[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H941-H949]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SALUTE TO A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this Congress is an honorable 
place; and our biggest challenge, of course, is to ensure the people's 
wants and desires are our first priority. In this very historic place 
have been major debates: the decision to move into World War II, the 
Korean confrontation, the Vietnam war.
  But the mighty issues of the 1960s, post Brown versus Board of 
Education, and the civil rights marches and the march on Washington in 
1963; I might imagine that there were emotional debates around the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voter Rights Act of 1965.
  It is fitting in recognizing this honorable place and those enormous 
challenges that we met that we bring attention to a gentleman who 
throughout his life played a pivotal role in changing the lives of so 
many Americans. He was part of that debate, although he was not a 
Member of the United States Congress. His words, his opinions, his 
convictions were all interwoven in the success stories of what we 
ultimately accomplished, those who served in the United States Congress 
during that time frame.
  We lost him last year.
  So it is my honor to be able to rise today and salute A. Leon

[[Page H942]]

Higginbotham, a warrior, a jurist, an intellectual giant, a committed 
American; most of all, a lover of the Constitution. And I believe 
today, as we proceed to honor him, we will find enormous inspiration no 
matter what side of the aisle we may come, Democrats or Republicans, 
Independents, in what he stood for and how he loved this Nation.
  I know that his wife and best friend, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, 
misses him greatly. To her I say, and her children, Karen and Nia, 
Stephen and Kenneth, who are listening today, watching today, this is 
not done out of a sense of officialdom, but it is a privilege, it is an 
honor to be able to salute this great American and to commemorate him 
in the Congressional Record, for he has touched so many lives.
  I am going to start, and as I start I want to make note of the fact 
that one of his employees, if I might say, one who joined him in so 
many fights, has joined me on the floor of the House, the gentlewoman 
from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton). By the way, his wife looks 
forward to the tribute of which she will be organizing this coming 
April. She is excited about it and looks forward to it.

                              {time}  1630

  Let me begin, and then I will yield to the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia. This is, I think, the best way to introduce many 
Members to a person who all of us will assume is our friend and was our 
friend, and that is, A. Leon Higginbotham, Junior.
  His book, In the Matter of Color, Race and the American Legal 
Process: A Colonial Period, is a giant of a statement on American 
history. But I would be remiss not to share with you about the man. The 
preface of this book reads as follows. It gives us a sense of what 
molded him, what caused him to be so convicted and so committed.

       This book has been in the writing for almost 10 years. But 
     if isolated personal incidents really do play the dramatic 
     role in redirecting lives they often seem to have played, I 
     have to go back for the book's very beginnings to a painful 
     memory that comes out of my freshman year at college. Perhaps 
     it was not the incident itself but the proper legal basis 
     upon which the personal affront was rationalized that may 
     turn out to have been the seed out of which this work has 
     grown slowly.
       Let me take you back to 1944. I was a 16-year-old freshman 
     at Purdue University, one of 12 black civilian students that 
     was attending that school. If we wanted to live in West 
     Lafayette, Indiana, where the university was located, solely 
     because of our color, the 12 of us at Purdue were forced to 
     live in a crowded private house rather than, as did most of 
     our white classmates, in the University campus dormitories. 
     We slept, barrack style, in an unheated attic.
       One night, as the temperature was close to zero, I felt 
     that I could suffer the personal indignities and denigration 
     no longer. The United States was more than 2 years into the 
     Second World War, a war our government promised would make 
     the world safe for democracy. Surely there was room enough in 
     that world, I told myself that night, for 12 black students 
     in a northern University in the United States to be given a 
     small corner of the on-campus heated dormitories for their 
     quarters. Perhaps all that was needed was for one of us to 
     speak up, to make sure the administration knew exactly how a 
     small group of its students had been treated by those charged 
     with assigning student housing.
       The next morning I went to the office of Edward Charles 
     Elliott, president of Purdue University, and I asked to see 
     him. I was given an appointment. At the scheduled time I 
     arrived at President Elliott's office, neatly but not 
     elegantly dressed, shoes polished, fingernails clean, hair 
     cut short.
       ``Why was it,'' I asked him, ``that blacks and blacks alone 
     had been subjected to this special ignominy?'' Though there 
     were larger issues I might have raised with the President of 
     an American university, this was but 10 years before Brown 
     vs. Board of Education, I had not come that morning to move 
     mountains, only to get myself and 11 friends out of the cold.
       Forcefully, but nonetheless deferentially, I put forth my 
     moderate or modest request, that the black students of Purdue 
     be allowed to stay in some section of State-owned 
     dormitories, segregated if necessary, but at least not 
     humiliated.
       Perhaps if President Elliott had talked with me 
     sympathetically that morning, explaining his own impotence to 
     change things but his willingness to take up the problem with 
     those who could, I might not have felt as I did. Perhaps if 
     he had communicated with some word or gesture, or even a 
     sigh, that I had caused him to review his own commitment to 
     things as they were, I might have felt I had won a small 
     victory.
       But President Elliott, with directness and with no apparent 
     qualms, answered, ``Higginbotham, the law doesn't require us 
     to let colored students in the dorm, and you either accept 
     things as they are, or leave the university immediately.''
       As I walked back to the house that afternoon, I reflected 
     on the ambiguity of the day's events. I heard, on that 
     morning, an eloquent lecture on the history of the 
     Declaration of Independence and of genius of the Founding 
     Fathers. That afternoon I had been told that under the law, 
     the black civilian students at Purdue University could be 
     treated differently from their 6,000 white classmates. Yet I 
     knew that by nightfall, hundreds of black soldiers would be 
     injured, maimed, and some even killed on far-flung 
     battlefields to make the world safe for democracy.
       Almost like a mystical experience, a thousand thoughts 
     raced through my mind as I walked across the campus. I knew 
     then that I had been touched in a way I had never been 
     touched before, and that one day, that I would have to return 
     to the most disturbing element in this incident, how a legal 
     system that proclaimed equal justice for all could 
     simultaneously deny even a semblance of dignity to a 16-year-
     old boy who had committed no wrong. Shortly thereafter I left 
     Purdue University and transferred to Antioch College. 
     Ultimately I chose law as my vocation, and in 1952, I 
     graduated from Yale Law School.

