[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 30 (Tuesday, March 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MR. HERMAN C. GILBERT: A MAN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

 Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, later today, a number of the 
friends of Herman C. Gilbert will come together to remember a man whose 
life embodied the core values we hold so dear. While many people will 
attend tonight's service at Cosmopolitan Community Church in Chicago, 
however, they will be only a very small fraction of those whose lives 
he touched, and those whose lives he made better.
  Herman Gilbert was a leader; he was a doer; he made things happen. 
All of his life, he worked to make his community a better place in 
which to live. All of his life he worked to open the doors of 
opportunity. All of his life he strove to turn what Dr. Martin Luther 
King called the American ``Declaration of Intent'' into the reality of 
life for every American.
  Herman Gilbert led in many fields. He was a publisher; he cofounded 
Path Press to publish books by and about African-Americans. He was a 
political leader; he was one of the cofounders of the Chicago League of 
Negro Voters in 1959, and he served as chief of staff to Congressman 
Gus Savage for 2 years. He was a civil rights leader, working closely 
with Dr. King and Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago to fulfill the 
promise of America for minority Americans. He was a labor leader, 
active in the United Packinghouse Workers, a progressive union.
  Herman Gilbert was a strong man, with strong views. He brought 
determination, intelligence, good judgment, and perhaps most 
importantly, a real commitment to principle and to fundamental values, 
in everything he did. He knew that nothing worth having comes easily, 
that real achievement is built on hard work--and he worked hard all of 
his life for his family, for his community, for African-Americans as a 
people, and for his country.
  I know he will be greatly missed by his wife, Ivy, by his sister, 
Addie Lawrence, by his son, Vincent, by his daughter, Dorothea, by his 
stepdaughter, Lynnette Tate, and by his grandchildren. He will also be 
missed by the people of Mariana, AR, where he was born, by the people 
of Cairo, IL, where his family moved in 1937, by the people of the city 
of Chicago, where he spent most of his life, and by people all across 
this country who have so benefited from his lifetime of effort on their 
behalf, and on behalf of us all.
  I will greatly miss him, Mr. President. His was a life that made a 
difference for many, many people; his was a life that made an important 
difference for me. Like the others whose lives he touched, I have 
greatly benefited from the legacy embodied in the life and work of 
Herman C. Gilbert.

                          ____________________