[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 32 (Tuesday, February 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H2609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO ALVIN KING

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Memphis, Tennessee, my hometown 
and the site of Tennessee 9, a great leader in our community passed 
away, a gentleman by the name of Alvin King.
  Alvin King was 73 years old, and during his time in Memphis, he was a 
political leader. He was an African American gentleman. This is Black 
History Month. He was the third Memphian elected to the House of 
Representatives in Tennessee since reconstruction in 1868, and he 
served in the House of Representatives for 24 years, the third longest 
serving African American in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
  I served with Representative King for 10 of those years when I was a 
senator and he was a very capable, well-liked and effective legislator.
  He did something that is I guess embodied in our President, Barack 
Obama, showing that people can get beyond race. Alvin King was born in 
the civil rights era when it was important in his district that he was 
African American and that his district elect an African American.
  As time went on, he saw the need for people to reach across and get 
votes from people, regardless of race. And he said in 1991 in a mayoral 
race when he supported a candidate other than the candidate I supported 
that black people will vote for white people and white people will vote 
for black people as long as race isn't the issue, and he supported a 
white candidate who was the incumbent mayor because he had worked with 
him as a State legislator, and that was the cause of his defeat in 
1992. But he was early in the call for biracial voting.
  When I ran for office the first time for this seat that I was 
successful in 2006, it wasn't particularly popular for African 
Americans to come out and support me openly. Many did or I wouldn't be 
here. But he was one of the first, and there wasn't an issue in his 
mind about race. It was about who could go the best job.
  Alvin King was a leader. He leaves three sons and a daughter, a 
daughter, Esperanza, who he loved as well as his three sons, but who 
serves as an intern in my office and was the apple of his eye; his sons 
Alvin, Samuel and Ashley, and his wife, Rosalva, who he dearly loved 
and will miss him dearly, as will I and the City of Memphis.

                          ____________________