[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E9333-E9334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPOSING RACISM
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HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON
of mississippi
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, May 12, 1999
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, in my continuing efforts to
document and expose racism in America, I submit the following articles
into the Congressional Record.
Plan to Change Confederate Park to Cancer Memorial Draws Complaints
Memphis, Tenn.--The Civil War battle that surrendered
Memphis to Northern hands took place just below bluffs on the
Mississippi River.
For 90 years, a 2\1/2\-acre city park atop the bluffs has
served as a memorial to the Confederacy. But now, a squabble
is brewing over a plan to rename the park in honor of cancer
survivors.
The R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation of Kansas City, MO, which
finances parks to honor cancer survivors and encourage cancer
sufferers, has offered the city $1 million to fund such a
memorial, plus $100,000 for maintenance.
John Malmo, Park Commission chairman, said the city needs
the money to improve and maintain the park, which is in the
right location for what the Bloch Foundation wants.
Civil War and Southern heritage buffs are less than
pleased. ``I don't think we're just going to take it lying
down,'' said John T. Wilkinson III, a Memphis lawyer and
member of the Tennessee Division, Sons of Confederate
Veternas.
The General Nathan Bedford Forrest Camp, Sons of
Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the
Confederacy, have announced a rally at the park on May 19.
The Park Commission has a meeting the following day but is
not expected to make a final decision on the proposal until
next month.
The park has been part of the Memphis parks system for 170
years. It originally was part of the Public Promenade, 36
acres along the riverfront dedicated in March 1829 as open
space for public use.
It was named Confederate Park in 1907 and was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The park sits close to where a Northern armada launched a
spirited, but brief, battle on June 6, 1862 that ended with
Memphis' surrender.
Ed Williams, Shelby County historian, said the park offered
a good vantage point for citizens to watch the Battle of
Memphis, and a Union contingent reportedly docked below the
bluffs on the way to accept the city's surrender.
In the early 1900s, reunions of Confederate veterans were
held on the site, Williams said.
The park includes several plaques honoring Civil War heroes
and a statute of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. It
also has memorials unrelated to the Confederacy, including a
Ten Commandments tablet.
Still, Judith Johnson, executive director of Memphis
Heritage Inc., said the park holds an important place in the
city's past and changing it should be approached with care.
``I know a lot of people at the end of the 20th Century
feel the Confederacy is not someting we can hold up as a
value we can embrace, but we can't erase our history,''
Johnson said.
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Auto-parts Maker Making Progress as Spinoff From GM Nears
(By Brian S. Akre)
Troy, Mich.--Delphi Automotive Systems Corp., the auto-
parts manufacturer with locations in Mississippi and soon to
be independent from General Motors Corp., has no more money-
losing plants, is getting cooperation from its unions to cut
costs and is winning more non-GM business, its chairman said
Monday.
As the world's largest parts-maker, Delphi also plans to be
a major player in the industry's consolidation through an
aggressive acquisition drive, J.T. Battenberg III told
reporters before departing on a worldwide roadshow to raise
his company's profile among investors.
Delphi was once a disparate collection of parts operations
that, with parent GM, was near bankruptcy in the early 1990s.
Though it lost $93 million last year because of several one-
time costs, Delphi earned $284 million in the first quarter
this year.
GM is cutting Delphi loose to focus on its core business:
building cars and trucks. Delphi executives say they expect
their business to grow as other automakers no longer have to
fear working with a supplier owned by their biggest
competitor.
There's evidence that's already happening, even though the
spinoff won't be completed until May 28. In the first
quarter, Delphi won $4 billion in new contracts with GM and a
surprising $2 billion worth of non-GM contracts. Delphi stock
price increased 18 percent in its first three months.
``The stock has performed well,'' said analyst Jonathan
Lawrence of Bear, Stearns & Co. ``They're certainly winning
business, and that's picked up since their announcement of
the spinoff.''
Delphi, based in Troy, Mich., and Battenberg will face
their first big test come summer when they will work out
details of a new contract with the company's largest union,
the United Auto Workers. Talks already are under way with
some UAW locals and Battenberg said there has been progress.
UAW it Delphi with two strikes last summer that shut down
GM's North American assembly plants and cost Delphi $450
million. Both companies are trying to repair their long-
contentious relationship with the union.
Battenberg declined to comment in detail on that
relationship but said he was in ``personal touch'' with UAW
leaders. Though company insiders say UAW president Stephen P.
Yokich has been cooperative, publicly he has criticized the
spinoff and urged GM to retain 51 percent of the company.
The Delphi-UAW talks will coincide with the union's
triennial contract negotiations with GM, Ford Motor Co. and
the Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler AG. The UAW is expected
to demand that Delphi's hourly workers get virtually the same
deal as GM's hourly workers.
Delphi no longer has any plants that are unprofitable, in
some cases because its unions agreed to relax restrictive
work rules, Battenberg said. In Kokomo, Ind., for example,
the UAW agreed to work rule changes to allow the electronics
plant to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Battenberg said Delphi plans to focus on acquiring
companies that can supply future technology, especially in
the area of high-tech electronics as computers and satellite
telecommunications become more integrated into the design of
car and truck interiors.