  On that opening note, let me say that not only was his life changed, 
but he helped change the lives of Americans. So that is why today we 
take the challenge of trying to commemorate his legacy in the 
Congressional Record, to be given to his family and to honor him 
appropriately.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the esteemed, honorable 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), who will 
provide us with her own insight of Judge Higginbotham.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for 
yielding, and I thank her for her hard work on this special order in 
tribute to a great American. It is, I think, quite appropriate that 
there should be a special order for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham here on 
this very Floor of the House of Representatives. He testified shortly 
before his death here in the House. His work for many Americans and 
their right to representation in this body after he left the bench also 
entitles his memory to be noted here.
  May I say that this is only one of many commemorations that are being 
held for Judge Higginbotham around the country. I myself was at such a 
memorial for him just 2 weeks ago at the Yale Law School. There are 
memorials at the several law schools where he taught, in addition to 
the many other things that he did in his life.
  There will also be a memorial here in the House sponsored by the 
Congressional Black Caucus for Judge Higginbotham in April, and Members 
will receive notice of that memorial. We expect that his wife, herself 
a distinguished scholar, Dr. Evelyn Higginbotham, will be here.
  The man we commemorate on the Floor this afternoon is a man of rare 
talent and humanity, an extraordinary American, an astute scholar, a 
great Federal judge. I would like to say a few words about his role as 
a judge and his role as a scholar, as Members may come to talk about 
the role he played in lawsuits that were brought by Members in order to 
secure their places here as representatives in the House of 
Representatives.

  When Judge Higginbotham was appointed, initially named to the bench 
by President Kennedy, who then was assassinated, and had his name moved 
forward by President Johnson, he was one of the youngest men ever 
appointed to the bench, and one of the first African Americans ever 
appointed to the Federal bench.
  But I must tell the Members that this was not the kind of superlative 
that Judge Higginbotham was after in his life, the youngest or the 
blackest or the first of a kind. He spent his life being the best. He 
gave real meaning to a word we throw around without always being able 
to document it, the word ``excellence.''
  Who is Leon Higginbotham? Leon Higginbotham was a poor black boy from 
Trenton, New Jersey, whose parents had no education, elementary school 
education, but whose life tells us that all you need is a mother and 
father who care deeply that you get an education in order to reach your 
own potential.
  He had deep racial experiences as a child, even in the north, as 
Trenton, New Jersey, is located. But in a real sense, his own 
dedication to racial equality goes far beyond the personal.

[[Page H943]]

 It is very easy for me to be against racial segregation, because I 
went to segregated schools. That is hardly a principled position. It is 
a very important stimulus, and it is a very compelling way in which to 
understand racial segregation.
  But Judge Higginbotham understood equality in racial terms out of his 
own life, and understood and was dedicated to equality as a universal 
principle. He felt as deeply about equality for women, for example, as 
for African Americans. He did not believe that the word or the idea of 
equality could be segmented.
  It was my great privilege to know Judge Higginbotham up close when I 
was a young woman just coming to the bar, because I was privileged to 
be his first law clerk. Every student out of law school wants to clerk 
somewhere, and particularly for a Federal judge. But I have to tell the 
Members that there are Federal judges and there are Federal judges. The 
experience of clerking for an energetic, young, principled, brilliant 
Federal judge was a very important one for my own professional 
development.
  Judge Higginbotham had already been the first black to serve on the 
Federal Trade Commission, but he had not had a lot of experience with 
young people. He was very young himself. He immediately made me into 
his apprentice, an extension of the judge. Of course, clerks do 
research for the judge, but we did research together. We wrote 
together. He would give me something that he wrote to edit. I would 
give him something that I wrote to edit.
  The experience of working that closely with someone that accomplished 
is a wonderful way to get initiated into the profession. He was a 
consummate professional, a first class technical lawyer, which is 
something every young person could do with when you get out of law 
school and are, in effect, first then learning to be a lawyer.
  Moreover, Judge Higginbotham was a wonderful mentor. That is not the 
word we used then. Mentoring has become something that is often spoken 
of today. It was simply a natural way to proceed for the judge, for I 
was the first of a very long line of clerks, research assistants, 
interns. We are all over the country now. Many of them worked on his 
books. Some of them assisted in his chambers. All of them learned from 
him.
  At the same time, Judge Higginbotham, who will be known for his 
boldness on racial issues after he left the bench, enjoyed enormous 
respect at the bench and at the bar for his work as a judge.
  First of all, there was his prodigious capacity for work. Then there 
was the thoroughness with which he went about his work, first as a 
lawyer, and then as a judge. Although we know the judge for his deep 
racial views, he is one of the most respected judges or was one of the 
most respected judges in the United States for his principled 
interpretation of the law.
  If you are a judge, and ultimately Judge Higginbotham became the 
chief judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, you have to 
follow precedent if you are abiding by the rule of law, the rule of the 
law.
  Let me quote from the Chief Judge of the Third Circuit today, Judge 
Edward Becker. I am quoting:

       His jurisprudence was always anchored in the record. He 
     could be and was eloquent in opinions when he was vindicating 
     civil rights, but he didn't reach for the result. He was a 
     good craftsman and an altogether solid judge.

  Now, as judges go, Judge Higginbotham, I think, when one evaluates 
his work, will be remembered as an activist judge. I am proud of that. 
I know the gentlewoman is. But the fact that he could do that within 
his craft, adhering to the rule of law in a principled fashion, says 
everything about why he was so highly regarded everywhere among his 
peers who serve or have served on the bench.
  Make no mistake about it, A. Leon Higginbotham was a black man, and 
understood himself as a black man. The gentlewoman has spoken about and 
has read from his own works about some of his early experiences. This 
is a man who would never forget that he was a black man.

