[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 18 (Wednesday, February 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       A TRIBUTE TO GWENDOLYN BROOKS, A LEADING VOICE IN AMERICA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RONALD V. DELLUMS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 12, 1997

  Mr. DELLUMS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Ms. 
Gwendolyn Brooks, who is being honored for her distinguished career on 
February 14, 1997, by the Department of English and the Moorland 
Spingarn Research Center of Howard University. I ask my colleagues to 
join me in paying tribute to a special person who has touched millions 
of people throughout the world with her words.
  Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, KS, in 1917 and then moved to 
Chicago early in her life. She has long been recognized as a leading 
voice in modern American letters. For more than 50 years, she has 
undertaken as her life's work a composite portrait of African-Americans 
acknowledging within the universe of her poems their nobility and 
enduring spirit. For five decades, she has interpreted their stories 
within the context of America, commemorating in works such as ``A 
Street in Bronzeville,'' ``Annie Allen,'' ``The Bean Eaters,'' ``In the 
Mecca,'' ``Family Pictures,'' ``Riot,'' ``Aloneness,'' ``Beckonings,'' 
``To Disembark,'' ``Maud Martha,'' and ``Blacks,'' those of us adjudged 
the leastwise of the land. With prophetic insight, eloquence, and 
passion she has written of her people's joys; their triumphs, their 
follies, and their despair. But through the sustaining power of her 
love and the depth of her commitment, her people live and may yet 
prevail.
  Gwendolyn Brooks, distinguished poet of our time, distinguished poet 
laureate of Illinois, distinguished consultant-in-poetry to the Library 
of Congress, distinguished Pulitzer Prize winner, teacher, mentor, true 
lover of the poor, poet of the people, we honor and salute you.

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