[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CENTRAL NEW JERSEY RECOGNIZES AND HONORS THE LIFE OF JULIA BAXTER 
             BATES, FIRST BLACK STUDENT AT DOUGLASS COLLEGE

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                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2003

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor the 
courage, career and commitment of Douglass College's first black 
student, Julia Baxter Bates. Ms. Bates died earlier this month at the 
age of 86 after a distinguished life.
  Julia Baxter Bates became the first black student admitted to what is 
now Rutgers University's Douglass College due to her courage, her 
resolve, and thank goodness, due to a fortunate error. In 1934, Ms. 
Baxter Bates sent her application, along with the required photograph, 
to the Admissions Office of Douglass College. In reviewing her 
application, an admissions officer mistook Bates, a light-skinned black 
woman, for a white woman, and invited her to interview. At that 
interview, administrators suggested she attend a school where she would 
be ``more comfortable.'' At this moment, Ms. Baxter had a choice. She 
chose the more difficult path. With determination and courage and the 
assistance of her father, she convinced administrators to let her stay.
  Displaying resolve and purpose, Ms. Bates succeeded in the face of 
intolerance. In 1938, she graduated magna cum laude. When she could not 
get her teaching license because no school district would let her 
student-teach, she earned a master's degree at Columbia University and 
began teaching English and American literature at Dillard University in 
New Orleans.
  In response to her continued encounters with racism, Ms. Baxter Bates 
left the field of education and entered the world of legal justice and 
social activism. She joined the staff of the New York headquarters of 
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the 
NAACP. There she spent a quarter-century helping form the research 
sector that later wrote the winning brief in the now-famous Brown v. 
Board of Education. She considered her involvement in Brown v. Board of 
Education her greatest achievement.
  Bates returned to education in 1965 at Columbia's School of Social 
Work to work on urban education, and a few years later she finally 
became a New Jersey schoolteacher, in Newark. In 1984, she joined Essex 
County College as an administrator.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Julia Baxter Bates for her long 
career of social change and her commitment to education. From the 
courage and perseverance of individuals such as Julia, the institutions 
and the attitudes of our society progress. I ask my colleagues to join 
me in recognizing one of New Jersey's most significant daughters.

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