[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E139-E140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO THE LATE CHARLES P. HOWARD, JR.

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                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 4, 1997

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay a special tribute to 
the late Charles P. Howard, Jr., a lawyer and a great civil rights 
activist in Baltimore, MD.
  Charles Preston Howard, Jr. was born in Hampton, VA, the son of 
Charles Preston Howard, Sr., an attorney, and Louisa Maude Lewis. The 
family moved to Des Moines, IA, when he was a child, where he graduated 
from high school in 1939.
  While in high school, Mr. Howard and his two brothers, Joe and 
Lonnie, founded the Iowa Observer, a neighborhood newspaper that grew 
into a network of four weekly papers that were also published in 
Indiana and Wisconsin. The three youths were greatly influenced by 
their great-uncle, Henry McNeal Turner, a turn-of-the-century African 
Methodist Episcopal bishop whose newspaper, the Voice of the People, 
crusaded against segregation.
  Charles Howard, Jr. began studying journalism at Drake College in 
1940 and transferred to Howard University, where he entered an Army 
training program for journalists. As a reporter for the Army Times 
during World War II, Mr. Howard displayed his disdain and outrage for 
segregation which would mark his entire

[[Page E140]]

career. He openly questioned the role of black troops fighting for a 
democracy that promoted segregation. He suggested in editorials that 
black troops should resist such discrimination, and in two instances 
there were demonstrations at Army camps where Mr. Howard was stationed 
in England and in the United States. Some changes were initiated by 
military authorities, but it wasn't until May 1948, when President 
Truman signed Executive Order No. 9981, that segregation in the 
military was ended.
  As an aide to Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, the first African-American 
general in the U.S. Army, Howard served on the staff of the Supreme 
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force until being discharged at the 
war's end.
  Upon returning to Howard University, Charles Howard worked with the 
lawyers and participated in the university's support of the Brown 
versus Board of Education case, the landmark case that desegregated the 
Nation's public schools.
  Mr. Howard began practicing law in 1955, after earning his law degree 
in 1954 from Howard University Law School and an international law 
degree from New York University in 1955. Soon after his graduation from 
law school, Mr. Howard quickly developed a reputation as a fearless and 
colorful defense lawyer. Lawyers impressed by his brilliant defense 
techniques and verbal pyrotechnics often crammed courtrooms to watch 
him try a case.
  ``He was certainly tenacious and he wasn't opposed to taking the 
bench over difficult cases,'' said Gloria E.A. Toote, a Harlem lawyer 
who held positions in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations and 
got to know Mr. Howard when they were students at Howard University. 
``Once he was committed, it became a moral commitment, and he wouldn't 
let go. He'd work until he dropped from sheer exhaustion.''
  In the late 1960's, he established Howard and Hargrove, Maryland's 
first black corporate law firm, which was in the American Building on 
Charles Street. Later, Howard formed Howard, Brown, and Williams where 
he retired in 1985.
  In 1966, Mr. Howard ran for the House of Delegates and lost, but his 
race signaled the developing black presence on the city's political 
landscape. He later helped elect his brother, Joseph C. Howard, to the 
supreme bench of Baltimore City in 1968. Judge Howard, who was later 
appointed to the U.S. district court, is now retired.
  Charles Howard, Jr.'s professional memberships included the 
Professional Ethics Committee for Legal Aid to the Indigent, the 
National Bar Association, the American Society of International Law, 
and the Maryland State Bar Association. He was active in the NAACP, the 
YMCA, and the Boy Scouts of America. He was also a member of the board 
of Arena Players Theater Co. and in 1971 was named to the board of the 
Maryland Public Broadcast Commission by Gov. Marvin Mandel. He also was 
acting president of Bay College until the school closed in 1978. Mr. 
Howard was also a member of the St. James Episcopal Church where was an 
active member.
  In recent years, Mr. Howard was most concerned about economic 
alternatives to welfare dependency and worked with and counseled black 
businessmen. A popular tenet of Howard's was that the successful had an 
obligation to help those in need.
  On December 14, 1996, Charles Preston Howard, Jr. died of a heart 
attack at his home in the Ashburton section of Baltimore, MD at the age 
of 75. He is survived by his wife of 6 years, the former Jewel White, 
two sons, Charles P. Howard III of Los Angeles and Charles Lattimore 
Howard of Philadelphia, a daughter, Catherine Marie Howard of 
Baltimore, and another brother, Dr. Lawrence Howard of Baltimore.
  Charles P. Howard and his dedication to the African-American 
community will certainly be missed in Baltimore and across the country. 
He was an outstanding American who labored tirelessly to ensure that 
every person enjoyed the benefits of true American values.
  According to family members, ``Charlie's life work seemed to always 
orbit around the critical importance of building and nurturing 
community institutions for the future of humanity everywhere.''

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