[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 50 (Tuesday, May 2, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E682-E683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WILLIAM SLOAN COFFIN, JR.: A COURAGEOUS MAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 2, 2006

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, Vermont has lost one of its finest, most 
ethical and courageous residents. The Reverend William Sloan Coffin, 
Jr., who lived in Strattford, Vermont, has died at the age of 81.
  When the Civil Rights Movement began, when a brave coalition of black 
and white Americans brought the attention of the Nation to the 
injustice of segregation, Rev. Coffin was there, standing up for what 
was right. He was a Freedom Rider in Montgomery, Alabama in the early 
years of the Civil Rights struggle, and was arrested there in 1961. He 
was arrested in Baltimore two years later in an anti-segregation 
protest and again a year later in St. Augustine, Florida as he tried to 
integrate a lunch counter. He was one of those who, in the phrase of 
the day, ``put their bodies on the line'' to bring about a more 
equitable and just America.
  When the United States entered Vietnam, and the war escalated, Rev. 
Coffin was an articulate voice for peace. As Chaplain at Yale 
University, he offered the chapel as a sanctuary for those who refused 
to serve in Vietnam. He delivered the draft cards of antiwar protesters 
to the Justice Department in an effort to mount a legal challenge to 
the draft. Instead, the government challenged him, arresting Rev. 
Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock and three others for counseling draft 
evasion. He was convicted but the verdict was subsequently overturned 
by an appellate court.
  In his years at Yale and later at Riverside Church in New York, his 
was an eloquent voice for the disadvantaged and disinherited in 
America. He showed great courage in questioning the ethics of America's 
military decisions and unstintingly opposed the nuclear arms race. He 
was a foremost proponent of nuclear disarmament, calling for a nuclear

[[Page E683]]

freeze. He opposed both the Persian Gulf War in 1991 under first 
President Bush, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the current 
President Bush.
  William Sloan Coffin, Jr. was a man of strong and passionate views. 
Needless to say, not everyone agreed with all of his positions. But 
whoever knew him--and I count myself fortunate to be among them--
recognized his courage, his dedication to ethical reasoning, and his 
profound commitment to social justice. He served as a model of the 
engaged intellectual to generations of students and to countless 
Americans. The Nation will miss him, Vermont will miss him, and I will 
miss his strength and passion for justice.

                          ____________________