[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 70 (Tuesday, June 6, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   RECOGNIZING CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2006

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank and praise 
Congressman John Lewis for visiting New Bedford, MA, this past week, to 
discuss his important involvement with the American Civil Rights 
Movement, and to remind all of us how we need to find the courage to 
continue the Movement.
  I'd also like to thank Congressman Barney Frank for inviting 
Congressman Lewis to speak. The two Congressmen are friends of more 
than 40 years, and as Congressman Frank states, Representative Lewis 
continues to be ``one of the great moral forces in this country.''
  Representative Lewis, a great hero of the American Civil Rights 
Movement, spoke to 1400-plus students and teachers at New Bedford High 
School, sharing his experiences growing up in the segregated South, and 
his eventual involvement with nonviolent protests.
  Congressman Lewis told the students ``that it was the young, like 
himself and many others who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
Committee,'' who led the way in the Civil Rights Movement.
  I would like to place into the Record the following editorial, Timely 
Message from John Lewis, which appeared in the June 1, 2006, edition of 
the New Bedford Standard-Times.

               [From the New Bedford Times, June 1, 2006]

                     Timely Message From John Lewis

       Whether it was the hand of the almighty or simply the good 
     sense of our local congressman, Barney Frank, yesterday's 
     visit to New Bedford by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., one of 
     the great heroes of the American Civil Rights Movement, could 
     not have been timed more perfectly.
       The 56-year-old Rep. Lewis, who is the son of a 
     sharecropper born in segregated Alabama, brought a message of 
     hope and healing to a city preparing to bury Bernadette 
     DePina, who was shot to death in her home last week, just 
     day's after her 23-year-old son David DePina II's arrest on 
     charges of murdering a 29-year-old man.
       Rep. Lewis didn't talk about crime or punishment or 
     politics. He talked about growing up poor in the segregated 
     South, about being inspired as a 15-year-old listening to the 
     radio by the actions of the late Rosa Parks and the soaring 
     words of a young black minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 
     to stand up for the dignity of all and ``to find a way to get 
     in the way'' of those who would deny others that dignity.
       And that's what he did. Arrested scores of times in 
     nonviolent protest of discriminatory voting practices, 
     segregated schools, lunch counters and public transportation, 
     he was threatened, beaten, spit upon and hated by Southern 
     whites trying to maintain the legalized segregation of the 
     Jim Crow south. He has faced trouble, counted losses and 
     continued his fight as what Congressman Frank--his friend for 
     more than 40 years--calls ``one of the great moral forces in 
     this country.''
       ``I am not bitter today, and I am not going to be bitter 
     tomorrow,'' Rep. Lewis said.
       And then he said something important to the community of 
     New Bedford, which some fear has split along racial, ethnic, 
     neighborhood and economic fault lines.
       ``We are one people,'' he said in the soaring voice of the 
     preacher he grew up wanting to be, with the same simple 
     conviction that powered Dr. King. ``We all need each other. 
     We all live in the same house.''
       He cautioned 1,400 sophomores and juniors at New Bedford 
     High School not to grow bitter but to become involved in 
     their own mission to make things better for all. He urged the 
     students to register to vote and to vote when they turn 18, a 
     privilege he marched for four decades ago.
       The congressman told the students that it was the young, 
     like himself and many others who formed the Student 
     Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who led the way in the 
     Civil Rights Movement.
       ``And it will be the children in New Bedford who will say, 
     `We're going to live in peace because we are all brothers and 
     sisters.' ''
       His words inspired a standing ovation in the packed high 
     school hall. They stirred the imagination of Stephanie 
     Houtman, 15, a sophomore. ``He was talking about how they 
     burned his back with cigarettes,'' Yet he did not relent. He 
     did not stir from the segregated lunch counter.
       Dominick Baptiste, 16, walked out of the auditorium with a 
     broad smile on his face at the end of the speech. ``It made 
     me feel good to know that people can fight racism,' '' he 
     said. ``The fact that he was able to find the courage to sit 
     at the white table. The fact that he was able to go back 
     again and again.''
       The congressman's visit reminded the city of what we all 
     know.
       What happens to a family on Ash Street or at Monte Park or 
     the United Front or County Street happens to all of us. An 
     unless we let our own bitterness go, unless we reach across 
     the way to our neighbor, we will never be what we want to be, 
     what we should be.
       It ought not take a visit by a congressman from Georgia to 
     remind us of that. Deep down, we all know it. Having the 
     courage to do something about it is the real test.

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