[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 19 (Thursday, February 13, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E280-E281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN W. OLVER

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 13, 1997

  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, we are here today to honor the 50th 
anniversary of Americans for Democratic Action.
  Fifty years ago, just after the end of the Second World War, Eleanor 
Roosevelt gathered with some of America's top leaders and thinkers to 
discuss the state of liberty, equality, and opportunity in America. 
From that meeting, Americans for Democratic Action--or ADA--was born.
  Some people may not be aware of ADA. They may not be able to recall 
the succession of ADA's leaders. But every American has seen the 
results of dedicated ADA work.
  In 1948--less than a year after it was founded--ADA was instrumental 
in including a civil rights plank in the 1948 National Democratic Party 
platform.
  At that 1948 convention, then Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey and 
later a distinguished U.S. Senator and Vice President--an ADA founder 
and vice chairman--called for ``the Democratic Party to get out of the 
shadows of States' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright 
sunshine of human rights.''
  While we are still walking toward that bright sunshine of human 
rights, we are all safe in the knowledge that it was the 1948 
Democratic platform--and the work of ADA--that

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helped put national politics on the path of civil rights achievements.
  ADA built upon that achievement, demanding action from President 
Kennedy after dogs and hoses were used on peaceful marchers in 
Brimingham, AL, in 1963. Soon, Rev. Martin Luther King's march on 
Washington captured the entire Nation's attention. And, in 1964, the 
Civil Rights Act was passed.
  ADA's work has not been limited to civil rights. Americans for 
Democratic Action has long been the champion of what is fair and what 
is just.
  In 1965, ADA was the first major national organization to publicly 
oppose the Vietnam war. Beholden to no political party, Americans for 
Democratic action stood up to President Johnson and called for an end 
to the war. Unfortunately, it took the Nation more than 8 years and 
thousands of lives to finally put an end to the fighting in Southeast 
Asia.
  In 1973, as much of the Nation was still discovering just how serious 
the Watergate coverup was, ADA was the first national organization to 
call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon--reaching out to 
restore the bonds of trust between the White House and Main Street 
America.
  These are just a small sampling of the specific issues that ADA has 
been a leading force in. The ADA's sphere of involvement and activism 
goes even deeper into the everyday lives of modern America.
  Americans for Democratic Action has been a leading force in areas 
such as full employment, women's rights, and protecting the rights of 
workers.
  ADA has also reached across the seas, fighting for justice throughout 
the world. Hard-working people have led the fight for arms control and 
foreign policy decisions rooted in international human rights. And ADA 
was a leader in opposing apartheid in South Africa.
  When debate on these issues first began, ADA's positions were 
initially turned away. But over time, our Nation's leaders--be they 
Democrat or Republican--have come to recognize that Americans for 
Democratic Action has been at the forefront of promoting liberty, 
equality, and opportunity.
  That is why we are gathered here today. I, for one, wish to applaud 
Americans for Democratic Action for its tireless work during the last 
half century. ADA is not the flashiest group--not the first group out 
there jockeying for political headlines or demanding instantaneous 
credit.
  Instead, ADA is out there fighting for American principles. ADA is 
promoting the very basic American ideas of life, liberty, and equality. 
And it is reminding those in power that the Constitution created a 
national Government to act for the common good.
  Those core beliefs are the foundation of this Nation. And they are 
the high principles that Americans for Democratic Action was founded on 
and designed to protect.
  I congratulate ADA for 50 years of work for this Nation. I look 
forward to even more productive years as we work toward a century of 
distinguished service.

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