[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WORKING FOR RACIAL HARMONY

  (Mr. DICKEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DICKEY. Madam Speaker, in September 1957, I was a 17-year-old 
freshman living in Pine Bluff, AR, and I was traveling through Little 
Rock to get to my school in Conway. I had no idea what was actually 
going on. I am here to tell my colleagues that I also went last week to 
Little Rock, AR, to a reconciliation rally and saw 13,000 kids and the 
rest of the State working to bring ourselves together because of what 
happened at Little Rock Central.
  That rally made me think of Wiley Branton, who is a lawyer for my 
city, who carefully saw that I was indifferent to this and carefully 
told me the story of what it was like. He was in the middle of those 
heated exchanges, in the middle of that history-making event.
  I want to thank Wiley Branton, I want to thank my colleague John 
Lewis, for the service that they have given before and to thank them 
also and all of the people who knew me and knew how indifferent I was 
then for the toleration they had for me and forgiving me for my 
indifference. I want to do all I can to bring racial harmony to Little 
Rock, AR, to our State and to our Nation.

                          ____________________