[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E293]]


                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                               SPEECH OF

                        HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 24, 1999

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Black History Month, I am 
honored to pay tribute to one of this century's greatest poets, a 
native of my home state of Missouri, the late Melvin B. Tolson (1898-
1966). Tolson was a Renaissance man who spent his adult life in the 
East Texas Black Bible Belt. He was a man of prodigious talent, energy 
and accomplishment who was singularly devoted to championing the rights 
and the virtues of the common man. He served his fellow human beings in 
every way he could. Today he is remembered as a great teacher and a 
celebrated writer, but Melvin Tolson was also a painter, a cook, a 
waiter, a janitor, a shoeshine boy, a soldier, an actor, a boxer, a 
mayor, a newspaper columnist, a packinghouse worker and even the poet 
laureate of Liberia.
  Melvin Tolson was, above all, a committed humanist who devoted his 
life to enhancing the dignity of every human being. As an outspoken 
leader and champion of lost causes and underdogs, he organized black 
sharecroppers in the South and was known to narrowly escape a lynch mob 
on more than one occasion. Tolson spent more than forty years teaching 
at Wiley and Langston colleges where he coached championship winning 
Black College debate teams through a ten year winning streak during 
which they defeated Oxford along with two national champion teams. As a 
poet, Melvin Tolson's contributions to literature earned him only 
modest recognition toward the end of his lifetime. Like so many 
artists, his greatest critical acclaim came after his life ended.
  Ralph Ellison, writing in ``Shadow and Act'', described the rich 
emotion of Tolson's ``Richard Wright's Blues'':

       The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and 
     episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching 
     consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend 
     it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing it 
     from a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues 
     is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe 
     expressed lyrically . . . Their attraction lies in this, that 
     they at once express both the agony of life and the 
     possibility of conquering it through sheer toughness of 
     spirit.

  Mr. Speaker, Melvin Tolson is a source of inspiration to Black 
Americans. He is one of the shining stars of our history and one of 
this nation's greatest artists. Tolson created a poetic legacy. His 
writings will bless and enrich the lives of generations to come. I am 
happy to report that the Tolson Project has been established to enhance 
our knowledge and understanding of the works of Melvin B. Tolson and 
under its leadership, the ``Collected Works of Melvin B. Tolson'' will 
be re-issued this year. In closing, I would like to take this 
opportunity to share some of this distinguished man's immortal words.

                                 Delta

     Art
     is not barrel copper easily separated
     from the matrix
     it is not fresh tissues
     --for microscopic study--
     one may fix:
     unique as the white tiger's pink paws and blue eyes,
     Art
     leaves her lover as a Komitas
     deciphering intricate Armenia neums,
     with a wild surmise.


     
                                  ____
                        Rendezvous With America

     I see Joe DiMaggio
     As his bat cuts a vacuum in the paralyzed air:
     In brown Joe Louis, surged in white acclaim,
     As he fights his country's cause in Madison Square.

     

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