``I look at Delphi becoming an electronics company that
makes products for vehicles, which is a lot more attractive
than a traditional auto-parts company,'' Lawrence said.
Though Delphi has been trimming its work force through
attrition, the company may end up adding workers if it meets
its goals to increase new business, Battenberg said.
Later this month, Delphi will debut a $1 million TV-and-
print advertising campaign to coincide with the Indianapolis
500 auto race. The campaign and 20-city roadshow are intended
to make Delphi a brand known outside the auto industry.
____
Biloxi Not Sure What To Do With Historic House
(By Tom Wilemon)
Biloxi, MS.--The home of Glenn and June Swetman is like a
time capsule with a paradox.
Inside the home, uranium glassware glows magically form
display cases. Underneath the home, the stark cement walls of
a fallout shelter stand dark and dank.
The Swetmans were living the American dream during the
early 1960s, but they knew that a nuclear nightmare could
destroy everything.
Coping with the Cold War is only one chapter in the history
of this house, which is a virtual treasure chest of
fascinating objects.
But its new owner and caretaker, the city of Biloxi, does
not yet know what to do with it. Biloxi assumed control of
the house in January after the death of June Swetman last
year.
June Swetman and her husband envisioned their home becoming
a city museum or a residence for the mayor when they arranged
in 1982 to donate it to the city. Either use is unlikely.
Setting up an official residence for the mayor is not a
priority for Mayor A.J. Holloway or the City Council. Nor are
city officials planning to open another museum.
The Georgian Revival home sits on a quiet street near the
beach, has no public parking and is in an area zoned for
residential use.
``Originally, the house was slated to be a historic museum
dedicated to telling the story of a day in the life of a
country banker,'' said Lolly Barnes, historical administrator
for Biloxi.
``That was the original purpose Mr. Glenn Swetman had in
mind. Whether or not that will be the purpose I don't know,''
Barnes said.
Glenn Swetman was the owner of The Peoples Bank and one of
the Coast's most respected civic leaders. He had a penchant
for collecting things.
[[Page E9334]]
The collections include valuable antiques, whimsical
walking canes, uranium glassware and Japanese woodblock
prints. Virtually every piece has an interesting story.
The prints once belonged to the architect Frank Lloyd
Wright. A Victorian dining table came from the estate of
19th-century social reformer Dorothea Dix.
The house, which is on the National Register of Historic
Places, has been offered as a headquarters for some Coast
performing arts organizations.
The Gulf Coast Opera is in process of setting up an office
in one of the second-story bedrooms. But that does not mean
the public will get to go inside.
``We don't anticipate a lot of foot traffic,'' said David
Daniels, president of Gulf Coast Opera ``What we mainly need
is a phone line and computer space. It's mainly a place where
people can call and make reservations for performances. That
space is ideal for that.''
Two of Swetmans children, Chevis Swetman and Nancy
Breeland, said they were pleased that the opera will use the
house because their parents avidly supported the performing
arts.
Their parents established a trust fund that now totals
$85,000 to pay for maintenance and repairs at the house. An
assessment of the house by the city's risk manager found no
major structural damages or problems.
The property has a value of $183,000. ``We are looking at
some preventive maintenance and some minor repairs,'' said
Vincent Creel, public affairs manager for Biloxi. ``The city
is still assessing its long-term options for use of the
property. The antique and art collections inside the house
belong to the Peoples Heritage Trust, a foundation the
Swetmans set up at Peoples Bank to preserve and protect the
Coast's historical properties.
``As far as I know, the uranium glass collection is one of
the more extensive in the country,'' said Chevis Swetman
``Years ago, people didn't know what it was that made it
glow. The opalescent glass, which glows under black lights,
was created by adding uranium to a glass mixture with a high
arsenic content.''
Outside the home, Chevis Swetman pointed to the fallout
shelter and noted that his father was a survivalist as well
as a collector of fine things.
``The fallout shelter has four escape hatches in case some
of them got blocked by rubble,'' he said. ``They were all
built at right angles because radiation travels in a straight
line. We were prepared for the big one.''
____
JUCO Campuses Hold Joint Graduation
Biloxi, MS.--Sean and Stephanie Harris of Lucedale
graduated from separate campuses of Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College, but took part in the same graduation
ceremony.
For the first time since 1968, the Jackson County,
Jefferson Davis and Perkinston campuses of Mississippi Gulf
Coast Community College united Monday night for a joint
graduation ceremony.
A few months ago, the Harris couple worried about having to
miss each other's graduation.
``I was very relieved to find out it was on the same day in
the same place,'' Stephanie Harris, 25, said Monday night as
she and her husband prepared for the processional at the
Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
``We both wanted to go to each other's graduation,'' said
28-year-old Sean, who completed the paramedic program at the
Jefferson Davis campus.
Stephanie Harris finished at the Jackson County campus with
an associate of arts degree.
With increasing enrollments and record-high graduating
classes, the three campuses of Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College have grown too large to hold separate
ceremonies in their gyms. More than 800 students took part in
the Monday night ceremony.
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