[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 134 (Thursday, December 7, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11490-S11491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORIAM: BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I offer a few words in 
observance of the passing of novelist Bebe Moore Campbell, a most 
influential American writer and a leading advocate for people living 
with mental illness.
  I extend my deepest sympathy and most sincere condolences to Ms. 
Campbell's family, especially her husband, Ellis Gordon, Jr.; her 
mother, Doris Moore; and her daughter and stepson, Maia and Ellis 
Gordon III. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as they struggle 
with the death of a woman they loved dearly.
  In an illustrious career spanning 20 years, Bebe Moore Campbell was 
an extraordinarily perceptive author who tirelessly explored the 
American experience through a variety of perspectives. Growing up in 
both the North and the South in the 1950s and 1960s, she experienced 
first hand the numerous ways in which fear and hatred are manifested in 
the form of racial segregation and oppression. She learned about living 
amid injustice, about the rage and sorrow it imparts, and about the 
dignity and resolve required to overcome it.
  Ms. Campbell drew much of her inspiration and strength from the 
strong bond she had with her parents. Her second book, ``Sweet Summer: 
Growing Up With and Without My Dad,'' is a loving tribute to the warmth 
of extended family and friends, the strong women in her life who helped 
mold her character, and the heroic example of her father, whose 
perseverance after a car accident left him a paraplegic taught her 
courage and independence. The importance of family dynamics would be a 
guiding theme in Ms. Campbell's work and stimulated her interest in the 
intricate nature of relationships.
  As Ms. Campbell continued to explore the parent-child relationship, 
she also delved into the complexities that exist between and within 
genders, races, and communities. She produced two critically acclaimed 
novels in the first half of the 1990s set against the backdrop of 
historical instances of racial violence: ``Your Blues Ain't Like Mine'' 
and ``Brothers and Sisters.''
  In these novels, Ms. Campbell explored the issues of race, class, and 
gender and personalized them in the form of characters we related to 
and cared for. Courageous and exceptionally talented, she captured the 
social and historical forces that cut through out society and divide 
us. She graphically demonstrated how America's racial, economic, and 
gender fault lines cut through the lives of individuals, often forcing 
people into difficult and painful conflicts with others as well as 
themselves.
  Ms. Campbell focused in her later writings on the issue of mental 
illness. With passion and emotional depth, she explored the horrible 
consequences of mental illness and the strain that it places on those 
who love and depend on people suffering from a mental condition. Her 
work has helped to raise our Nation's consciousness about the issue and 
has made an invaluable contribution to our society's efforts to improve 
the lives of people living with mental illness. Ms. Campbell was a 
founding member of the Inglewood branch of the National Alliance for 
the Mentally Ill, and her children's book ``Sometimes My Mother Gets 
Angry'' won that organization's Outstanding Literature Award for 2003.
  In her work, Ms. Campbell illustrated how oppression and injustice 
dehumanizes everyone involved. She challenged and inspired us to 
examine our preconceptions and fears and to open our hearts and minds 
to those around us.

[[Page S11491]]

Her powerful voice will be dearly missed, but her legacy cannot be 
diminished. I am confident that her spirit will carry on in the 
countless others whose lives she has touched.

                          ____________________