[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1299-H1300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GERALD W. HEANEY FEDERAL BUILDING AND UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE AND
CUSTOMHOUSE
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 187) to designate the Federal building and United States
courthouse and customhouse located at 515 West First Street in Duluth,
Minnesota, as the ``Gerald W. Heaney Federal Building and United States
Courthouse and Customhouse''.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 187
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.
The Federal building and United States courthouse and
customhouse located at 515 West First Street in Duluth,
Minnesota, shall be known and designated as the ``Gerald W.
Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse and
Customhouse''.
SEC. 2. REFERENCES.
Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper,
or other record of the United States to the Federal building
and United States courthouse and customhouse referred to in
section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Gerald
W. Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse and
Customhouse''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
For me, today is a very fulfilling, as well as nostalgic, moment to
move this bill to designate the Federal building and the U.S.
courthouse and customhouse in Duluth for Judge Gerald W. Heaney.
He was appointed judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the
Eighth Circuit on November 3, 1966. He took senior status in December
31, 1988; finally retired last August after 40 years on the bench. But
that is only part of the story.
Gerald Heaney was born January 29, 1918, in Goodhue, a rural
community in southeastern Minnesota. He grew up in a farming community,
learned the values of rural America, went to my college which I
attended many years later, College of St. Thomas, where he graduated
and went on to the University of Minnesota where he got his law degree
in 1941, but then started a new chapter in the life of Gerald Heaney.
He enlisted in the Army in World War II. He was trained as a United
States Army Ranger, and he was on the landing craft at 6:30 in the
morning on Omaha Beach in Normandy.
I interviewed Judge Heaney for the Library of Congress project on
World War II veterans. They are attempting at the Library to get the
personal views of those who participated in World War II, and he told
this story:
``We were all herded into the landing craft. At 6:30 we arrived close
to the beach. We could not quite get into the beach because of the
obstacles that the Germans had placed under water and also had
proximity bombs that would blow up ships. They were having trouble
getting the vessels in, so they could not get to the beach, but they
got into relatively shallow water. And the door went down on the
landing craft, and the captain stood up and said, everyone ashore, and
he was cut down by gunfire. And the first lieutenant stood up and said,
everyone ashore, and he was cut down by gunfire. And then,'' said Judge
Heaney, ``that left me, Second Lieutenant Gerald Heaney, in charge, and
I looked up and said, we are not going out that door; everybody over
the side.''
How many lives he saved we will never know, but they got into water
that was too deep for them to touch the bottom. They tried to swim.
They were sinking. They all cut off their backpacks loaded with their
food and supplemental ammunition and made it to the shore.
I was privileged to be in the group of Speaker Hastert on the 60th
anniversary of D-Day and stood at that beach, at that shoreline, and
looked up at where the German gun implacements were located. It is an
awesome crossfire site, fearsome.
Men were cut down right and left as they crawled and inched their way
up. By 3:30 in the afternoon, they had made progress of just about a
mile, circled around the German guns, which was their objective, and
with hand grenades and other explosives, explosive packs, took out the
German gun implacements, making that segment of the beach safer for
more landings.
By then they were out of ammunition. Judge Heaney said, I said to my
men, and there were only a few of us left, we will go back to the
beach; they will have landed supplies, and we can be replenished. So
they turned around, and he stopped and choked and said, and that is
when I saw the carnage, thousands killed.
But they returned, got supplemental ammunition, went back up that
beachhead, and their job was to then circle around La Pointe du Hoc,
which is a straight, rocky cliff. Rangers are going to scale La Pointe
du Hoc from below, and Heaney and his Ranger group were to distract the
Germans, take out the gunnery and make it safe, and they did. They
attacked. They took out powerful German machine gun implacements and
long-range artillery.
For that heroism at La Pointe du Hoc, Judge Heaney was awarded the
Silver Star, the second highest award our Government gives to our
military personnel, but that was not the end. They continued all across
France and into Germany.
By 1945, they had gotten to the Elbe, and there the British units,
Russian units and American units met, but they postponed the formal
meeting until the following morning where they would have a flag-
raising ceremony. And as Judge Heaney said, he looked over, and the
Russians had a flag, the British had a flag; he said, where is ours?
They did not have a flag. No one had thought to bring a flag. They just
fought their way courageously across Europe.
So Judge Heaney, Gerald Heaney, by then Captain Heaney, went into the
village nearby and bought red, white and blue cloth and found
seamstresses in the village who could sew that into an American flag
with 48 stars at the time. He still has that flag. He brought it with
him for the Labor Day celebration this year at Park Point in Duluth,
and there was not a dry eye in the crowd.
That is the man, that is the courage, that is the strength. He went
on to be appointed a U.S. circuit court judge by Lyndon Johnson, and
displaying the same courage that he showed for his country in defense
of liberty and freedom, he presided over the case to desegregate the
St. Louis school system. He wrote the opinion and has written a book
about not only the opinion, but the 20 years that he presided over the
continuing desegregation of the St. Louis schools in his capacity as
circuit court judge. It is entitled, ``Unending Struggle. The Long Road
to an Equal Education in St. Louis,'' with Dr. Susan Uchitelle, who was
a law clerk for Judge Heaney.
He writes, Our involvement in the St. Louis public school case over a
period of 18 years convinced us that, after
[[Page H1300]]
having recused ourselves from further participation in the case, that
we should write a history of education in St. Louis. Much has been
written about education during the slave years, 1820 to 1865. No one
has attempted to pull together the rich material written over the
period from 1820 to the 1980s.