                              {time}  1645

  Yet, his approach to equality coming out of his treatment as a black 
man was universal because it taught him that everyone had to be treated 
in just the same way as he demanded to be treated.
  One of his opinions that I believe will become an American classic 
was a case where the defendant sought to disqualify the judge because 
of his racial views off the bench. The judge had no prejudicial racial 
views off the bench, but he was known to speak before groups about his 
feelings about racial equality.
  The judge responded to this request that he recuse himself from 
hearing the case about racial discrimination with an exhaustive 
opinion. Here was a judge that just did not say that ``I am not going 
to do it, and I resent the fact that you want me to get off the case 
simply because I am black and believe that black people should be 
treated equally and have deigned to say so.'' That is not how the judge 
did it. He wrote an exhaustive opinion showing why he should not be 
disqualified.
  One of the lines from that opinion I want to read: ``Black lawyers 
have litigated in the Federal courts almost exclusively before white 
judges, yet they have not argued that white judges should be 
disqualified on matters of racial relations.''
  But I would like to say a word about Higginbotham the scholar. The 
gentlewoman from Texas read from a book by the judge, ``In the Matter 
of Color.'' I have an autographed copy here that is very precious to 
me, and it is a book that was 10 years in the making because it 
documents the way in which the law was as enmeshed in all of our racial 
doctrine and practices.
  What he demonstrates through a detailed evaluation of the case law 
and the statutory law in about a half dozen of the colonies is that 
without the law every step of the way, slavery, and later 
discrimination, would have been impossible. Law was the handmaiden of 
slavery and discrimination. Facilitated it. Augmented it. Made it 
possible.
  Here was a man who loved the law. Loved the law enough to expose the 
law for the role it had played in the deepest injustice in our society 
so that we could understand it, throw it off, as will be the case when 
we do understand the derivation of an issue.
  Leon Higginbotham lived several lifetimes all in one for his 70 
years. I believe that his role as a scholar of the history of the law 
will be remembered as least as much as his role as a lawyer and a 
judge, because of these two monumental books, ``In the Matter of 
Color,'' and the second book, ``Shades of Freedom.'' He had intended to 
do about a half dozen such books. He got two done.
  Essentially, what Higginbotham did was to look at 300 years of law. 
And when I say ``law'' I do not mean reading decisions of the Federal 
courts. I mean looking at every single case in the colonies, every 
single statute in the colonies, and in the process he unmasked what was 
and can only be called a jurisprudence of racism that is part and 
parcel of our law and was there from the very beginning. He showed how 
it was there even at the time of the writing of the Declaration of 
Independence which, of course, does not mention race at all.
  Thus, what Higginbotham did as a scholar was to show us the law at 
its worst and our law as it is now becoming as its best. In effect, 
what he shows are the extraordinary, huge contradictions in our law and 
that these contradictions survived even the Civil War, which after all 
was fought in part to erase slavery and contradictions based on race. 
Instead, a new case law came into being and fortified discrimination to 
follow slavery.
  In a real sense, Leon's time on the bench and his scholarly 
investigation is what undergirded his passion against racial 
discrimination. It is, as I have indicated, easy enough to have passion 
against racial discrimination that is felt. What was extraordinary to 
see was how Higginbotham was animated by what he had read about 
slavery, what he had discovered about the role of the law in 
perpetuating slavery and discrimination.
  At the end of his life, that is what propelled him. It was 
intellectual curiosity at its best. And as one of his former law 
partners have said, he died working, which is what he wanted to do. He 
died in love with the law, exposing the law, wanting to let everyone

[[Page H944]]

know what was wrong with it so that we could make it right. And he 
spent much of his life doing what it will take to make it right.
  Like the gentlewoman, I would like to close by reading a couple of 
passages from ``In the Matter of Color,'' because these passages 
document what I have been trying to convey about why the judge wrote 
about the law's imperfections.
  I am quoting here: ``Specifically, this book will document the 
vacillation of the courts, the State legislatures, and even honest 
public servants in trying to decide whether blacks were people and, if 
so, whether they were a species apart from white humans, the difference 
justifying separate and different treatment. I am aware that an 
analysis of cases, statutes and legal edicts does not tell the whole 
story as to why and how this sordid legal tradition managed to 
establish itself. Nevertheless, there is merit in abolitionist William 
Goodell's statement: `No people were ever yet found who were better 
than their laws, though many have been known to be worse.' ''
  Finally, let me read the last passage I want to bring to the 
attention of this body. The judge goes on to say, ``While I do not 
represent what I put forward here as a complete picture of the 
practices of the society, that canvas will never be painted unless 
someone first treats adequately the interrelationship of race and the 
American legal process.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are a part of the American legal process. To the 
extent that we come to grips with the scholarly discoveries of Leon 
Higginbotham, we will avoid the pitfalls out of which we have just 
come. Leon Higginbotham served us in so many ways. As a lawyer, as a 
judge, as a scholar, enlightening us, humanizing us in each and every 
role.
  This special order simply brings to the attention of this body the 
role that a great man has played in the life of our country.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding me this 
time.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for 
both her passion and her distinct eloquence.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is very clear, after her rendition, why I 
thought it was so important to come to the floor and honor this great 
American. I am delighted as well that other Members are joining us, and 
I wanted to comment on some of the points made by the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) in that she defined a special 
role and responsibility and interaction that she had with Judge 
Higginbotham.
  I guess I can call myself a product of Judge Higginbotham's work, for 
in the State of Texas I would venture to say that it would be difficult 
to count more than 20 African-Americans on our entire State elected 
judiciary. Judge Higginbotham and his research helped enunciate or make 
plain those difficulties.

  The existence of this 18th Congressional District is by the very fine 
works of Judge Higginbotham and his supporting team, the NAACP Legal 
Defense Fund, who argued against the demise of minority-majority 
districts which, for some reason, has gotten a bad name in our legal 
system and all we see it is as an attempt at representation.
  But I think that it started early in his life, his recognition of the 
fact that he had to be a fighter. I am glad the gentlewoman ended on 
the fact that he was a great American. He, as a child, wanted to be a 
firefighter. But it was a time when racism and bigotry would not allow 
this dream to become a reality. And it is somewhat ironic that we have 
the ugliness of racism to thank for this advocate of civil rights. 
Thus, as he wanted as a youth to be a firefighter, he became in the end 
the responsible person for the dampening of the fires of racism.
  As a jurist and as an author, Leon Higginbotham's dedication to civil 
rights of all Americans was unmatched. Judge Higginbotham reminded us 
in poignant terms and with his powerful voice of our Nation's tortuous 
and still unfinished struggle to live up to its constitutional mandate 
of equal justice under the law. He realized that the Constitution was 
an inclusive document designed by our founding fathers to include all 
Americans and he fought with all his might and intellect to protect his 
principles and guarantees.
  One can imagine our perspective in the House Committee on the 
Judiciary during the impeachment proceedings when he brought this 
eloquence, this statesmanship, this intellect into those impeachment 
proceedings. Everyone to a one, Republicans and Democrats alike, 
respected this giant intellectual. And he handled us in that committee. 
And it was not with insult, but it was with straightforwardness. He 
knew the Constitution. He had lived it and he shared his vision with 
us. I thank Judge Higginbotham for that.
  He was an African-American judge and we just finished celebrating 
African-American History Month. He is the kind of person that I know in 
years to come I will go into the halls of our elementary schools and 
middle schools and rather than seeing some of the age-old heroes that 
all of us support from the 1800s and early 1900s, and maybe the new 
ones, the athletes of the 20th century, we will begin to understand the 
role of Judge Higginbotham. And I can imagine that his face will be 
plastered all over the schools of America: Here we see a popular judge.
  As a judge, he authored 600 opinions in 29 years, first on the U.S. 
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania then on the 
Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and finally as that court's Chief 
Judge.
  He was a judge hero. He won awards. The Presidential Medal of Freedom 
in 1995, the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award, and he was so 
respected as a humanitarian that in 1994, South Africa President Nelson 
Mandela called him to be an international mediator in that country's 
first election.
  He would never turn down anyone without a voice. At the height of 
racism in our country, Judge Higginbotham was able to break the color 
barrier and become an influential member of our society. He serves as 
an inspiration. And so it is important that we honor this soldier, born 
on February 25, 1928, in New Jersey. He was a son of New Jersey, and he 
liked to tell people before his death that there were only two books in 
his home, a dictionary and a Bible.
  Higginbotham's personality and character are taken from his parents 
who believed that a man should be kind to everyone, regardless of their 
social class, and that they should be strong in their convictions. His 
father was a simple plant laborer who worked at the same plant for 45 
years, and Judge Higginbotham would say that his father was late to 
work only once during that tenure.
  Judge Higginbotham acquired his father's work ethic which few matched 
during his career as a judge, author, lawyer, professor, humanitarian.

