[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1268-E1269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ``LESSONS IN LIFE''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. LOUIS STOKES

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 19, 1997

  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I read with interest an article which 
recently appeared in the Plain Dealer newspaper in my congressional 
district. The article is entitled ``Lessons in Life From a Loving Man--
Grandpa.'' In the article, April McClellan-Copeland, a reporter for the 
newspaper, reflects on the life and legacy of her grandfather, William 
J. Ware, Sr.
  During his lifetime, Mr. Ware was well-known and respected throughout 
the Cleveland community. Despite the color barrier and other obstacles 
which confronted him in the 1930's, William Ware successfully opened 
his own firm, Ware Plumbing and Heating Co. He did so because of his 
strong belief in black Americans acquiring economic power. From a 30-
year battle for the right to join the plumber's union, to teaching his 
children and grandchildren the importance of education, this 
trailblazer was, in his granddaughter's words, ``* * * a renaissance 
man, ahead of his time.''
  Mr. Speaker, reading the article by April McClellan-Copeland brought 
back fond memories. William J. Ware, Sr., was a friend and someone whom 
I greatly admired. He was also a stalwart civil rights fighter who 
taught us many lessons. I am pleased that Ms. McClellan-Copeland 
decided to honor her grandfather with the writing of this special 
article. I take pride in sharing ``Lessons in Life'' with my colleagues 
and others across the Nation.

                        [From the Plain Dealer]

               Lessons in Life From a Loving Man--Grandpa

                     (By April McClellan-Copeland)

       In Maya Angelou's book ``Wouldn't Take Nothing for My 
     Journey Now,'' Angelou explains how she contemplates the 
     death of her loved ones by asking the question, ``What legacy 
     was left that can help me in the art of living a good life?''
       On the night my 95-year-old grandfather, William J. Ware 
     Sr., died in April, I didn't have to ask myself that 
     question. All I had to do was scan the faces of my family 
     members who sat in the hospital waiting room to see the rich 
     legacy Grandpa left behind.
       It didn't matter whether it was family, friends or business 
     associates, Grandpa Ware inspired others with his strength, 
     his integrity and the honor by which he lived his life.
       William J. Ware Sr. was a trailblazer. After graduating 
     from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1928, the trail led 
     Grandpa to Cleveland, where as a plumbing contractor he 
     opened his own firm, Ware Plumbing & Heating Co.
       In 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 
     Major League Baseball, Grandpa had been working for more than 
     10 years to knock down the formidable racial barriers that 
     stood in the way of his membership in the plumbers union. 
     Grandpa fought for equal rights at a time when racists 
     lynched black men for sport.
       Grandpa launched the fight for his union membership in 
     1933. He knew that with a union shop he could get larger 
     jobs. And he also knew that he was just as skilled if not 
     more so than the men who belonged to the union.
       Finally after 30 years, anonymous death threats and the 
     threat of being blacklisted, Grandpa was one of the first 
     blacks to be admitted into Local 55.


                       Important accomplishments

       The achievements of my grandfather and other strong black 
     men, though they may not have been as monumental in scale as 
     Jackie Robinson's achievement, were just as important. My 
     grandfather and many black men of his time were role models--
     they raised successful families, spent decades in loving 
     relationships with their wives and made contributions to 
     their communities despite the harrowing adversities they 
     faced because of their color.
       William J. Ware Sr. was one of 12 children whose parents 
     were farmers and whose grandparents' homeland was the island 
     of Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa.
       He left home in Demopolis, Ala., at an early age to ``set 
     out on a mission'' that would take him to Tuskegee. Grandpa 
     and my grandmother Naomi were college sweethearts and married 
     in 1929. They were married for more than 50 years before she 
     died in 1979.
       I liked my grandfather's style. He was a renaissance man, 
     ahead of his time. He wore his signature bolo ties and a 
     beret cocked to the side before it was stylish.
       Garlic was part of Grandpa's daily diet. Despite its 
     pungent odor, he was convinced it

[[Page E1269]]

     had medicinal powers and these beliefs overruled the smell.
       My grandfather was a man who could not be defined by 
     labels. He was a craftsman who worked with his hands in the 
     trade he learned at Tuskegee, the institute founded by Booker 
     T. Washington decades earlier. Grandpa believed deeply in 
     Washington's message of blacks acquiring economic power 
     through working in agricultural and business trades. My 
     grandfather practiced these beliefs by training hundreds of 
     black plumbers through a school he founded in 1944 and 
     operated until 1962. He taught his only son, William J. Ware 
     Jr., the trade and he has turned it into a lucrative 
     business.
       But Grandpa also lived by the words of W.E.B. Dubois, the 
     black intellectual and a founder of the NAACP who, among 
     other things, advocated the importance of protest to fight 
     racial injustice.
       My grandfather not only stood up for what was just in his 
     professional life, but he made sure his children received 
     every right and privilege they were entitled to.
       In 1947, when my mother, Philomena W. McClellan, was a 
     senior at Notre Dame Academy--now Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin 
     School--one of the nuns told my grandfather, ``Philomena Ware 
     will not go to the prom.'' It was implied that because of my 
     mother's race, she should not be allowed to attend. According 
     to my mother, Grandpa assured the nun, ``Philomena Ware will 
     go to the prom.''
       At 16, my mom wasn't dating yet, so Grandpa went out and 
     arranged a date with a family friend. My mother and her date 
     were the only black couple at the prom--and they danced, too.
       Grandpa believed in the importance of education as a means 
     to success. He sent his four daughters to college and 
     encouraged his grandchildren to follow their example.
       My grandfather also fostered our appreciation of the fine 
     arts.
       In fact Grandpa is responsible for taking me to my first 
     opera--Shakespeare's tragedy ``Othello.'' As an elementary-
     school student, I barely understood the plot and I remember 
     catching a few winks during part of the production. But as an 
     adult, I will be forever grateful for the experience.
       I had other firsts with Grandpa. In 1973, I took my first 
     plan ride in his presence when he and my grandmother took my 
     cousins and me to Houston for a plumbers convention. While 
     there, I went horseback riding, another first.
       Grandpa gave us a little taste of rural life when he would 
     take us to his farm in Bath Township. Decades earlier, my 
     grandfather had taught his city-born offspring a thing or two 
     about farming on a piece of land he owned in southeastern 
     Cuyahoga County, about a mile from where my husband and I 
     live today.
       And then there were those hot summer nights when Grandpa 
     would pile his grandkids into his car and head to the Miles 
     drive-in for a movie. At the time. I had no idea that this 
     was Grandpa's second time around--in the 1930s and '40s he 
     used to take our parents to the drive-in.
       Through my visits to the opera, the travel and my 
     grandfather's entrepreneurship, I learned by example that 
     black people were entitled to the same rights and privileges 
     as anyone else. And Grandpa's perseverance in pursuit of 
     civil rights taught me at an early age that there are times 
     when you must stand up for what you believe in.
       Grandpa's health took a turn for the worse on April 22, as 
     he went through a rehabilitation program after heart surgery. 
     My husband and I were attending an Indians game that night 
     when my family had us paged over the loudspeaker, but we were 
     unable to hear the page.
       When we arrived home after 11 p.m. there was an urgent 
     message on the answering machine saying that Grandpa didn't 
     have much time left, so we rushed to the hospital.
       Moments before Grandpa died, I was able to hold his hand 
     and whisper to him that I loved him.
       I am just as grateful for those last few moments as I am 
     for all of the memories of the good times and the things 
     Grandpa did that molded my life and made me who I am today.
       Thank you, Grandpa, for teaching me the art of living a 
     good life. I am honored to be a small part of your legacy.

     

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