[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2614-E2615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO SYLVIA PRESSLEY WOODS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 18, 2007

  Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor one of South 
Carolina's own, Sylvia Pressley Woods, affectionately known as the 
``Queen of Soul Food.'' In August of 1962, Sylvia put her charismatic 
personality to the test and purchased the restaurant, which then was 
only a small luncheonette, from her own boss.

[[Page E2615]]

  Almost 50 years later, Sylvia's has become the landmark of 126th St. 
and Lenox Avenue and the one place where everyone knows they can get a 
taste of authentic Southern Soul food. The restaurant also serves to 
remind the community's residents that hard work, determination, and 
love of family can lead to success.
  Sylvia's Restaurant, a Harlem soul-food landmark, attracts busloads 
of tourists from all over the United States and around the world. 
Sylvia's is a frequent stop for celebrities and politicians. With the 
launch of a line of prepared supermarket foods, the empire of 
restaurateur Sylvia Woods has expanded to touch the culinary lives of 
people all over the country.
  Woods herself has a remarkable story that encapsulates much of 20th-
century African-American history. She was born Sylvia Pressley in 
Hemingway, South Carolina, on February 2, 1926. Her father, Van 
Pressley, died three days after she was born from the after effects of 
chemical-weapons injuries he sustained while fighting in World War I. 
When she was three her mother departed for New York City in search of a 
chance to make money that would put her family on a solid financial 
footing.
  Woods recalled with affection the warmth and closeness of her rural 
southern community. Nevertheless, she has painful memories. ``I didn't 
like any part of farm life,'' she told Nation's Restaurant News. ``I 
didn't understand why people would not let me drink out of the same 
water fountain, but they would trust me to cook for them and to take 
care of their dearest things, their babies.'' Her grandfather was 
hanged after being wrongly accused of participating in a grocery-store 
robbery when her mother was just an infant.
  Sylvia Woods worked in a Queens hat factory for a time, as well, but 
a turning point came in 1954 when a cousin told Woods that she planned 
to quit her job at a lunch counter at 126th Street and Lenox Avenue, 
around the corner from the famed Apollo Theater and within walking 
distance of the Woods's 131st Street apartment. Woods, who had rarely 
even seen the inside of a restaurant, took the job with trepidation and 
without any thought of ever running one herself. But she impressed the 
owner, a fellow South Carolinian, with her energy. When he ran into 
financial trouble with an investment in a black resort in upstate New 
York, he offered to sell her the restaurant. After her mother took out 
a $20,000 loan backed by her family farm, Sylvia Woods became the owner 
of Johnson's Luncheonette in 1962.

  With four children, Van, Bedelia, Kenneth, and Crizette, born between 
1949 and 1967, Woods had little time to think of expansion, but 
Sylvia's became known far and wide for its fried chicken, collard 
greens, peach pies, and other soul-food standards. The restaurant moved 
two doors down from its original location in 1968 and gradually grew to 
occupy most of the Harlem block on which it rests. Sylvia's now can 
seat 450 and boasts a next-door catering operation.
  Diners suggested that Sylvia's open new branches in other cities, but 
Woods and her son, Van decided on a different course--one inspired by 
the customers who would come in at holiday time with empty jars and ask 
whether they could buy Sylvia's barbecue sauce.
  Launched in 1992 and featuring a picture of Woods herself on the 
label, the Sylvia's Queen of Soul Food line of canned and bottled foods 
impressed Pathmark supermarket CEO Jim Donald. He told Crain's New York 
Business that ``Sylvia and Van Woods run their company with their heart 
and soul.'' Sylvia's hot sauces, candied yams, mustard greens, kidney 
beans, and 13 other items are available in supermarkets nationwide.
  Sylvia's Soul Food cookbook was also published in 1992. It was 
followed in 1999 by the more extensive Sylvia's Family Soul Food 
Cookbook, which included Woods's personal reminiscences and numerous 
family photographs along with recipes gathered in a giant South 
Carolina family cook-off.
  The good reputation of the ``Sylvia's'' name has put Sylvia Woods's 
cookery on a path to growth, with the restaurant's many admirers hoping 
to get in on the action. Additional full-service restaurants are 
planned for the future, increasing the Sylvia's stable of 200 employees 
and bringing the soul-food creations of Hemingway, South Carolina, to 
even more American diners. With all four Woods children involved with 
the business, it represents a family tradition of the best--and 
tastiest--kind.
  Madam Speaker, please join me in honoring South Carolina's own, 
mother, restaurateur and enterprising businesswoman, Mrs. Sylvia Woods.

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