[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 23, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E175-E176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRATULATING THE 2007 NAACP HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR HON. CAROLYN Q. 
                                COLEMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. G.K. BUTTERFIELD

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 23, 2007

  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a great woman 
in the African-American community and a visionary leader in North 
Carolina, The Honorable Carolyn Q. Coleman. Mrs. Coleman will receive 
the 2007 NAACP Humanitarian of the Year Award at the 23rd Annual NAACP 
Humanitarian of the Year Banquet on Saturday, January 27 in Durham, 
North Carolina. Her work over the last year is inspiring but what truly 
makes her remarkable is the scope of her deeds over a lifetime.
  Carolyn Quilloin Coleman is a native of Savannah, Georgia, where as a 
young woman she became involved in civil rights and human rights issues 
with the local NAACP Youth Council. After a 9 year ban of the NAACP in 
Alabama, Coleman joined the late Althea Simmons in reorganizing units 
in that State. She currently serves as Secretary of the National Board 
and Assistant Secretary of the National Association. On the State 
level, Mrs. Coleman is the First Vice President of the North Carolina 
State Conference and is a member of the Greensboro Branch's Executive 
Committee.
  Mrs. Coleman graduated from Savannah State College with a Bachelor of 
Science degree in History and minors in Economics and Sociology. She 
pursued her Masters Degree in Adult Education at North Carolina A&T and 
has also studied at the Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee.
  Professionally, Mrs. Coleman served as the Special Assistant to 
Governor Jim Hunt for eight years, providing guidance on issues of the 
minority community. In her forty-year relationship with the NAACP, Mrs. 
Coleman has served with distinction as a Regional Youth Director, 
Alabama State Director, Southeast Voter Education Director and the 
North Carolina State Director.
  Mrs. Coleman led the North Carolina State Conference in filing 13 
lawsuits challenging the at-large elections of Judges, County 
Commissioners, City Council and School Board members. Her efforts led 
to redistricting in the State, which made possible the election of two 
African-American Members of Congress in the 1990s, the first since 
Reconstruction. In total, the results of those suits led to the 
election of ten African-American Superior Court Judges and over 100 new 
African-American officials.
  In 2006, Mrs. Coleman won re-election to the Guilford County Board of 
Commissioners with 74 percent of the vote and was elected the first 
African-American woman to chair the Board. As a Commissioner, Mrs. 
Coleman is a liaison on several boards, including the Greensboro Sports 
Commission, the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Piedmont 
Authority for Regional Transportation, the Piedmont Triad Council of 
Governments and the Work First Planning Board, in addition to her 
responsibilities on the Board's Budget Process Committee, Community 
Based Organizations Study Committee and School Budget Committee.
  Despite her years of continued service, Mrs. Coleman still makes time 
for her friends--as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, her 
family--as the mother of one son, Carlton, and faith--as a communicant 
of the New Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro.
  I have had the privilege of knowing Mrs. Coleman for more than twenty 
years as a family friend and a colleague in the struggle for racial 
justice. There is no question that her work has made a difference in 
the lives of many North Carolinians.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me and the delegates to 
the NAACP Conference in paying tribute to this courageous

[[Page E176]]

and dedicated woman who has worked to foster and continue our Nation's 
founding principle--that all men and women are created equal.

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