[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 112 (Friday, August 1, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1585-E1586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES--DORIS MCCRAY-CRANK

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 1997

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow evening in my district a reception 
hosted by the Newark Tenants Council [NTC] will be held honoring Doris 
McCray-Crank. Mrs. Crank is being recognized for her election as 
chairperson of the Board of Commissioners of the Newark Housing 
Authority [NHA].
  Mrs. Crank has been an advocate for the less fortunate for most of 
her life and for all of her adult life. She has been active in the 
public housing arena as a tenant, a tenant leader with the NTC, and a 
member of the NHA board of commissioners. She has used available 
opportunities and resources to help make life better for those often 
shut out.
  In 1972 while attending the U.N.-sponsored World Health Conference in 
Paris, France, Mrs. Crank learned of the children starving in Biafra 
because of the country's civil war. Completely dismayed, Mrs. Crank 
interrupted a

[[Page E1586]]

session and took the opportunity to speak with conference delegates 
about providing financial support to save the children from death and 
starvation. As a result of her passionate plea, the delegates raised $8 
million to feed the children.
  While our situation at home is not nearly as devastating as that of 
Biafra's starving children, Mrs. Crank steps up to bat just as 
compassionately for our public housing residents. Mr. Speaker, I would 
like to share with my colleagues some of her goals as chair of the NHA 
Board of Commission. Mrs. Crank would like to see public housing 
residents own their homes, if they have the means; have more persons 
who are gainfully employed reside as tenants; businesses developed in 
the public housing communities that would strengthen economic 
development and benefit the residents; and public housing made drug 
free. Mr. Speaker, I am sure my colleagues will want to join me as I 
extend my best wishes to Mrs. Crank and the members of the Newark 
Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners--Gloria Cartwright, Ida 
Clark, Terry Pringle, Lynell Robinson, Zinnerford Smith, and Rolando 
Velazquez--and the Authority's executive director, Harold Lucas, as 
they continue to work to provide safe, decent, and affordable housing 
for Newark's residents and to set the standards and provide the 
benchmarks for other public housing entities.

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