[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 29, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FORMER WISCONSIN GOVERNOR JOHN REYNOLDS

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, one of Wisconsin's great progressives 
died a few days ago. Former Wisconsin Governor John Reynolds passed 
away on January 6. He was 80.
  The son of an Attorney General, and the grandson of a Representative 
in the State Assembly, John Reynolds came from one of Wisconsin's most 
distinguished political families, and he himself was the model of what 
public service should mean.
  Reynolds, a native of Green Bay, was one of the founding fathers of 
the modern Democratic Party of Wisconsin, but his roots were in the 
Progressive Party of Robert and Phil La Follette. His grandfather was 
elected to the State Assembly as a Progressive Republican, and his 
father, who served as the State's Attorney General, was chairman of the 
independent Progressive Party.
  John Reynolds, like his father, served as Wisconsin's Attorney 
General. He was the State's Governor from 1963 to 1965, and was 
appointed by President Johnson to serve as a Federal Judge in 
Wisconsin's Eastern District where he served as Chief Judge from 1971 
until 1986.
  But as impressive as it is, that resume does not do him justice. In 
memorializing John Reynolds, the Wisconsin State Journal wrote that his 
true legacy was his support of the rule of law and equal rights under 
the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, he may be remembered best as a civil 
rights advocate. His most famous decision as a judge was his 1976 order 
that Milwaukee schools be desegregated.
  As columnist John Nichols wrote of him, ``John Reynolds never 
surrendered the Progressive vision that the political and economic 
rights of individuals must be protected against encroachments by 
corporate and political elites bent on self-service.''
  In 1963, as a sitting Governor, John Reynolds supported civil rights 
demonstrations. In a statement he made in support of those 
demonstrations, John Reynolds said: ``The time is long past when 
Americans can be content with foot-dragging in civil rights. Those who 
have urged caution forget that those who suffer the pains of 
discrimination suffer them every day.''
  Those words ring true today. They are a mark of the greatness of John 
Reynolds, a greatness that did not come from the offices he held, but 
from his principled compassion and political courage.

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