[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 29 (Thursday, February 12, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E249-E250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            H. CON. RES. 35

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 10, 2009

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise and join all 
Americans of good will in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 
NAACP.
  Others will recall that fate-filled day, February 12, 1909, when 60 
prominent Americans, black and white alike, issued ``The Call'' for a 
national conference to renew ``the struggle for civil and political 
liberty.'' They also will reflect upon how, back in 1909, this country 
was unfair to people of color and, especially for African American men, 
a very dangerous place.
  The organization's founders, however, were people of deep integrity. 
They created an organization dedicated to achieving social justice, 
ending racial violence, abolishing forced segregation and promoting 
equal opportunity and other civil rights under the protection of law.
  My gratitude to the NAACP is personal, as well as philosophical. The 
NAACP--and the movement that its founders created 100 years ago today--
transformed my life.
  I shall never forget how Juanita Jackson Mitchell and the Baltimore 
Branch of the NAACP stood up for us as we marched to integrate South 
Baltimore's Riverside Swimming Pool. It was then that I realized, for 
the first time in my young life, that I had rights that other people 
had to respect.
  Nor shall I forget how a young Thurgood Marshall (who once lived just 
blocks from where I live today) convinced a Baltimore judge to 
integrate the University of Maryland School of Law. My law degree and 
all that I have been able to accomplish in my professional and public 
life are living testaments to the value of that achievement.
  Moreover, as long as I shall live and be privileged to serve the 
people of Maryland's 7th Congressional District, I shall remember that 
our community--that also gave America former Congressmen Parren J. 
Mitchell and Kweisi Mfume--now serves as the national home of the 
NAACP.
  So it is with deep appreciation and respect that I join millions of 
my countrymen and women in applauding the NAACP and pledging our 
continued support in the days and years ahead.
  I do so at a historic moment when we have come together to elect a 
gifted African American to the highest office in the land. Yet, even as 
we celebrate this victory of competence and conscience, America remains 
a dangerous and unfair place for far too many of our neighbors, 
whatever may be the color of their skin.

[[Page E250]]

  Like W.E.B. DuBois and the other founders back in 1909, we, too, must 
answer the call. In our own time, we must continue the work of creating 
a better, more unified nation--an America that will truly assure 
liberty, justice and opportunity for all.
  We, too, have a legacy of justice and opportunity to create--for our 
children and for the generations of Americans yet to be born.

                          ____________________