[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 19, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1449-E1450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING BENJAMIN L. HOOKS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. AL GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 19, 2006

  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor the life, 
legacy, and leadership of Benjamin L. Hooks. For 15 years Benjamin L. 
Hooks presided over America's largest and most influential organization 
for African-Americans, the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, NAACP. Under his leadership, the influence of this 
organization was greatly enhanced, adding several hundred thousand new 
members to its

[[Page E1450]]

ranks. Beginning in 1977, when he became executive director of the 
NAACP, he began issuing formal opinions on topics as diverse as the 
lack of Black executives in Hollywood, the role of the Black middle 
class on the improvement of life in the low-income areas, and the 1991 
nomination and confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas to the U.S. 
Supreme Court.
  Benjamin L. Hooks was born in Memphis, TN in 1925, the fifth of seven 
children of Robert B. and Bessie Hooks. Although his family was 
comfortable by so-called Black standards, Hooks would recall wearing 
hand-me-down clothes and watching his mother stretch the groceries so 
everyone had enough to eat. Hooks's parents were both hard-working 
Americans, and his grandmother was the second Black woman in the United 
States to graduate from college--Berea College in Kentucky.
  During the Second World War, Benjamin L. Hooks found himself in the 
humiliating position of guarding Italian prisoners of war who were 
allowed to eat in restaurants that were off limits to him because he 
was not White. The experience helped to deepen his resolve to fight 
against all forms of discrimination in the United States. After his 
wartime service--he was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant--he 
would later head north to Chicago to study law at DePaul University. 
Even after putting his life on the line for his country, no law school 
in his native Tennessee would admit him simply because he was not 
White.
  Hooks earned his J.D. degree in 1948 and promptly returned to 
Memphis, vowing to help break down segregation. He passed the Tennessee 
Bar examination and opened up his own law practice, confronting 
prejudice at every turn. By the late 1960s Hooks worked as a judge, a 
businessman, a lawyer, and a minister. Twice a month he flew to Detroit 
and preached at the Greater New Mount Moriah Baptist Church. Always 
dedicated to the civil rights struggle, he constantly made himself 
available to the NAACP as needed for civil rights protests and marches.
  On November 6, 1976, the 64-member board of directors of the NAACP 
elected Hooks executive director of the prominent civil rights 
organization. Dr. Hooks and his wife handled the NAACP's business and 
helped to plan for its future for more than 15 years. He told the New 
York Times that a ``sense of duty and responsibility'' to the NAACP 
compelled him to stay in office through the 1990s. In February of 1992, 
at the age of 67, he announced his resignation from the post after many 
years of faithful and dedicated service. The service of this great 
leader will never go unforgotten.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to honor the life, legacy, and 
leadership of Benjamin L. Hooks.

                          ____________________