                              {time}  1700

  But, oh, how he loved his mother. She had a sixth-grade education. He 
gave his mother credit for his appreciation of the value of education 
and compassion for his fellow man. His mother as well contributed to 
young Leon Higginbotham's work ethic. She not only raised him but also 
the children of the people for whom she worked.
  Judge Higginbotham would often say of his mother that, if she had 
been given the opportunity, she could have been a lawyer or great 
psychiatrist. He would often refer to the lost opportunities of his 
mother and other African Americans by referencing the story of Saint 
Peter and Napoleon.
  The story goes on that Napoleon happened upon Saint Peter one day in 
heaven and said he was the greatest general in the history of the 
world. Saint Peter responded to Napoleon, ``No, you are not the 
greatest general.''
  Two days later, confused how he could not be the greatest general 
with his numerous victories, he asked Saint Peter if he could meet this 
individual. Saint Peter took Napoleon to meet this individual. To 
Napoleon's surprise, he recognized this person. Napoleon commented to 
Saint Peter that this individual had only made shoes for his army, and 
that Saint Peter must have been mistaken.
  Saint Peter replied, ``No, I am not mistaken. If this individual had 
been given the opportunity, he would have been the greatest soldier the 
world would have ever known.''
  Judge Higginbotham was a soldier but, as well, in his humble 
beginnings,

[[Page H945]]

became a great jurist. So in his enrolling in Yale Law School, that 
further refined his desire, his intellect for service in the civil 
rights war.
  He indicated that a janitor at Yale moved him to his ultimate 
commitment to civil rights. One of the greatest legal minds that this 
country had ever seen was convinced by a janitor that he made the right 
decision to attend Yale.
  What most people do not realize is that, during that conversation 
that Judge Higginbotham had with this janitor, the janitor told Judge 
Higginbotham that he had worked sweeping those floors at Yale for 25 
years in the hopes that he would see the day when an African American 
entered the doors of Yale. Judge Higginbotham did that in 1949 and 
graduated in 1952, going on to his first job as an Assistant District 
Attorney in Pennsylvania, going on to Special Deputy Attorney General 
for Pennsylvania, appointed by John F. Kennedy to the Federal Trade 
Commission, all firsts, and then ultimately to the 1964 appointment to 
the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
President Kennedy had nominated him in 1963, but a Mississippi Senator 
blocked his appointment for a year.
  I want to just note for the Record a comment by Bernard Wolfman on 
Judge Higginbotham when he invited Judge Higginbotham to teach at 
Pennsylvania Law School. He described his aptitude and skill as a 
professor with the following description: ``He has demonstrated by his 
life's work how one can love and serve the law at the same time as he 
makes a proper target of stringent criticism because of his prejudice, 
assumptions and dogma and because of the harm it inflicted on the 
people of color whose slavery in America the law had embraced and whose 
ultimate freedom the law was slow to promote or assure.''
  What an apt description of Leon Higginbotham. So much you could say, 
so much we want to say, so many denials to him, but yet so much a 
warrior and a victor, but yet a kindly man, astute with his own 
learning, but humbled by his own experience.
  I am gratified today, Mr. Speaker, that Members of this House have 
come to join us in honoring Judge Leon Higginbotham. With that, I am 
delighted to yield to my esteemed colleague, the gentlewoman from 
Cleveland, Ohio (Mrs. Jones) who has joined us in this special order.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from 
Texas for this opportunity to be a part of this special order regarding 
the great, late Judge Higginbotham.
  The gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) should be commended for 
organizing this special order, because we are paying tribute to one of 
America's greatest jurists and legal scholars.
  I will always remember him as an advocate of civil and human rights. 
He was a shining example of integrity and set the standard which all 
African Americans who aspired to be a Federal judge should meet and the 
standard that any person aspiring to be a Federal judge should meet.
  Judge A. Leon Higginbotham was appointed to the Federal bench in 
1964. In 1989, he became the chief judge of the United States Third 
Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
Delaware.
  He retired from the bench in 1993 but never from the struggle. Judge 
Higginbotham used his courtroom to display his dedication to human and 
civil rights. He enforced the broad constitutional protections of 
individual rights and personal liberties in tribute to his roll model, 
the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
  It would only be interesting and axiomatic that, in fact, Judge 
Higginbotham had the opportunity to comment with regard to Judge 
Marshall's replacement on the bench and the need to never forget from 
whence you came.
  History will recognize him as more than an outstanding jurist. He was 
an outstanding African American. He used his intellect as a tool to 
address the wrongs in America.
  According to a noted Harvard law professor, Charles Ogletree, ``He 
was the epitome of the people's lawyer. Despite his individual merits 
and accomplishments, he never hesitated to lend a hand to the poor, the 
voiceless, the powerless, and the downtrodden.''
  As a child, the Judge learned firsthand that separate and unequal 
reduced opportunities had cast a shadow on the horizon of African 
Americans. Judge Higginbotham credits his mother with instilling in him 
the importance of education. Education was the key that could unlock 
the door.
  Soon after joining the Federal bench, Judge Higginbotham began 
teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. My colleagues have talked 
about his career prior to the bench and after the bench. But he would 
eventually author more than 100 Law Review articles and author a book, 
as has previously been said, entitled ``In The Matter of Color.''
  In Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, I had the opportunity and 
privilege to serve as a judge for more than a decade. He inspired me, 
Judge Higginbotham, to stay in the court, to be willing to make the 
right decision even when it was not the popular decision, to be a judge 
who was not content to hide behind the cannons of ethics, but willing 
to speak out on matters with respect to the legal system without 
violating those cannons of ethics.
  I am pleased and privileged to stand before my colleagues today and 
to tell them that the last time I had a chance to see Judge 
Higginbotham was in Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University. He 
was delivering the Judge Frank J. Battisti lecture.
  It is something that Judge Frank J. Battisti was, in fact, the judge 
who made the decision in Cleveland that the school system had unfairly, 
unconstitutionally segregated schools for African American children.
  Here it was Judge Higginbotham delivering that lecture. I have to 
tell my colleagues the room boomed. He delivered that address, stood 
tall above everyone else. I was pleased to have had an opportunity to 
be in the audience.
  Judge Battisti's wife said, as she introduced Judge Higginbotham, no 
one could better deliver the lecture on behalf of her husband who took 
a lot of flack for saying that the schools in the City of Cleveland 
were unlawfully and unconstitutionally segregated.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas 
(Ms. Jackson-Lee for organizing this special order. Mr. Speaker, I want 
to thank you for the opportunity to be heard. I ask all Americans to 
join us in celebrating a great American hero, the great, late Judge A. 
Leon Higginbotham.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
Ohio for her passion, her enthusiasm, and the excitement that she has 
generated around the life and legacy of A. Leon Higginbotham. This is 
very special to have the gentlewoman's participation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from New Orleans, 
Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), the next governor of the State of Louisiana. 
And I hold in my hand one of the cases of Judge Higginbotham, the State 
of Louisiana versus Ray Hayes.
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. 
Jackson-Lee) for yielding to me and for that very accurate description 
of me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a great American, Judge 
A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., a man who was a giant in stature, a giant in 
intellect, and a giant in his unparalleled achievements.
  Physically, Judge Higginbotham was a towering man who stood over 6 
foot 4 inches tall and possessed a booming voice that was both awesome 
and inspiring. At a memorial service held for him in Philadelphia, 
there were many references to the voice, the Judge's booming baritone 
that commanded respect and attention in every setting.
  Intellectually, Judge Higginbotham's peers heralded him as one of the 
most brilliant jurists, historians and scholars in the history of 
American jurisprudence. His numerous accomplishments include almost 30 
years of distinguished service on the Federal bench, coveted teaching 
positions at both the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard 
University, and two renowned books and numerous articles on race and 
the American legal process.
  In service, Judge Higginbotham was always a person of compassion, 
principle, and integrity. Though his work schedule was legendary, Judge

