[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E359-E360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO THIRLEE SMITH, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. KENDRICK B. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 14, 2007

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, today I rise in sadness over the 
demise of the late Thirlee Smith, Jr. the first Black reporter at The 
Miami Herald. His role in the education of the children of Miami-Dade 
County is foremost in his achievements, having focused his attention on 
African-American history that it became an important part of the school 
system's curriculum. I join my fellow citizens in mourning the passing 
of this great leader, whose ``going home'' services will be celebrated 
this Thursday, February 15, 2007 at Miami's St. Agnes Episcopal Church.
  Mr. Smith was the quintessential community leader. Not only did he 
write about the struggles and challenges impacting Blacks in Southern 
Florida, but he also symbolized tremendous hope for the youth to whom 
he bequeathed his unique brand of adventure that shed light on the 
mastery of basic skills and scholastic achievement. He has had to make 
sense of the malicious intent of segregation in his writing at The 
Miami Herald, but the lessons he learned from his parents, Thirlee 
Smith, Sr. and Beulah, epitomized his unshakable faith in the majesty 
of a loving God.
  Having attended Liberty City Elementary School, he would soon 
represent the first graduating class of Miami Northwestern Senior High 
School in 1956. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in history and 
Master's degree in Education at Fisk University in Nashville, 
Tennessee. He applied for a writer's job at The Miami Herald, but was 
unceremoniously told that the community was ``not ready'' for a Black 
reporter. Despite this rebuff, he was featured in 1960 in Who's Who in 
American Colleges and Universities.
  He paved his way for a teaching career in the District of Columbia's 
public school system in 1961. In 1967 he returned home to teach in the 
Miami-Dade County Schools, and was simultaneously chosen as the first 
Black writer for the Miami Herald. After a post-graduate 4-year stint 
at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., he was promoted in 
1997 as District Coordinator for African American History.
  When I reminisce about the role that this great writer and educator 
played in fashioning

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the future of our community, it is clear that it parallels much of our 
state's history as it struggled through the agonies of racial equality 
and educational opportunity under the aegis of simple justice for all 
Americans. All throughout the segregation era, this young visionary 
gave us hope and courage through his writings, engaging our parents and 
their children to keep faith toward helping them achieve basic skills 
mastery and academic excellence.
  Blessed with a lucid common sense and quick grasp of the simmering 
issues at hand, Mr. Smith, Jr. was also imbued with the rare wisdom of 
recognizing both the strength and the promise of a good education. The 
acumen of his intelligence and the timeliness of his vision were felt 
at a time when our community needed someone to put in perspectives the 
agony of disenfranchised Blacks and other minorities yearning to 
belong.
  Indeed, he exemplified a clam but reasoned leadership whose courage 
and wisdom appealed to our noblest character as a nation. this is the 
magnificent legacy by which we will honor his memory.

                          ____________________