[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 34 (Thursday, February 26, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E481-E482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




A COMMEMORATION OF HOUSE SPEAKER TERRANCE CARROLL AND SENATE PRESIDENT 
                              PETER GROFF

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DIANA DeGETTE

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 26, 2009

  Ms. DeGETTE. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor two distinguished 
gentlemen and mark a historic occasion for the State of Colorado and 
our legislature. For the first time in United States history, two 
African-Americans will hold the top leadership position in both 
chambers of a State legislature.
  The election of Colorado State Representative Terrance Carroll as 
Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives and Colorado State 
Senator Peter Groff as President of the Colorado Senate puts our 
State's past injustices into perspective. It opens our eyes once again 
to a time only eighty years ago when a majority of the State House 
members were associated with the Ku Klux Klan members. It reminds us 
when the 1924 election ushered in numerous KKK-endorsed candidates, 
including the Governor of Colorado, Clarence Morley. These were the 
days when legislation was introduced without shame by people who sought 
to use the law to restrict the rights of African Americans and to 
remove them from boards and commissions. The struggle for harmony and 
freedom from inequity continues for all of us, but today Colorado makes 
progress toward that end.
  The story of House Speaker Terrance Carroll began several blocks away 
from this chamber, where Carroll grew up in the Anacostia neighborhood 
of Washington, D.C. He was the only child of a single mother who was 
the daughter of a sharecropper. He attended Morehouse College in 
Atlanta. He eventually earned a master's degree from the University of 
Colorado and a law degree from the University of Denver, and he 
graduated from seminary to become an ordained minister. During his 
career, he has served as a police officer and a practicing lawyer. In 
his seven years in the Colorado state legislature, Speaker Carroll has 
championed issues ranging from educational reform, housing, homeland 
security, and civil and criminal justice issues.
  Senate President Peter Groff, the son of former Colorado lawmaker 
Regis Groff, is a graduate of Denver's East High School. He started his 
political career working for former

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Governor Roy Romer and former City of Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. He 
helped found the Center for New Politics and Policy at the University 
of Denver. He has served as the center's executive director since its 
founding, in addition to working as an attorney in private practice, 
college lecturer, and satellite radio talk show host. Peter Groff was 
first elected to the House in 2000 and later was appointed and 
reelected to the Colorado Senate. He is the highest-ranking African-
American elected official in Colorado history and has been called the 
``Conscience of the Senate.''
  In a year when America inaugurated its first African-American 
President, the ascension of Speaker Carroll and President Groff is also 
a significant tribute to the innumerable individuals who have come 
before us who strived and sacrificed for civil rights, equal 
opportunity, and equality for all. It gives me great pleasure as the 
Senior Member of the Colorado Congressional Delegation to congratulate 
these two men and recognize their accomplishments, not only in the 
context of Colorado's history, but the nation's as a whole.

                          ____________________