[[Page H946]]

Higginbotham found the time to serve as a mentor, as a teacher, as an 
advisor, and as a friend to countless many.
  In my own personal experience, Judge Higginbotham has come to this 
Congressional Black Caucus on numerous occasions to provide us advice, 
lectures, and to be involved in our Congressional Black Caucus weekends 
and stir us to a great achievement. He has been an inspirational figure 
for our Caucus for many years and was one who was always ready to give 
of his time.
  In my own personal work for the Black Caucus, Judge Higginbotham 
joined with me and with Lou Stokes and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Clay) to help in a project to raise money and to explain to the giving 
community how important it was to support reinforcement efforts around 
the country through that giving and through their support.
  He traveled with us to New York and to Philadelphia to make the case 
as to why it still made sense for the community at large to give in 
this very important endeavor.
  I can tell my colleagues, and on a more personal note, for my 
daughter Jamila, who was a student at Harvard Law School when Judge 
Higginbotham was there in his last years, he was her third-year paper 
advisor and was one who took the time to help her to get through her 
third year preparation and to graduate well from Harvard Law School. So 
I thank him personally for what he did for my family, particularly for 
my daughter.
  Undoubtedly, Judge Higginbotham's personal attributes and 
professional accomplishments qualify him as a great American. However, 
I believe that his legacy lies in the fact that he used these 
attributes not to enrich himself but, instead, to enrich America.
  He used his remarkable talents to mount an intellectual challenge to 
all vestiges of racism in society and the law and to provide 
constructive critique of those who chose to feign a color-blind vision 
of society and politics in America as an excuse for not dealing with 
the tough racial issues that face us all.
  In his own words, ``One of the biggest problems for American society 
during the 20th century is our not recognizing the consequences of 
racism and that the real test of the 21st century is our being able to 
move from equality in the abstract to equality in significant 
results.''
  It is not an overstatement to say that, in the last several decades, 
whenever the issues of social injustice were to be dealt with in this 
country, at the core of the debate was Judge Higginbotham, standing and 
speaking out on these very important questions.
  Judge A. Leon Higginbotham was an extraordinary human being, who, in 
1995, received the Nation's highest civilian honor, the President's 
Medal of Freedom.
  Although he is gone, his legacy will live on in the many individuals 
whose lives he has touched. We all shall remember him fondly, Mr. 
Speaker, and we shall miss his work with us, and God bless his family 
and keep him high in our memory.
  I recall, as I stand here, the words of Frederick Douglass, which I 
think speak well to how we should remember Judge Higginbotham, and 
speaking about a fairly different issue, but nonetheless one that is 
related, the issue of liberty and freedom.
  Frederick Douglass said something like this, ``When it is finally 
ours, this freedom, this liberty, more usable to man than earth, more 
important to man than air, when it is finally ours,'' he said, ``then 
when it is more than the mumbo jumbo of politicians,'' he said, ``when 
it is diastole, systole, reflex action, when it is finally ours,'' he 
said, ``then this man, this Douglass, this negro, beaten to his knees, 
but yearning for the day when none are enslaved, none are alien, none 
are hunted, then this man,'' he said ``this Douglass will be 
remembered, oh, not with the statuted rhetoric,'' he said, ``and not 
with wreaths of bronze alone, but with lives, grown out of his life, 
with lives fleshing his dream of this beautiful needful thing.''

