[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO JOHN H. SENGSTACKE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. HAROLD E. FORD, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 5, 1997

  Mr. FORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to remember 
and pay tribute to the late John Herman Henry Sengstacke, a pioneer in 
journalism and an ardent defender of the first amendment.
  As founder of the Chicago Defender and the National Newspaper 
Publishers Association and publisher of the Tri-State Defender in 
Memphis and many other African-American newspapers, John Sengstacke 
made African-American journalism a potent force in journalism, as well 
as social and political change in the United States. Through his 
coverage of and participation in the major civil rights issues of his 
day, Mr. Sengstacke created opportunities for hundreds of thousands of 
Americans.
  During the Roosevelt administration, he became the first African-
American journalist to gain press credentials to cover the White House. 
He was a war correspondent in Europe during World War II and played an 
influential role in integrating the Armed Forces by convincing Eleanor 
Roosevelt to visit the Tuskegee Institute, leading to the establishment 
of the Tuskegee Airmen. After World War II, President Harry S. Truman 
appointed Mr. Sengstacke to serve on the Presidential committee to end 
segregation in the military. He served on a subsequent committee 
overseeing military integration in the Kennedy administration.
  Mr. Sengstacke was highly respected by all of his colleagues as a 
newspaperman and a journalist. He was the first African-American member 
of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the American Newspaper 
Publishers Association, and the Pulitzer Award Committee.
   Mr. Speaker, President Lyndon B. Johnson once said our ``freedom is 
fragile if citizens are ignorant.'' John Sengstacke, through his 
commitment to getting facts to the public, strengthened freedom in the 
United States. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and 
remembering him.

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