[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 183 (Monday, December 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S14697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN MEMORIAM: AUGUSTUS HAWKINS

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am honored to remember former Member of 
the House of Representatives Augustus Hawkins, who passed away on 
November 10, 2007, at the age of 100.
  Augustus Freeman Hawkins was the first African American from 
California to be elected to Congress. He was a champion of workers, 
fair housing, and civil rights, and Hawkins represented south Los 
Angeles, first in the State legislature and then in Congress, for more 
than half a century.
  Augustus was born in Shreveport, LA, on Aug. 31, 1907, the youngest 
of five children of Nyanza and Hattie Helena Hawkins. His family 
arrived in Los Angeles soon after World War I when Hawkins was 11. He 
attended Jefferson High School and earned a degree from UCLA in 1931.
  He began his public service career in an era that was far less 
congenial to minority politicians, serving as a State assemblyman from 
1935 until 1962, when he won election to the U.S. House of 
Representatives, as the civil rights movement was taking center stage. 
He served in the House from 1963 to 1991, and I was proud to serve with 
him.
  While soft-spoken, Hawkins was fiery in defense of his constituents. 
At the time of the 1965 Watts riots in his district, he declared that 
police had been ``abusive and arrogant and have attempted to control 
things by force, not by more modern methods of control.''
  When Hawkins retired at 83, he was widely praised for his unflagging 
legislative efforts to help bring those who had been left out of the 
system into the mainstream.
  His legislative legacy includes a key role in shaping Federal 
statutes, most importantly as sponsor of the section of the landmark 
1964 Civil Rights Act that created the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission. Hawkins fought with President after President for minimum-
wage increases and, with Senator Hubert Humphrey, wrote the Humphrey-
Hawkins Act of 1978 that was designed to reduce unemployment and 
inflation.
  He is survived by two stepdaughters, Barbara A. Hammond and Brenda L. 
Stevenson; a stepson, Michael A. Taylor; two grandchildren; and one 
great-grandchild.
  Our Nation lost an amazing public servant and mentor with the passing 
of Augustus Freeman Hawkins, but his legacy to the people of south Los 
Angeles, the State of California, and all of America should be 
remembered.
  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

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