                              {time}  1715

  And so Judge Higginbotham's life will flesh our dreams of freedom and 
liberty in this country and we will live and work in the future and 
achieve because of the life and the legacy of this great man.
  I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very 
much for those very moving closing remarks and the words that would be 
attributable to Judge Higginbotham.
  I now want to yield, Mr. Speaker, to the chief constitutionalist on 
the Committee on the Judiciary, also a Yale law graduate and certainly 
friend of Judge Higginbotham, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Mel Watt).
  (Mr. WATT of North Carolina asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my 
colleague, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee), for 
organizing this special order in tribute to a wonderful human being and 
statesman, Judge Higginbotham.
  Let me start by just expressing condolences to Judge Higginbotham's 
wife, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and to his two sons and his two 
daughters. They stood with him and by his side and enabled him to 
provide a service to our country that, in my estimation, is 
unparalleled in many respects.
  This is a very sad occasion for all of us, when we pay tribute to a 
fallen hero, and Judge Higginbotham, indeed, was a hero for us. He was 
a man who practiced tolerance, and he practiced it because he had 
experienced many episodes of intolerance and he understood the impact 
that intolerance and prejudice breeds in this country.
  While he was a student at one university he complained about 
substandard housing for black students and was told by the president of 
the university, ``The law doesn't require us to let colored students in 
the dorm, and you can either accept things as they are or you can 
leave, immediately.''
  Despite his outstanding academic credentials, he was denied 
employment by two major white law firms when they realized that this 
man, with these credentials on paper, was a black man.
  So his tolerance and fight against intolerance grew out of himself 
being discriminated against and experiencing the negative impact of 
intolerance.
  We can often tell a lot about a man by what other people say about 
him, and it was interesting to me some of the things that people said 
about him.
  Here is Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall, former Justice on the 
United States Supreme Court, said of Leon Higginbotham: ``A great 
lawyer and a very great judge.'' Not a long accolade, just concise and 
to the point.
  President Clinton on Judge Higginbotham. ``One of our Nation's most 
passionate and steadfast advocates for civil rights.''
  People were always calling this man a hero, but he was also a very 
humble man. Professor Charles Ogletree, ``The epitome of the people's 
lawyer. Despite his individual merits and accomplishments, he never 
hesitated to lend a hand to the poor, the voiceless, the powerless, and 
the downtrodden.''
  This was a man who could command the respect of all of us, and did 
command the respect of all of us, yet he fought all the way to the end 
for ordinary common people.
  I remember very well when my Congressional District was in the midst 
of litigation, and he said, ``You know, we need to convene a group of 
people to talk about the importance of having minority representation 
in the Congress of the United States.'' About 2 weeks after that I got 
a call telling me that scholars and historians and professors and 
college presidents were convening to have a discussion about this issue 
in North Carolina.
  He had just gotten on the phone and called systematically people that 
he knew would have an interest in this, and they all interrupted their 
schedule to come and have a discussion about how we would communicate 
to a court the importance of having minority representation in the 
Congress of the United States after North Carolina had been without a 
minority representative in Congress for over 90 years. What would one 
say to a court that would communicate the importance of the decision 
the court was being asked to make?
  That was the kind of command that Judge Higginbotham had of people 
around him. They respected him so much that they would drop other 
things and respond to his request.

[[Page H947]]

  I remember very well the last encounter I had with Judge 
Higginbotham. I knew he had had a heart attack, and he had gone through 
an extended recovery period. All of a sudden, we were having a hearing 
on the impeachment matter in the Committee on the Judiciary and there 
was Judge Higginbotham expounding on the historical significance of the 
impeachment clause in the Constitution.
  When it was over, I went to him and I said, ``Judge, what are you 
doing here; shouldn't you be at home in bed?'' And he said to me, ``You 
know, I can't quit fighting about the things that are important, and 
you know how I feel about the United States constitution. I got to keep 
fighting for that.''
  Within 2 weeks after that Judge Higginbotham passed away, but he was 
fighting to the very end, and we owe him just a tremendous debt of 
gratitude.
  I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time to make these 
comments.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman, and I do see that 
this is not enough time, Mr. Speaker, to be able to commemorate such a 
giant.
  Let me simply say, and I am delighted that our minority whip has come 
to the floor, but let me thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Watt) for his words and simply say that, likewise, I chatted with Judge 
Higginbotham on that day in the Committee on the Judiciary when we held 
hearings on the impeachment, and what I noted most of all was his 
attempt to show his young students, six of whom he had brought with 
him, to show them to us and us to them and to get them to understand 
his passion.
  Let me close, Mr. Speaker, by saying that we who knew him, miss him, 
admire him, and love him, but we know Evelyn and the children have an 
even greater feeling, and so I would simply want to bring this to my 
colleagues' attention: He was a giant of a man with a baritone voice. 
He had a way of impacting many of us. When he donned his judicial robes 
and he spoke from the bench, one got the sense that God was speaking 
up. Those were the words of one of his law clerks.
  Judge Higginbotham was not God but, Mr. Speaker, he certainly was a 
great American who went beyond the call of duty to fight on the 
battlefield for equal justice and opportunity.
  There are few greater tributes this esteemed body can pay an American 
than to recognize that individual's life and work in the public forum 
established by our Founding Fathers. Mr. Speaker; I rise along with 
several of my colleagues to pay honor to the legacy of Judge A. Leon 
Higginbotham.
  How fortunate America was to have such a dedicated soldier in the 
struggle for civil rights. As a child, a young Leon Higginbotham 
dreamed of being a firefighter. But it was a time when racism and 
bigotry would not allow this dream to become a reality, and it is 
somewhat ironic that we have the ugliness of racism to thank for this 
advocate of civil rights. Thus, as a youth he wanted to serve as a 
firefighter but in the end he answered a higher calling by ``dampening 
the fires of racism.''
  As a jurist and as an author, Leon Higginbotham's dedication to civil 
rights of all Americans was unmatched. He tirelessly worked to ensure 
that there was one rule of law that applied to all individuals--no 
matter their race, their gender, or their disability. Judge 
Higginbotham reminded us, in piognant terms and with his powerful 
voice, of our nation's tortuous and still unfinished struggle to live 
up to its constitutional mandate of equal justice under the law. He 
realized that the Constitution was an inclusive document designed by 
our Founding Fathers to include all Americans, and he fought with all 
his might and intellect to protect it's principles and guarantees.
  As an African-American judge on the federal bench he would adhere to 
his vision on one rule of law that applied equally to all Americans. As 
a jurist, Judge Higginbotham authored some 600 published opinions in 29 
years, first on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania, then on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and 
finally as that court's chief judge.
  Among his many accolades, Judge Higginbotham was awarded the 
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 and the Raul Wallenberg 
Humanitarian Award. He was so respected as a humanitarian, that in 
1994, South African President Nelson Mandela asked Higginbotham to be 
an international mediator during the country's first election in which 
blacks could vote. But despite these achievements he was never one to 
turn away from those without a voice.
  At the height of racism in our country, Judge Higginbotham was able 
to break the color barrier and become an influential member of our 
society. The accomplishments of Judge Higginbotham serve as an 
inspiration for all Americans but especially for African-Americans who 
strive to be leaders in our society.
  It is fitting that my colleagues and I pause today to honor A. Leon 
Higginbotham because his life provides a legacy of leadership, 
impartiality, equality, and dedication for all public servants, and 
indeed, for all of humanity. The foundation for this legacy comes from 
two individuals who provided Judge Higginbotham with a nurturing and 
loving environment. Judge Higginbotham's beginnings were indeed humble, 
but I am sure he would describe them as his perfect fortune.
  Born on February 25, 1928, Higginbotham was raised in Trenton, New 
Jersey. It is said that in his home there were only two books--a 
dictionary and a bible. Higginbotham's personality and character are 
taken from his parents, who believed that a man should be kind to 
everyone regardless of their social class, and that he should be strong 
in his convictions.
  Judge Higginbotham's father was a simple plant laborer. He worked at 
the same plant for 45 years and Judge Higginbotham would say that his 
father was late to work only once during that tenure. Judge 
Higginbotham acquired his father's work ethic, which few matched during 
his career as a judge, author, legal professor, and humanitarian.
  The mother of Judge Higginbotham completed her education only to the 
sixth grade level. Judge Higginbotham gave his mother credit for his 
appreciation of the value of education and his compassion for his 
fellow man. And his mother, as well, contributed to young Leon 
Higginbotham's work ethic--she not only raised him, but also the 
children of the people for whom she would work.
  Judge Higginbotham would often say of his mother that if she had been 
given the opportunity, she could have been a lawyer or a great 
psychiatrist. He would often refer to the lost opportunities of his 
mother and other African-Americans by referencing the story of St. 
Peter and Napoleon. The story goes that Napoleon happened upon St. 
Peter one day in heaven and asked if he was the greatest general in the 
history of the world. St. Peter responded to Napoleon, ``no you are not 
the greatest general''. Two days later confused as to how he could not 
be the greatest general with his numerous victories, he asked St. Peter 
if he could meet this individual. St. Peter took Napoleon to meet this 
individual and to Napoleon's surprise he recognized this person. 
Napoleon commented to St. Peter that this individual had only made 
shoes for his army and that St. Peter must have been mistaken. St. 
Peter replied, ``no I am not mistaken, if this individual had been 
given the opportunity he would have been the greatest soldier the world 
would have known''.
  Judge Higginbotham referenced this story to highlight the many lost 
opportunities of African-Americans like his mother. He also referenced 
this story to spur young people today to take full advantage of their 
own opportunities. Judge Higginbotham was able to take full advantage 
of his limited opportunities, which made themselves apparent during his 
life.
  The first of these opportunities came with Judge Higginbotham's 
acceptance into the Yale Law School. Despite his father's dismay at why 
his son turned down a full scholarship to attend Law School at Rutgers, 
Judge Higginbotham still enrolled in his first year at Yale in 1949. 
That year, he was one of only three African-Americans to enroll at Yale 
and one of only five African-Americans to enroll at any of the five Ivy 
League law schools.
  Despite the daunting challenges of racism, not to mention the riggers 
of the academic curriculum at Yale, Judge Higginbotham thrived in his 
new environment. He received more oral advocacy awards in his tenure at 
Yale than any law student to that point in the school's history. 
Anytime doubt crept into his head regarding whether he had made the 
right decision, Judge Higginbotham reminded himself of a conversation 
he had with a janitor. Yes, that is right--janitor. One of the greatest 
legal minds that this country has ever seen, was convinced by a janitor 
that he made the right decision to attend Yale. What most people do not 
realize is that during that conversation that Judge Higginbotham had 
with this janitor, the janitor told Higginbotham that he had worked 
sweeping those floors for twenty-five years in hopes that he would see 
the day when African Americans entered the doors of Yale. Therefore, 
failure was not an option that Higginbotham could accept, and he 
forthrightly earned his law degree from Yale in 1952. He would 
eventually become the school's first black trustee in 1969.
  Upon graduation, perhaps because of his humble origins, or because of 
the words of that janitor, or because of the racism that he himself 
experienced, Judge Higginbotham made a passionate commitment to the 
goal of equality for all human beings. This ideal became the hallmark 
of his life and his career as

