[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 20, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S32]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING MARCIA COGGS

 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I want to remember Marcia 
Coggs, a trailblazer in Wisconsin politics and a dear friend, who 
passed away in December.
  Words cannot fully express the impact Marcia Coggs had on the lives 
of the people of Wisconsin. She was the first African-American woman 
elected to the State's legislature and was widely known as ``the 
Conscience of the State of Wisconsin.'' Marcia also became the first 
African-American to sit on the State legislature's joint finance 
committee. Better housing, the best in public education, integration 
and human rights were just some of the causes Marcia championed during 
her 16 years in the Wisconsin Legislature.
  First elected to the State assembly from Milwaukee in 1976, she 
forced the State to listen and pay attention to the troubling issues 
people in her district often faced. Civil rights, both in Wisconsin and 
throughout the world, were always at the forefront of her mind. Those 
who knew her were not surprised when she protested against apartheid in 
South Africa, even joining a demonstration outside that nation's 
Washington, DC, embassy in 1985.
  I had the honor and privilege of working with Marcia on several 
issues, including a successful effort to make Martin Luther King Jr. 
Day a legal holiday in Wisconsin. We also joined together in fighting 
to establish a private cause of action for civil rights violations.
  I am honored to have been associated with her and proud to have 
called her both a mentor and a friend. Marcia made an outstanding 
contribution to the lives of countless Wisconsinites and left a legacy 
that the people of my State will honor for many years to come.

                          ____________________