[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 128 (Saturday, August 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1741]]



                      RECOGNITION OF ARCHIE GREEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Archie Green, a 
distinguished San Franciscan and recipient of the Library of Congress' 
Living Legend Award.
  Dr. Green has devoted most of his 90 years to the study and 
celebration of people, and to the texture and meaning of their lives as 
expressed in song, story, custom, belief, ritual, and craft. He became 
a shipwright's apprentice in the Bay Area in the 1930s. After serving 
as a carpenter's mate in the Navy during World War II, he returned to 
San Francisco to become involved in veterans' affairs and to work in 
the building trades for another 15 years. Along the way he listened and 
observed and talked with people he met about their working lives and 
traditions. His passionate interest in workers and their traditions 
sparked an interest in research and writing that eventually earned him 
a Ph.D. in folklore. He became a university professor, and wrote 
seminal books and articles about grassroots culture and the folk 
traditions of work.
  Archie Green's work has stimulated younger generations of scholars to 
become interested in ``laborlore''--a term he coined. In the union 
ranks his writings in newsletters and journals have given members a 
renewed sense of their shared heritage.
  Decades ago, believing that the Federal Government had a vital role 
to play in documenting, supporting, revitalizing, and disseminating 
America's grassroots knowledge and arts, Dr. Green envisioned a 
national center that would preserve and present American folklife. He 
then spent 10 years walking the halls of Congress, explaining to every 
Senator and every Representative, and to their staffs, why the folk 
traditions in their States and districts mattered, and why the ordinary 
citizens who carry them on deserved our recognition. On January 2, 
1976, President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the American Folklife 
Preservation Act, PL 94-201, which had passed unanimously by both 
houses of Congress, and established an American Folklife Center at the 
Library of Congress.
  Thirty-one years later, the American Folklife Center is going strong. 
It carries out projects and initiatives that document, preserve, and 
share information about the diverse cultural traditions of the American 
people. Its archive, now with more than 4 million items, is one of the 
largest in the world. Its Veterans History Project--launched in 2000 by 
an act of Congress--is the largest oral history project in the Nation's 
history.
  On August 16 and 17, the American Folklife Center is sponsoring a 
symposium on laborlore, and Archie Green--the father of laborlore in 
the United States--will take part. It is highly fitting that, during 
the symposium, he will be given the Living Legend Award in recognition 
of his work that has raised our awareness of how our traditions 
contribute to a larger history.
  I join Dr. James H. Billington and the Library of Congress in 
commending Dr. Green for his contribution to our Nation's history.

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