[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 23 (Monday, February 26, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO RUTH ABRAHAM

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HOWARD L. BERMAN

                             of california

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 26, 2001

  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, we rise today to pay tribute to the memory 
of an outstanding woman, Ruth Abraham, who dedicated her life to 
fighting for civil rights and social justice.
  Ruth was well respected and admired by her colleagues, friends and 
family. She was a leader of progressive causes and an activist whose 
interest in social and political reform led her to the ACLU where she 
served on the staff for 18 years, and as a volunteer and board member 
after retiring in 1981. She was beloved throughout the organization and 
affectionately nicknamed ``the mother of chapters,'' because of her 
work to expand and nurture the chapter movement. She traveled 
throughout the country to teach ACLU affiliates about grassroots 
development.
  Ruth's activism was by no means limited to her work with the ACLU. 
She immersed herself in politics and social issues from the day she 
first arrived in Los Angeles in 1950. As a founding member of one of 
the most successful Southern Californian coalition-forming 
organizations of the 1960s and 1970s, Californians for Liberal 
Representation (CLR), she helped to elect the first African-American, 
Augustus Hawkins, and the first Latino west of the Mississippi, Edward 
R. Roybal, to Congress. In addition, she helped break other color 
barriers by working to elect James Jones and Julian Nava to the Los 
Angeles Unified School Board.
  Ruth played an instrumental role in electing the first African-
American mayor of a predominately white American city, Tom Bradley of 
Los Angeles. After Mayor Bradley was elected to office in 1973, Ruth 
chaired the selection committee which recommended the appointment of 
new commissioners. Ruth was also active in the campaigns of Senator 
Alan Cranston, Congressman Julian Dixon and Judge Pacht in his race for 
Congress.
  Los Angeles City Controller, Rick Tuttle, described her as a ``giant 
fighter for the causes of civil liberties and civil rights.'' He worked 
closely with her and remembers her as a ``true champion'' in the battle 
to end racial and religious discrimination in housing during the 1960s.
  While students at UCLA, we first met Ruth when she was the leader of 
the California Democratic Council (CDC). We have been privileged to 
work with her on many challenging issues since that time and have seen 
firsthand the powerful impact she has had on those around her. She was 
a woman of tremendous courage, integrity, idealism and commitment.
  Having lived through the deaths of her husband Bud and her son, 
Steve, she is survived by her youngest son, Peter. Ruth will be missed 
by all of us whose lives she has touched.
  Mr. Speaker, we are proud to ask our colleagues to join us in 
saluting the late Ruth Abraham.

                          ____________________