[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 28, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO JOSEPHINE ``JO'' BUTLER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 28, 2000

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, as District of Columbia residents struggle 
in two lawsuits to reclaim their full rights as American citizens, it 
is appropriate today to remember Josephine ``Jo'' Butler, who died a 
year ago this week.
  Jo Butler was not a public official or even a public person. She did 
not count herself among the self-important in the city. Instead, she 
worked tirelessly for the District's most important causes. Chief among 
these was statehood for the District of Columbia.
  Jo Butler and I became fast friends in the fight for statehood. She 
was there in 1993, when this body granted my bill, the New Columbia 
Admission Act, a two-day debate and vote. Many of the city's elected 
officials and citizens were on hand. What makes Jo so memorable to me, 
however, is that she was always here. Jo was here when there were few 
residents to speak up or stand up for statehood or even the more 
ordinary elements of the city's control over its own affairs.
  Nor did Jo ever give up on any of her issues, from peace to the 
environment. Whether for great causes like statehood for this capital 
city, or her precious Friends of Meridian Hill, Jo believed that 
struggle brings victory. She was a radical activist with a rare gift 
for bringing people together.
  The people I represent abhor undemocratic intervention by the 
Congress. Yet perhaps, as in most great long-standing struggles, few 
have had the steadfast devotion of Jo Butler. Jo Butler's spirit lives 
on today in a reinvigorated movement for self-government pressed, in 
part, by two court cases for equality and democracy for our citizens, 
now on their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. May Jo's lifelong devotion 
to her causes infect and influence many more to reach for the level of 
dedicated struggle Jo Butler achieved.

                          ____________________