[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S2180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO LEAMON HOOD

 Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Leamon Hood, who will soon receive the Nelson ``Jack'' Hood Award for 
his commitment to the labor community, and his political and social 
activism.
  Leamon was born in 1937 in Jackson Georgia, a small town outside of 
Atlanta. The fifth of seven children to former sharecroppers, Leamon 
lived there for the first 15 years of his life, before moving to 
Atlanta after the death of his mother. In his senior year in high 
school, Leamon dropped out to join the United States Navy, where he 
subsequently earned his G.E.D. and was trained as a Certified Air 
Mechanic.
  It was after he left the Navy in 1960 that Mr. Hood first experienced 
the string of job discrimination, when racist hiring practices 
prevented him from getting employment as a civilian aircraft mechanic. 
As a result, Leamon went to work as a janitor in a paint manufacturing 
company. However, he again was confronted with discrimination when in 
1962 he was fired from his job as a janitor after refusing to join the 
Teamsters Union, which at the time contractually restricted blacks to 
jobs in the service department. Ultimately, Leamon became a school 
custodian in Atlanta and helped organize the Classified School 
employees into AFSCME. Yet even though he helped to organize his peers 
into AFSCME, Leamon himself refused to join again as a result of the 
persistent segregation and discrimination he found in the union.
  That finally changed in 1964, when the new President of AFSCME, Jerry 
Wurf, removed all official racial barriers of segregation and 
discrimination. Leamon joined the union, and became one of its most 
active members, at one point even seeking to become President of his 
local. Though he lost that bid, Leamon remained active and in 1967 he 
became one of the charter members in the Union's Staff Intern Program, 
which trained members to organize.
  Since 1970 Leamon has served as an organizer throughout the country, 
including stints as an Area Director in Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, 
Georgia, and several other states. In 1999 he was appointed a Regional 
Director responsible for Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, where 
he currently serves.
  It is my firm belief that Leamon will continue this fine tradition of 
service in the years to come, and will remain a tireless advocate on 
behalf of those in the labor community. I congratulate him on receiving 
the Nelson ``Jack'' Hood Award, and consider it a privilege to honor 
him today on the Senate floor.

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