[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 44 (Thursday, April 18, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E573-E574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF GALE CINCOTTA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 2002

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, during this reflective season of Ramadan, 
Passover, and Lent, I have been reflecting on friends whose lives 
closely paralleled the stories of sacrifice in the Holy Books. It is 
this reflection that calls to my mind Mrs. Gale Cincotta of Chicago, 
who passed from this life to the next on August 15, 2001. I am grateful 
for the opportunity to encapsulate her life's work for the Record.
  Born of humble origin and reared in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, 
Gale became a neighborhood activist and then national leader as her 
personal knowledge of injustice led her on a passionate journey. Her 
dissatisfaction with her sons' educational opportunities spurred her to 
address the issue. She became impassioned with the root causes of an 
inadequate educational system: poverty, lack of decent and affordable 
housing and the resulting decaying neighborhoods. As her understanding 
grew about these issues, Gale found her true vocation. Armed initially 
only with a small but vocal band of neighborhood residents, Gale began 
a crusade which would eventually lead her to national prominence. She 
was, the Chicago Tribune noted upon her death, ``one of the most 
effective community activists in the nation.'' I would add that she had 
extraordinary vision, a sharp intellect, a love of those without voice 
or power, and a boundless sense of humor.
  Feisty, blustery, and with a keen ability to cajole or badger those 
with influence and power into doing what needed to be done, Gale earned 
the respect of all with whom she worked whether or not they agreed with 
her. Her passion was unmistakable, her commitment unwavering, and her 
expertise unparalleled. She taught many people, including myself, what 
being a neighborhood activist is really all about: it is about changing 
people's lives for the better. It is about helping them gain power to 
improve the condition of people's lives.
  Though responsible for many changes in neighborhood development and 
revitalization, lending practices and housing concerns across our 
nation, Gale's greatest public accomplishment was gaining Congressional 
approval of the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977. Passage of this 
Act, now a cornerstone of neighborhood financing that has released 
billions of dollars of private credit to formerly red-lined 
neighborhoods, was considered by the Chicago Tribune Gale's ``single 
greatest triumph.'' Ever the champion of marginal neighborhoods, she 
persuaded not only elected officials but also bankers, insurance 
companies, landlords, and business leaders that neighborhood 
investment--while being the right think to do--could also be 
profitable. She taught them that the savings of people of ordinary 
means should not be drained from their neighborhoods, but made 
available for reinvestment. Her work made the capitalist system work in 
some of the most neglected corners of our nation. Her tireless and 
unmatched efforts yielded visible results by turning faded city blocks 
into flourishing neighborhoods from coast to coast. Gale organized 
other programs and works, and many awards and accolades were bestowed 
upon her through the years, but surely none meant as much to her as the 
lasting legacy of the Community Reinvestment Act and the people and 
communities it still helps.
  Gale Cincotta lives on in the seeds she planted in the hearts of the 
people she served and the minds of those she battled with and against 
to make people's lives better. She

[[Page E574]]

never yielded. She once said to me that the media had convinced 
Americans they were all ``middle class'' and that had bred a dangerous 
political complacency among the working class of people and the poor, 
who struggled daily to gain an economic foothold in our country. Their 
interests will not be served by false images of how hard and political 
this struggle is really.
  The new director of the organization she founded, the National 
Training and Information Center, recalled that Gale--a mother of six 
sons and a widow--loved to dance. His message to the people upon taking 
the reigns as director began with a quote from an old Shaker hymn. The 
words seem to sum up Gale's legacy quite well: ``They buried my body 
and they thought I'd gone, but I am the dance and I still go on.'' 
Surely, she lives among us.

                          ____________________