[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 64 (Thursday, May 1, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3622-H3623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING STATE SENATOR CLARENCE W. BLOUNT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Maryland 
Senator Clarence W. Blount, a man whose life exemplified the greatness 
that lives within all of us.
  I am saddened to inform this body that in the afternoon of April 12, 
2003, State Senator Clarence Blount passed away from complications 
related to a stroke at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife 
Gordine, and his two sons, Michael and Mark, and many more friends and 
family in Maryland who mourn the loss of this great statesman.
  Mr. Speaker, W.E.B. DuBois once wrote that ``the roots of the tree, 
rather than its leaves, are the source of its life.'' Today I honor a 
man who devoted his life to that principle.
  When Clarence Blount died, he was best known as the former majority 
leader of the Maryland Senate where he served the people of Maryland 
for over 31 years, after stepping aside last year to let in some ``new 
blood,'' and as a champion of public education. However, I recall this 
wonderful human being as my teacher, my mentor and friend. Clarence 
Blount, by his own self-description, was an ordinary man called to an 
extraordinary mission of uplifting the lives of others. He remained 
steadfast in pursuit of that calling. In the process, he became 
extraordinary himself. When Clarence Blount was born to Lottie and 
Charles Johnson Blount, Sr., in South Creek, North Carolina on April 
20, 1921, I doubt whether anyone outside of his own family could have 
anticipated just how far his determination and talent would carry him 
in life.
  His father worked on a tobacco farm. His mother would die when he was 
just 5 years old. The Blount family was so poor they could not afford 
to buy their children shoes. It was only after the family moved to 
Baltimore that Clarence Blount was able to begin school at the age of 
10. At that time he was unable to read or count on his fingers, but 
through determination and with the help of dedicated teachers, he 
graduated from Frederick Douglass High School at the age of 21.
  He became one of the greatest champions of American public education 
ever known. One month after Clarence Blount entered Morgan State 
University, he was drafted into the then-segregated United States Army 
to fight in World War II. He served with distinction in Italy as a 
member of the all-black Buffalo Division of the 92nd Infantry.
  The courage and dedication to duty that he demonstrated while 
removing mines from a river passage earned him a battlefield 
commission. After fighting for his country against both the enemy and 
the barriers of Jim Crow, Mr. Blount returned to Morgan State in 1946 
and graduated in 1950. He became a teacher, earned a master's degree in 
education from Johns Hopkins University, and eventually advanced to 
become the principal of Baltimore's Dunbar High School.
  Mr. Speaker, the education of children became Clarence Blount's 
passion and mission in life. He used his own prior hardships and life 
experiences as a passport to help other people improve their lives. As 
a teacher, principal, and later chairman of the Social Services 
Department of the Community College of Baltimore, Clarence Blount 
opened the doors to educational opportunities for thousands of young 
people in our community.
  That same calling and that same determination, to address the 
inadequate funding of our public schools, led Mr. Blount into public 
life. He sought and won election to the Maryland Senate in 1971. He 
became the first African American to chair a Senate committee in 1987, 
and he became Maryland's first African American majority leader in 
1983, a post that he held until his retirement last year.
  It was during that period of public service that Clarence Blount 
directly influenced the course of my life. When I was a young 
legislator serving my second year in the Maryland House of Delegates, 
Senator Blount, then chair of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, 
encouraged me to run for and win

[[Page H3623]]

that position. He had seen something in me that I had not seen in 
myself. Our personal relationship became even closer when we traveled 
together to Israel in the 1980s. He became like a second father to me.
  He later encouraged me to run for the second highest position in the 
State of Maryland House of Delegates, Speaker pro tempore. He was the 
first person to encourage me to run for Congress in 1996. I recount 
these personal influences because Clarence Blount's impact upon my life 
was not unique. He touched everybody he could. He never ceased being a 
teacher who found his greatest reward in the accomplishments of his 
students.
  About a year and a half ago, Clarence Blount and I were both asked to 
speak at a neighborhood housing event in the Ashburton section of 
Baltimore. I thanked him for being such a magnificent and significant 
part of my life, for seeing qualities in me that I had not realized in 
myself. I also thanked him for fighting for our neighborhoods in 
Baltimore and for giving our communities a voice in Annapolis.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I stand today to salute a great American who came up 
through difficult times, an ordinary man called to an extraordinary 
mission.

                          ____________________