[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 57 (Thursday, April 29, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONSIDERATION OF S. 1904, WILKIE D. FERGUSON, JR. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. KENDRICK B. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 29, 2004

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask that the following newspaper 
articles from the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
appear in the Congressional Record immediately following my statement:

                [From the Miami Herald, April 29, 2004]

U.S. House OKs Bill Naming New Federal Courthouse for Late Judge Wilkie 
                                Ferguson

                          (By Larry Lebowitz)

       The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously 
     passed a bill that would name the new federal courthouse in 
     downtown Miami after the late U.S. District Judge Wilkie D. 
     Ferguson Jr. and sent it to the President for his signature.
       ``His career is an inspiration to hundreds of young 
     attorneys, and his honor and integrity make him a symbol of 
     fairness on the federal bench,'' said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-
     Miami. ``. . . Naming the new federal courthouse after Judge 
     Ferguson is an honor that will reinforce his legacy for 
     decades to come.'' Only seven U.S. courthouses nationwide 
     have been named for black jurists, none of them in Florida. 
     The Senate version, introduced and co-sponsored by Florida 
     Democratic Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, passed on March 
     12.
       The $163 million courthouse, which will feature two 14-
     story towers connected by a mammoth atrium, is located at 400 
     N. Miami Ave. It is slated to open in late summer 2005.
                                  ____


          [From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Apr. 29, 2004]

 Miami Federal Court Building to Be First in State Named After African-
                                American

                          (By Ann W. O'Neill)

       Congress unanimously approved legislation naming Miami's 
     newest courthouse after the late U.S. District Judge Wilkie 
     D. Ferguson Jr., making it the first federal court building 
     in Florida to bear the name of an African-American.
       The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, was 
     approved Wednesday by a 406-0 vote.
       ``Now, that's consensus,'' Meek said of the unanimous roll 
     call vote. ``People in South Florida seeking justice can see 
     an example of a man who stood tall.''
       Meek, D-Miami, and other backers said naming the building 
     after Ferguson shows how South Florida has evolved from a 
     segregated society where, a generation ago, some courthouses 
     housed blacks and whites in separate holding cells.
       The $137 million Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States 
     Courthouse, going up at 400 N. Miami Ave., will be completed 
     next year. Only seven federal courthouses across the country 
     are named after African-Americans.
       Ferguson, who was 65 when he died last year of leukemia, 
     earned a reputation as an even-handed jurist who championed 
     the underdog. His friend, Miami civil rights attorney H.T. 
     Smith, eulogized Ferguson as ``the judge for the least, the 
     last, the lost, the looked-over and the left out.''
       In his most resonant federal court ruling, Ferguson was 
     credited with improving the lives of thousands of disabled 
     Florida residents. In 1999, he held the state in contempt of 
     court, forcing it to increase funding for home nursing care 
     and other services. The move allowed thousands of disabled 
     people to live at home rather than in institutions.
       Ferguson was born in May 1938 in Miami, where his father, 
     Wilkie Sr., was founding pastor of St. Andrew's Missionary 
     Baptist Church in Opa-locka. The elder Ferguson died last 
     year at age 94.
       His first landmark case came as a Miami-Dade Circuit Court 
     judge, when he ruled blacks had been systematically excluded 
     from a jury. He served on the state's Third District Court of 
     Appeal in Miami from 1980 to 1993, when President Clinton 
     appointed him to the federal bench.
       Ferguson heard most of his cases in Fort Lauderdale.
       The new courthouse bearing his name is taking shape as one 
     of the most architecturally distinctive buildings to appear 
     on Miami's skyline in years. It consists of two 15-story 
     glass towers connected by an atrium. When completed and 
     landscaped, it will resemble a ship afloat on a wavy sea of 
     grass.
       The bill was backed by 19 South Florida Congress members; 
     U.S. Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson; the Dade County Bar 
     Association; the former Black Lawyers Association, now known 
     as the Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association; the Caribbean Bar 
     Association; the Haitian Lawyers Association; the Miami-Dade 
     County Board of Commissioners and the city of Miami.

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