[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 20, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6162-S6163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 518--HONORING THE LIFE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF JAMES 
                                CAMERON

  Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Allen, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
Levin, Mr. Obama, and Ms. Landrieu) submitted the following resolution; 
which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 518

       Whereas James Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust 
     Museum (the Museum) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a compelling 
     memorial in the United States to victims of lynching and 
     racial violence;
       Whereas Mr. Cameron was the last living survivor of a 
     lynching until his death on June 11, 2006, at age 92;
       Whereas a Senate resolution recognized Mr. Cameron as the 
     Nation's oldest living lynching victim in June 2005 and 
     formally apologized for its failure to outlaw lynching, which 
     killed more than 4,700 people from 1882 to 1968, three-
     fourths of whom were black;
       Whereas seven United States Presidents called for lynching 
     to be outlawed, and the House of Representatives passed bans 
     three times in the early twentieth century, only to have the 
     Senate filibuster each of them, one filibuster lasting six 
     weeks;
       Whereas in Marion, Indiana in 1930, when he was 16 years 
     old, Mr. Cameron and two friends, Abe Smith (age 19) and 
     Tommy Shipp (age 18), were falsely accused of killing a 
     Caucasian man and raping his girlfriend;
       Whereas after the arrest of the three men, a mob broke into 
     the jail where they were being held and tried to lynch them;
       Whereas the mob lynched Mr. Smith and Mr. Shipp but spared 
     Mr. Cameron's life;
       Whereas Mr. Cameron was beaten into signing a false 
     confession, convicted in 1931, and paroled in 1935;
       Whereas the governor of Indiana pardoned Mr. Cameron in 
     1993 and apologized to him;
       Whereas Mr. Cameron promoted civil and social justice 
     issues and founded three NAACP chapters in Indiana during the 
     1940s;
       Whereas James Cameron served as the Indiana State Director 
     of Civil Liberties from 1942 to 1950, and he investigated 
     over 25 cases involving civil rights violations;
       Whereas Mr. Cameron relocated to Wisconsin after receiving 
     many death threats, but he continued civil rights work and 
     played a role in protests to end segregated housing in 
     Milwaukee;
       Whereas in 1983, Mr. Cameron published A Time of Terror, 
     his autobiographical account of the events surrounding his 
     arrest in 1930;
       Whereas Mr. Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust 
     Museum in 1988 in order to preserve the history of lynching 
     in the United States and to recognize the struggle of 
     African-American people for equality;
       Whereas the Museum contains the Nation's foremost 
     collection of lynching images, both photographs and 
     postcards, documenting the heinous practice of lynching in 
     the United States;
       Whereas the Museum performs a critical role by exposing 
     this painful, dark, and ugly practice in the Nation's 
     history, so that knowledge can be used to promote 
     understanding and to counter racism, fear, and violence;
       Whereas the Museum also documents the history of the 
     African-American experience from slavery to the civil rights 
     movement to the present day; and
       Whereas the Museum exists to educate the public about 
     injustices suffered by people of African-American heritage, 
     and to provide visitors with an opportunity to rethink 
     assumptions about race and racism: Now, therefore, be it

[[Page S6163]]

       Resolved, That the Senate honors and celebrates the life 
     and accomplishments of James Cameron and expresses 
     condolences at his passing.

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