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12328-S12329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MONETA J. SLEET

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on September 30, 1996, our Nation, 
and the world, lost one of its most gifted documenters of history, 
photographer Moneta J. Sleet.
  Moneta was the first African-American to win journalism's most 
prestigious award. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for documenting 
the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His photograph of Coretta 
Scott King holding her 5-year-old daughter at Dr. King's funeral has 
come to symbolize the tragedy of this turbulent period in our nation's 
history.

[[Page S12329]]

  Moneta spent the majority of his career chronicling our Nation's 
civil rights movement. We are grateful to have had Moneta to record 
this important part of our history. In 1956, he met a 28-year-old 
Martin Luther King, Jr., who at the time was a minister in Atlanta. 
Moneta fostered a close relationship with King, and later would travel 
with him to Sweden when he received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Moneta 
also accompanied Vice President Richard M. Nixon to Africa in 1957 when 
that continent was on the verge of independence.
  Moneta was born in Kentucky in 1926. He attended Kentucky State and 
received a master's degree in journalism from New York University. 
Moneta went on to work for the Amsterdam News, Our World, Ebony, and 
Jet magazines. Moneta Sleet died in New York City at the age of 70, 
leaving behind his wife, three children, and three grandchildren.
  On September 30, we lost an American treasure. I know my Senate 
colleagues join me in honoring the life of Moneta J. Sleet.

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