[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 25, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN REMEMBRANCE OF JOHN WESLEY WINTERS, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB ETHERIDGE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 25, 2004

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a great North 
Carolinian, John Wesley Winters, Sr.
  North Carolina and its capital city, Raleigh, lost one of its most 
outstanding citizens with the death of John Wesley Winters, Sr., on 
February 15. Mr. Winters was a builder, land developer, civil leader, 
and a pioneer in improving race relations in his city and State. He was 
a loyal Democrat and an innovative champion for human rights.
  Mr. Winters worked as a milkman and airport skycap in his youth, 
saving his money with the goal of becoming a builder for southeast 
Raleigh's African American community. In 1957, he opened his home-
building company and began building homes. Each year brought more 
houses. In the early 1960s he developed Biltmore Hills as a 
neighborhood of affordable homes for middle-class African American 
families. He named the streets of the subdivision for famous African 
Americans, including (Ralph) Bunche and (Ella) Fitzgerald Drives and 
(Roy) Campanella Lane. He later developed Madonna Acres, an upper-level 
development near St. Augustine's College, and Wintershaven, an 
apartment complex for senior citizens.
  Elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1961, only a year after the 
Greensboro drug store sit-ins launched the civil rights movement in 
North Carolina, Mr. Winters was thrust into a key leadership role in 
Raleigh and Wake County. His was the voice on the city council raised 
to help the city respond to the civil rights revolution. Quiet-spoken, 
diplomatic, determined, he was a tower of strength for both whites and 
blacks as the city responded to the demands for equal rights. When Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Raleigh in 1961, it was Mr. Winters 
who was asked to pick him up at the airport and drive him to the 
speech. Former Governor James B. Hunt called Mr. Winters ``the best 
bridge-builder between the races that has ever come along in North 
Carolina.'' Governor Hunt was later to appoint Mr. Winters to the North 
Carolina Utilities Commission.
  In 1974, Mr. Winters and Mr. Fred Alexander of Charlotte were elected 
to the North Carolina State Senate. They were the first two African 
Americans elected to that body since Reconstruction. With quiet 
determination and hard work, Mr. Winters quickly became a leader in the 
State senate, forming life-long friendships with North Carolina's 
political leaders. He was a friend of Governors, Senators, Congressmen 
and Presidents. Governor Terry Sanford, whose term as Governor 
corresponded with the civil rights protests, was a personal friend and 
sought Mr. Winters' advice.
  Mr. Winters is survived by his wife of 63 years Marie; by seven 
children, Frances, John, Jr., Donna, Naomi, Rebecca, Roland and 
Seannea; by a brother, Joseph Winters of Raleigh; by a sister, Delores 
Scotto of Port Charlotte, Florida; by eight grandchildren and two 
great-grandchildren.
  His courage and his leadership will be missed in Raleigh, Wake 
County, and North Carolina. If God charges each of us that we leave the 
world a better place than we found it on our birth, John Winters 
succeeded admirably. He lived, as the Chinese proverb says, ``in 
interesting times.'' We can only thank God that a kind Providence saw 
fit to place us on the same highway of life with John Winters and made 
him our friend.

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