[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 12 (Monday, January 22, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SIMEON BOOKER: INTEGRITY, COMPASSION AND SERVICE IN JOURNALISM

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 22, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my dear friend, 
Simeon Booker, on the occasion of his retirement as Washington Bureau 
Chief of Jet magazine. One of our nation's greatest journalists, his 
legacy is that of trailblazing reporter, radio commentator, author, and 
most of all, selfless and courageous advocate and defender of his 
people.
  Simeon, whom I have known since coming to Washington in 1971 at the 
time of the founding of the Congressional Black Caucus, was almost 
single-handedly responsible for informing the nation of our presence in 
the United States Congress and our fledgling role in the governance of 
the country. With his weekly column, he made it known to Black America 
that they too had a voice in national politics which spoke for them in 
the formulation of policies that affected their lives. The Caucus has 
grown from the original 13 to 43 members, one of them running for 
President. Simeon Booker has more to do with that than he would ever 
admit.
  Trailblazer that he was, Simeon never made himself the story. Forever 
humble, his great, and only, mission was to advocate for and record the 
history of African Americans. Bravely, he covered the Emmett Till 
lynching, despite threats to his life by a local white sheriff; 
reporting the first freedom ride from Atlanta to Birmingham, he had to 
use his Washington connections to get Justice Department protection 
from an angry mob. He marched with Martin Luther King through the 
hisses and catcalls from hostile white crowds. He covered the Little 
Rock 9 as they entered the Arkansas school house protected by federal 
troops. He traveled to Africa with Vice President Nixon and others as 
that continent threw off the yoke of European imperialism.
  The first Black reporter at the Washington Post, he gave up the job 
to focus on covering the civil rights movement for the Black press. He 
was the first to win the Newspaper Guild Award, the second awarded the 
prestigious Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, and the first ever named to 
the pool of reporters covering the inauguration of President John F. 
Kennedy in 1962.
  I congratulate and commend to my colleagues Simeon Booker, a 
preacher's son born in Baltimore, and his dear wife, Carol McCabe, who 
has stood by him. In the pantheon of American journalism, he stands in 
the first tier.

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