[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 76 (Wednesday, June 14, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1152-E1153]
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

                        Wednesday, June 14, 2006

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank and praise 
Congressman John Lewis for visiting New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the 
end of May. Congressman Lewis described for students and community 
members his important involvement in the American Civil Rights 
Movement, and he reminded 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 to the people of New Bedford. The friendship 
between these two Members of Congress spans 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 mine, 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, which describes why the 
words of our friend and colleague, Congressman John Lewis, have such 
meaning and resonance in all of our communities today.

  [From the New Bedford Standard-Times, New Bedford, MA--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 
     days after her 23-year-old son David DePina II's arrest on 
     charges of murdering a 20-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

[[Page E1153]]

     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 that 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. And 
     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 that. Having the 
     courage to do something about it is the real test.

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