[[Page H948]]

he sought to help all Americans, no matter how rich or how poor, no 
matter how influential or how powerful.
  In his lifetime, there is not much that Judge Higginbotham did not 
do--and do well. He has been described by his friends, ``as performing 
in each of his roles in the first rank, with ability, dedication, 
energy, imagination, and courage.'' His first job as an attorney came 
in 1952 as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
for two years. He would later become a partner in a law firm there. His 
prestige grew when, in 1956, Higginbotham became special Deputy 
Attorney General for Pennsylvania.
  His rise to national prominence came in 1962, when President John F. 
Kennedy appointed him to become a commissioner of the Federal Trade 
Commission. President Kennedy's appointment of Higginbotham marked the 
first time that an African-American had become the head of a federal 
regulatory commission.
  In 1964, Higginbotham was appointed to the U.S. District Court in the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. President Kennedy had nominated him 
in 1963, but a Mississippi Senator blocked his appointment for a year, 
supposedly because of his age. After Kennedy was assassinated, 
President Lyndon Johnson re-nominated Higginbotham to the bench and in 
1964, at the age of thirty-five, he became the youngest federal judge 
to be appointed in some thirty years. Judge Higginbotham was only the 
third African-American to be appointed as a federal district judge.
  In 1977, President Carter appointed him to be a judge on the Third 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1989, he became Chief Judge on that 
same panel, which has jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, New Jersey and 
Delaware. He retired as chief judge in 1991 and stayed on as senior 
judge until 1993.
  He was one the most prominent and visible African-American judges on 
the federal bench. The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall 
once called Judge Higginbotham ``a great lawyer and very great judge.'' 
What made him a great jurist was his desire to see that the rule of law 
was fairly applied and that all received equal treatment in his 
courtroom. I am sure that his law clerks would all agree that despite a 
busy schedule, he always made time for people irrespective of the 
person's status or station in life.
  Judge Higginbotham's career as a professor of the law was no less 
astonishing. As a part of his legacy, Judge Higginbotham leaves 
numerous attorneys who have benefited from his knowledge and 
experience. By his example, his writing, and his teachings--students 
who have had the good fortune of sitting in his classrooms have 
undoubtedly learned the values of careful research, and of honesty and 
fairness. Bernard Wolfman, who invited Judge Higginbotham to teach at 
Penn Law School, described his aptitude and skill as a professor with 
the following description:

       He has demonstrated by his life's work how one can love and 
     serve the law at the same time as he makes it a proper target 
     of trenchant criticism because of its prejudiced assumptions 
     and dogma and because of the harm it inflicted on the people 
     of color whose slavery in America the law had embraced and 
     whose ultimate freedom the law was slow to promote or assure.

