[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 133 (Wednesday, October 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF VIVIAN MALONE JONES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ARTUR DAVIS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 19, 2005

  Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer a tribute to 
Vivian Malone Jones.
  It is my generation's tragedy that so few of us knew the name of 
Vivian Malone Jones. It is a cruel twist of history that George 
Wallace's ``stand in the schoolhouse door'' is itself a vivid memory 
but that the protagonists of the event--the ones being stood against--
were off site and out of view.
  Vivian Malone Jones died too young last week at age 63. In prose, she 
was the first black American to earn a degree from the University of 
Alabama. In poetry, she was proof of the power of dignified commitment, 
and was a trailblazer to young black women my mother's age, whose own 
dreams seemed more attainable when they contemplated her boldness.
  Part of Jones' current anonymity was based on the choice she made to 
forge a conventional career as a government employee, rather than as a 
traveling icon of the civil rights era. She did not frequent the 
reenactments, the marches, or the annual seminars revisiting the 
sixties, and I never recall her weighing in on whether the war in Iraq 
was unjust or whether a Supreme Court nominee should be confirmed.
  But these choices of when and where to cast her influence were hers, 
and they were noble and worthy of respect. And the value Vivian Malone 
Jones put on respecting choices meant that I never heard her offer 
those facile denigrations of the caliber of this generation's African 
American leaders.
  My last memory of Jones is the Newsweek cover the week she registered 
at the University of Alabama. The cover featured the unattributed 
quote, ``We owe them--and we owe ourselves--a better country.'' It was 
so true, for Jones and her cohorts, and it is so true, for the children 
of poverty and depressed schools, for the working poor who are losing 
ground, and for the anonymous challengers to glass ceilings who are 
themselves broken for trying to climb to higher altitudes. Blessed are 
those whose courage moves us to make the ultimate commitments.

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