[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5449-S5450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  EULOGY FOR REVEREND JAMES L. STOVALL

 Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, my State of Louisiana recently 
mourned the death of one of our most notable and renowned religious 
leaders, Reverend James L. Stovall, a minister of the United Methodist 
Church for thirty years and the founder of the Louisiana Coalition 
Against Racism and Nazism. In 1989, fearful of the rise of former Ku 
Klux Klan leader David Duke, Reverend Stovall led the effort to bring 
together people of faith and other citizens to oppose the hatred and 
bigotry espoused by Duke and many of his supporters.
  As a participant in the Louisiana Senate election of 1990 and the 
governor's election the following year, I can attest to successful 
efforts of Reverend Stovall and his Coalition in exposing for Louisiana 
and the world Duke's harmful and divisive racist record.
  Those who did not know James Stovall might not have known that his 
role in forming and leading the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and 
Nazism was merely the culmination of a life and career dedicated to 
championing human rights and better relations among people of all 
faiths, ethic backgrounds, and nationalities. As one of his daughters 
said to a newspaper reporter after his death on May 17, ``He had a 
genuine sense of caring about

[[Page S5450]]

people and a strong sense of right and wrong.''
  James Stovall was born in Winn Parish, graduated from Centenary 
College in Shreveport and the Perkins School of Theology at Southern 
Methodist University. During the Second World War, he served this 
country as a chaplain attached to the Marine Corps. Following the war, 
he returned to Louisiana where, for thirty years, he served Methodist 
churches in Eunice, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Metairie, and 
Monroe. A strong believer in ecumenism, he was a leader in the creation 
of the Greater Baton Rouge Federation of Churches and Synagogues, and 
from 1976 to 1991, he served as executive director of the Louisiana 
Interchurch Conference.
  Reverend Stovall served not only the church, but held several 
positions in State government. He was executive director of the 
Governor's Office of Elderly Affairs from 1979 to 1980, chairman of the 
Governor's Pardon and Parole Study Commission in 1976, and a member of 
the Louisiana Commission on Human Rights in 1992.
  At his funeral service in Baton Rouge, one of Reverend Stovall's good 
friends, Dr. Lance Hill, who is executive director of the Southern 
Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University New Orleans, 
shared a powerful story about his legacy. I would like to quote from 
that eulogy at this time:

       Many years ago Jimmie told me that John Wesley, the founder 
     of the Methodist Church, once noted that a man's achievements 
     in this lifetime are fleeting and insignificant; what is 
     meaningful is the shadow that he casts into the future. We 
     formed the Southern Institute for Education and Research at 
     Tulane University nine years ago to continue the work of 
     Jimmie Stovall and the anti-Duke coalition, but this time 
     through a proactive program that taught young people the 
     consequences of prejudice and the individual moral obligation 
     to speak out against the oppression of others.
       The Southern Institute is very much Reverend Stovall's gift 
     to Louisiana. I told Jimmie years ago that we should have 
     named it the Stovall Institute, but people might think it was 
     a [football] clinic. Jimmie just laughed, but he knew what I 
     meant. The work of the Institute is part of Jimmie's vast 
     shadow cast into the future.
       A few months ago, I returned to St. Catherine of Sienna, a 
     school in the middle of [David] Duke's old legislative 
     district. We had worked with the teachers and students there 
     for years. That day I watch 150 students mesmerized by the 
     story told by Eva Galler, a Holocaust survivor. The students 
     heard the story of Eva's leap from the train to Auschwitz; 
     the destruction of her family; the end of the world as she 
     knew it. Eva told them that this was not simply a story of 
     Jews and Nazis, it was a story of racism and hatred. It could 
     happen anywhere, anytime, and they had a moral obligation to 
     resist hatred at every turn.
       I watched three young boys on the back row, sitting on the 
     edge of their seats, straining to see over the tall girls in 
     front of them. They were transfixed by Eva. And as Eva spoke, 
     I saw the soft, warm shadow of Reverend Stovall envelop the 
     children. These children, the next generation of leaders in 
     Louisiana, these children were his legacy. In this sense, 
     James Stovall achieved a kind of immortality that only the 
     best of us can ever dream of. We will miss him in body, but 
     he will always be with us in spirit.

  I extend my heartfelt condolences to Reverend Stovall's daughters, 
sisters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In the midst of their 
grief, I hope that they will be comforted to know that his important 
work and the principles that guided him in that work will not soon be 
forgotten.

                          ____________________