  Perhaps his greatest accomplishment as a professor was to instill in 
his students the belief that they can and will make a difference in 
their careers as attorneys. He would reference his experiences in South 
Africa to illustrate his point. In a 1982 trip to South Africa he had 
an opportunity to speak before a group of future black attorneys. In 
his introduction and greeting to these students he commented that it 
was a pleasure to meet the future Supreme Court Judges of South Africa. 
His audience laughed at this notion because at this time South Africa 
was still under the rule of apartheid. Just a few years later, Judge 
Higginbotham would return to South Africa at the invitation of Nelson 
Mandela, to become an international mediator for issues surrounding the 
1994 national elections in which all South Africans could participate 
for the first time. On that visit, there is no doubt, that Judge 
Higginbotham must have thought about those students whom he had 
addressed in 1982.
  Judge Higginbotham often referenced this story to point out to law 
students that one does not truly know when his or her opportunity will 
present itself. He wanted all potential lawyers to realize the 
importance of their service to the Constitution and the laws of this 
nation.
  Judge Higginbotham is also acclaimed for his multi-volume study of 
race, ``Race and the American Legal Process.'' In those books, he 
examined how colonial law was linked to slavery and racism, and 
examined how the post-emancipation legal system continued to perpetuate 
the oppression of blacks.
  Just recently, Judge Higginbotham testified before the House 
Judiciary Committee where he demonstrated his firm commitment to the 
Constitution before an esteemed panel of lawyers, judges, and legal 
historians. I do not think that there was an American who, after they 
heard him speak, did not turn away with a profound respect for his 
convictions, his considerable intellect, and his passion.
  With his baritone voice that drew the envy of singers everywhere, 
Judge Higginbotham was often said to be larger than life when he donned 
his juridicial robes. ``When he spoke from the bench you got the sense 
that God was speaking up there,'' said Edward Dennis Jr., who clerked 
for Higginbotham in the 1970's. And although I am sure Judge 
Higginbotham would have frowned on that comparison, I am sure there are 
many lawyers and clients who would not. While the thoughts and memories 
of his fierce questioning surely continue to instill fear and respect 
from those lawyers that advocated before him, I seriously doubt that 
any of them would ever challenge his judgement, or his fairness.
  Judge Higginbotham championed equal rights and the Constitution with 
unmatched passion and energy. Rest assured, although there will never 
be another A. Leon Higginbotham, there remain many disciples who will 
continue to follow in his legal tradition. I can only hope to be 
considered amongst them.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, who 
recently passed away at the age of 70, was a highly esteemed jurist, 
renowned scholar, noted lecturer, and civil rights leader.
  But the citizens of central New Jersey had a special connection to 
Judge Higginbotham. For them, particularly the African-American 
community, he served as a shining example of hope for the future.
  A native of Ewing, New Jersey located in my Congressional District, 
Judge Higginbotham was widely known in his youth as a talented musician 
and excellent student. At a time when professional and academic 
possibilities for blacks were severely limited, his outstanding 
accomplishments represented hope that such success was within the reach 
of all our children.
  The African-American community knew that he was forced to live in an 
unheated attic room because his college had no housing for blacks. They 
knew of the struggle he endured at Yale Law School and during his early 
years in the legal profession.
  But his perseverance and refusal to settle for anything less than 
excellence made Leon Higginbotham a living symbol of the possibilities 
for all children.
  I am proud to take this time to salute Judge Higginbotham, and on 
behalf of all the citizens of the 12th Congressional District, would 
like to express my condolences to his family.
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a giant 
within American jurisprudence, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. He was a 
civil rights champion who died with his boots on; it was only a few 
weeks before his death that Leon Higginbotham testified before the 
House Judiciary Committee in protest of its impeachment process.
  Judge Higginbotham's contributions to the law, both as a peerless 
judge and superb educator, were immense. His love for the cause of 
justice made him a colossus of the civil rights movement. In his 
impeccably coherent and flawlessly logical testimony before the House 
Judiciary Committee, Judge Higginbotham reminded the nation's 
lawmakers, and the American people, of his legal brilliance.
  The achievements of Leon Higginbotham should serve as an inspiration 
to Americans of all ages. His legacy is a stellar example of a 
meritocracy at work, that diligence and opportunity can be an 
equalizing force against the vestiges of racism. After obtaining a 
brilliant record as a civil rights attorney, he was first appointed to 
a federal judicial post in 1964. His performance as one of the 
country's most consistent and fair judges led to his appointment to the 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. As a mediator in the 1994 South African 
elections, that country's first post-apartheid experiment with 
democracy, Judge Higginbotham shared with the world his judicial 
expertise and impartiality. The entire country paid him tribute in 
1995, when President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom. There is no question that Leon Higginbotham belongs to that 
group of exceptional people which any nation would be proud to call its 
own.
  His outspoken courage and passionate opposition to racism were 
unceasing. Judge Higginbotham's condemnation of the damage that 
discrimination and disregard for individual civil rights does to the 
justice system made his ``Race and the American Legal System'' one of 
the most important and influential legal texts in the history of our 
country.
  I am honored to join my colleagues in saluting the living legacy of 
Leon Higginbotham. His compassion and respect for the individual, 
combined with his unrivaled knowledge and love of the law, make him a 
person I am proud to have known. We shall forever be indebted to Judge 
Higginbotham for his superior commitment to justice and his impeccable 
example of judicial scholarship and service.

[[Page H949]]

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in paying 
tribute to one of the true heroes of our time, and a personal hero of 
mine, Judge Leon Higginbotham.
  One of the proudest moments of my life was in January of 1989, after 
having won election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first 
time, when Judge Higginbotham administered the oath of office to me at 
a ceremony in the Rayburn Foyer. Being sworn in as New Jersey's first 
African American Congressman by a man of Judge Higginbotham's Stature, 
who had achieved such a place in history, is an honor I will always 
remember. Earlier in my career, Judge Higginbotham nominated me for 
President of the National Council of YMCAs and I remain grateful for 
that honor as well.
  It was characteristic of Judge Higginbotham that no matter how high 
he rose, he was always available whenever anyone needed his help or 
guidance. He never missed an opportunity to encourage young people to 
achieve their goals.
  Judge Higginbotham was a man of great intellect, ability and passion 
for justice. He was a native of my home state of New Jersey, where he 
grew up in the segregated society of Trenton. With determination and 
fortitude, he forged ahead, graduating from Yale Law School in 1952. 
During President John Kennedy's Administration, he was appointed as the 
first African American to head the Federal Trade Commission.
  In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson nominated him to the U.S. District 
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He joined the Third 
Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in 1977, where he retired as 
Chief Judge in 1991.
  President Clinton awarded Judge Higginbotham the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom in 1995 and in 1996, he was honored with the NAACP's 
Springarn Medal.
  Mr. Speaker, Judge Higginbotham was truly larger than life. Let us 
honor his memory and carry forth his proud legacy.

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