[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 11, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E943-E944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      WILLIAM ``LES'' BROWN: A LEGACY OF INSPIRATION AND ACTIVISM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 11, 2005

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, later this month, people in Chicago will 
gather to celebrate the life and achievements of William ``Les'' Brown. 
Les Brown had an enormous influence on the way our nation thinks about 
homelessness. He was a person of intelligence, creativity, passion and 
caring who showed that we can each make a difference in helping to 
create communities that provide support and opportunities for every 
individual. I am fortunate to have known and been inspired by Les and 
I, like many Chicagoans, will miss him.
  Les Brown was best known as the founder of the Chicago Coalition for 
the Homeless, formed in 1980 with the help of the Travelers and 
Immigrants Aid Society, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and other 
service providers. Karen Singer, executive director of the YWCA 
Evanston/North Shore, called him the ``moral compass'' of the movement 
to end homelessness. Ed Shurna, the current executive of the Chicago 
Coalition for the Homeless, acknowledges him as ``the chief strategist 
and idea man behind most of the Coalition's successes'' in providing 
housing, jobs programs and health care for the homeless.
  A social worker, former Air Force medical corpsman and a blues 
pianist, Les Brown used all of his skills to push for solutions. While 
others ignored the problem, he taught us that homelessness can be 
solved and that individuals living on the street deserve to be treated 
with dignity. In 1983, he organized the first national conference on 
homelessness in Chicago. In 1984, he underwent a heart transplant but 
never let that slow him down or limit his dedicated activism. For his 
entire life, he fought to keep this issue at the top of the political 
agenda, reminding us that the homeless are not nameless beings or 
numbers, but infants and children, working mothers and fathers, 
returning veterans and those living with illnesses who deserve our 
support and a safe, decent place to live.
  Les Brown grew up in rural Georgia, where he learned his values from 
his parents, who taught him the values of fairness and social justice. 
It was the love of the land that he developed in childhood that gave 
him the inspiration for ``Growing Home,'' an initiative that helps the 
homeless learn job skills at an organic farm in Marseilles, Illinois. 
According to Les, ``Homeless people often are without roots. They're 
not tied down, connected, not part of their family anymore. Our organic 
farming program is a way for them to connect with nature--to plant and 
nurture roots over a period of time.
  When you get involved in taking responsibility for caring for 
something, creating an environment that produces growth, then it helps 
you to build self-esteem and feel more connected.''
  There are concrete reminders of Les Brown's accomplishments 
throughout the Chicagoland area--low-income housing units that would 
not have been built without him, organizations and coalitions that 
would not exist but for his leadership, initiatives like Growing Home 
that grew from his vision. Some of the best evidence of his legacy can 
be found in the people he touched and motivated and who will carryon 
his work.
  Les Brown had an enormous impact and influence on the people he met, 
creating a generation of advocates who will follow in his path. One of 
them, Fred Friedman, wrote the following in commemoration:

                           Les Brown's Legacy

       Les Brown died the other day. I did not know him very well 
     or very long but he was very dear to me.
       I first met Les when I was still living in a homeless 
     shelter. As you might guess, it was at a meeting about 
     homeless youth. Later, he was kind enough to see me in the 
     office of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. I was 
     trying to decide what, if anything, to do with my life. At 
     that meeting, I told him that people, including myself, 
     sometimes had trouble seeing me as anything other than a 
     mentally ill homeless person. He said that he understood, and 
     that some people had trouble seeing him as anything other 
     than a person with a bad heart. I am sure that was a lie, Who 
     could think Les had a bad heart? However, it was incredibly 
     kind.
       I got to know him a little better at many endless Continuum 
     (of Care) meetings. Eventually, he nominated me for the 
     Governing Board of the Continuum. Still later, he, along with 
     Paul Selden and I, founded Next Steps, NFP. Still later, I 
     got to hear him play a mean Jazz piano.
       I do not know his family, or if he left any property to 
     them, but I do know that he left me a great legacy. Les saw 
     people without homes and tried to find them homes. He saw 
     hungry people and tried to feed them. He saw people without 
     power, and tried to empower them. He saw people without hope 
     and tried to give them hope. He took his work, but not 
     himself, seriously. He could disagree without being 
     disagreeable. He understood that good people could disagree 
     with him, and that he could be wrong. In short, Les left me a 
     legacy of trying and working, even when trying and working 
     seems silly. In other words, he left me legacy of hope. I 
     promise to use that legacy to continue his fight, until no 
     one

[[Page E944]]

     goes to bed hungry, and everyone has a home and hope.

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