It is all compiled in this remarkable document of how one court case
changed the lives of children, of generations of children, of an entire
community, made life better for not only African Americans but all
citizens living in St. Louis.
{time} 1345
I know that as I have traveled to that city from time to time to meet
people, Gerald Heaney is nearly revered. He is enormously respected.
His courage and standing and his steadfastness, just as he pursued the
German forces across France and Germany, he pursued justice in the name
of all of our fellow citizens as a sitting judge.
It is most fitting that we should designate the courthouse where he
spent a great deal of his office hours. Although his cases were heard
in St. Louis, in the courthouse there, his office hours were in the
Federal building and the courthouse and customhouse in Duluth, a
venerable facility that was built during the Depression years and, like
Judge Heaney's work, will withstand the test of time for generations to
come.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Though many have made light of the schedule we have had for the past
few weeks, the grueling schedule of naming a lot of Federal buildings,
it doesn't mean that any of these individuals are any less deserving or
should not be honored.
Today in committee in the Transportation Committee, we named a
courthouse in Missouri, my home State, after Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr.,
who practiced law in the State of Missouri for over 80 years and was
highly revered. Today on the floor, we are honoring somebody that,
going through his accomplishments and what he has done in life, is
somebody that truly should be recognized.
H.R. 187, which was introduced by Representative Oberstar of
Minnesota, chairman of the Transportation Committee, designates the
Federal building and the United States courthouse and customhouse at
515 West First Street in Duluth, Minnesota, as the Gerald W. Heaney
Federal Building and United States Courthouse and Customhouse. The
building honors Judge Heaney's dedication to public service.
As the gentleman from Minnesota pointed out, he served with great
distinction during the Army in World War II and acquired a law degree
from the University of Minnesota law school after his time. Judge
Gerald W. Heaney engaged in private practice then just after the war,
from 1946 to 1966.
Judge Heaney's career as a judge began then in 1966 with an
appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit by
President Lyndon B. Johnson. Judge Heaney had a reputation for
championing equal justice for underprivileged and vulnerable citizens.
Judge Heaney retired after 40 years of service on August 31, 2006.
I support this legislation, Mr. Speaker, and I urge my colleagues to
do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. OBERSTAR. I want to say, once again, what a great privilege this
is to author this legislation, bring it from the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, which I have the honor to chair, and
bring it to the House floor and pay tribute to a truly great heroic
American who served his country in war, in peace, on the bench and in
the hearts of our fellow citizens.
In addition to my statement on the Floor today, I want to include in
the Congressional Record this passage from ``Unending Struggle: The
Long Road to an Equal Education in St. Louis'' by Judge Gerald W.
Heaney and Dr. Susan Uchitelle:
Unless additional resources are provided to the St. Louis
public schools, they will fail, leading to a demand by some
parents for alternative educational opportunities. . .
Excellent public schools are essential in a democracy.
Experience has demonstrated that urban city schools educate
and will continue to educate most school-age children.
Moreover, public schools have an obligation to educate all
children--rich and poor, black, brown, and white, gifted or
special. Unless children are well educated and well trained,
they will be unable to take their place as full participants
in our vibrant democracy.
Segregated housing, a long history of discrimination in
education and employment, and the historic lack of
opportunity for African Americans to participate fully and
equally in all aspects of life make the task ahead a
challenging one.
This is but one simple passage from the works of Judge Heaney. I urge
my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 187.
H.R. 187 is a bill to designate the federal building and United
States Courthouse located at 515 West First St., Duluth, Minnesota as
Judge ``Gerald W. Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse
and Customhouse.'' Gerald Heaney was appointed Judge of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on November 3, 1966. He
took senior status on December 31, 1988, and retired on August 31,
2006, after over 40 years of distinguished service to his country and
the citizens of Minnesota. I rise in strong support of this bill.
Judge Heaney was born on January 29, 1918 in Goodhue, a rural
community in the southeastern part of Minnesota. As a child growing up
in a farming community Judge Heaney learned the value of a close
family, honesty, and hard work. These qualities have marked not only
his personal life but also his life as a public servant. He was
educated at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, and received his law
degree from the University of Minnesota in 1941.
Gerry Heaney is a decorated WorId War II veteran. He was a member of
the distinguished Army Ranger Battalion and participated in the
historic D-Day landing at Normandy. He was awarded the Silver Star for
extraordinary bravery in the battle of La Pointe du Hoc in Normandy. He
also received a Bronze Star and five battle stars.
At the end of the war Judge Heaney returned home and entered private
practice in Duluth. During that time he was instrumental in improving
the state education system, and served on the board of regents for the
University of Minnesota. He was instrumental in helping develop for the
Duluth school system the same pay scale for both men and women.
In 1966 he was appointed by President Johnson to the Eight Circuit
Court of Appeals. In that capacity he has been a champion in protecting
the rights of the disadvantaged. He was devoted to making sure that
every person had an equal opportunity for an education, a job, and a
home. He firmly believes the poor, the less educated, and less
advantaged deserve the protection of the Constitution.
As a hard working, well prepared, and fair minded jurist he left his
legal imprimatur on school desegregation cases, bankruptcy law,
prisoner treatment, and social security law.
His public service is discerned by industry, brilliance, and
scholarly excellence. His compassion and dedication to those of us who
are the most disadvantaged is unparalled.
Judge Heaney is most deserving of this honor. I ask my colleagues to
join me in supporting this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 187.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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