[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 5, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING JOHNNIE CARR, A FORCE FOR UNITY AND POSITIVE CHANGE

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 5, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and mourn the 
passing of Johnnie Carr, a true champion for civil rights. I am humbled 
and inspired by the change Johnnie Carr was able to realize over the 
course of her pioneering life. For nearly a century, she fought for 
equal treatment--remaining never complacent, never satisfied. She was 
the childhood friend of Rosa Parks and fought alongside her in the 
historic Montgomery bus boycott. She succeeded Martin Luther King, Jr. 
in 1967 as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (the 
leading force behind the boycott) and she ably served at that post 
until her passing earlier this month.
  But it was her dynamic message of unity--a call to arms that appealed 
to everyone--that set her apart as a one-of-a-kind healer, a matriarch 
in a movement as relevant today as it was then.
  May we carry with us the exuberance and energy she maintained and 
aspire to live up to the ideals to which she devoted her extraordinary 
life of activism.

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