[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 41 (Thursday, March 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HONORABLE MILTON B. ALLEN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2003

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay respect to the life of 
a great man who passed away--my friend and mentor, the Honorable Milton 
B. Allen. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in 
remembering the life of a brilliant man, the Honorable Milton B. 
Allen--a brilliant lawyer, judge, father, husband, mentor, community 
activist and leader. A life that ended last week when the Judge Allen, 
at 85, died of cardiac arrest at his home in Windsor Hills.
  Milton Allen was a man of humble beginnings, who rose to great 
heights as a polished lawyer and fair jurist. He attended Douglass High 
School in Baltimore, Maryland where he played third-string fullback on 
the football team and haunted the library. He read everything he could 
find. He later went on to Coppin State College to become a teacher.
  ``Simple reason,'' he said one day. ``Teaching was about the only 
thing open to blacks then.''
  Mr. Speaker, Milton Allen was a teacher in the freedom schools of our 
time. As a young man in the Navy, Milton Allen taught other young men 
of color the skills that would allow them to advance in their military 
careers--this during a time when no men of color could advance past 
that of seaman. As a lawyer, he taught thousands of his neighbors how 
to find a path to justice within the arcane corridors of the law.
  As Baltimore City's first African American State's Attorney--the 
first Black prosecutor in any major American city--Milton Allen taught 
our community that the pursuit of justice could, indeed, be ``color-
blind.'' He sued the city to desegregate ``public'' tennis courts and 
defended people who lost their jobs for attending public meetings where 
speakers included communist sympathizers, as he believed that free 
speech should be protected in America. He also sued the state to open 
``public'' colleges to blacks.
  Later in life as a judge on what would later become Baltimore's 
Circuit Court, Milton Allen helped many of the City's troubled youth by 
giving through his seasoned advice as a family court judge.
  Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to work for Milton Allen after he 
had lost his re-election bid for State's Attorney. He had joined the 
law firm of Mitchell, Allen and Lee, and I served as the firm's law 
clerk. Mr. Speaker, Milton Allen, although always busy and always 
blazing a trail for righteousness, always found time to stop to engage 
even strangers in meaningful conversation. He was always giving helpful 
advice.
  In fact, the advice and counsel that I received from Milton Allen 
went far beyond his contribution to the skills that made me a more 
capable attorney. Judge Allen taught young lawyers like me that our 
calling demanded constant devotion to integrity.
  And Mr. Speaker, Judge Allen exemplified integrity. As Dr. Stephen 
Carter once observed:

       Persons of integrity know the difference between what is 
     right and what is wrong. They stand up for what is right--
     even when that stand may place them in jeopardy. Persons of 
     integrity persevere and lead--until the rest of the world 
     catches on and catches up. And they are not afraid to 
     proclaim their vision of what is right--so others can follow 
     in their steps.

  Dr. Carter could have been writing about my friend--and teacher--
Judge Milton B. Allen. Judge Allen devoted his life to planting the 
seeds of justice within the human spirit. He taught us that, in a free 
society, the seeds of justice can take hold and grow.
  Mr. Speaker--most important of all--Milton Allen taught my community 
that justice grows best in the shared soil of universal respect. The 
source of justice is the integrity that comes from our respect for each 
other as human beings. Milton Allen was a teacher and a friend. Our 
lives will be less for his passing--but we have been truly enriched by 
his living. Milton Allen paved the way for so many lawyers who never 
even had the privilege of knowing him.
  In the words of the theologian, Max Lucado, ``The great revivals and 
reformations that dot the history of humanity were never the work of 
just one person. Every movement is the sum of visionaries who have gone 
before, generations of uncompromised lives and non-negotiated truths. 
Faithful men and women who have led forceful lives.'' Mr. Allen was 
this kind of human being. And I will miss him.

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