[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 53 (Monday, March 30, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H4107-H4113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF PROFESSOR JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Fudge) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, good evening.


                             General Leave

  Ms. FUDGE. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 
legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to 
insert supplementary materials on the topic of my Special Order this 
evening.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. FUDGE. The Congressional Black Caucus, the CBC, is proud to 
anchor this hour. Currently, the CBC is chaired by the Honorable 
Barbara Lee from the 9th Congressional District of California. My name 
is Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, and I represent the 11th Congressional 
District of Ohio.
  CBC members are advocates for families nationally and 
internationally, and we have played a significant role as local and 
regional activists. We continue to work diligently to be the conscience 
of the Congress, but understanding that all politics are not local, we 
provide dedicated and focused service to the citizens and to the 
congressional districts we serve.
  During this Special Order, we have the honor of speaking about the 
life and legacy of a great man--Professor John Hope Franklin. It is 
with sadness and pride that the CBC members are here this evening to 
commemorate the passing of Professor Franklin, who was a great 
historian and a true conscience of the Nation.
  During this month of March, we are also privileged to celebrate 
Women's History Month. Members of the CBC will join with me on the 
floor and will offer their reflections on women trailblazers and the 
impact women have had on this Nation as a whole.
  Madam Speaker, I would now like to yield to our Chair, the Honorable 
Barbara Lee.

[[Page H4108]]

  Ms. LEE of California. First, let me, as always, thank Congresswoman 
Marcia Fudge and also Congresswoman Donna Christensen and their staffs 
for working with the staff of the Congressional Black Caucus to 
organize the Congressional Black Caucus Special Orders every Monday 
night.

                              {time}  2015

  You provide such a valuable service not only to members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus but to the entire Nation as a whole. Each 
Monday, when we're in session, we take our positions very seriously 
here and Congresswoman Fudge is here each and every Monday night to 
make sure that we have the opportunity to express our views on issues 
before this body or issues that we believe ought to be brought before 
this body.
  Tonight, of course, as Congresswoman Fudge indicated, we're here to 
honor a great American who died last week but whose contributions to 
our Nation will live on for many, many years to come. When noted 
historian Dr. John Hope Franklin died, our Nation lost a mighty scholar 
and a soldier for justice. We mourn the loss and we celebrate his life 
as we remember Dr. Franklin's trailblazing achievements in a variety of 
fields.
  A native of Oklahoma, Dr. Franklin received his undergraduate degree 
from one of the finest black colleges and universities, Fisk 
University, in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his doctorate in 
history from Harvard University. His distinguished academic career we 
could talk about all night, actually, but let me talk a little bit 
about part of his career.
  He actually began his career at Howard University, and then he would 
go on to teach at Fisk University at St. Augustine's College and at 
North Carolina Central University. In 1956, Dr. Franklin became 
chairman of the department of history at Brooklyn College, the first 
African American to lead a department at a predominately white 
institution.
  Eight years later in 1964, Dr. Franklin joined the faculty of the 
University of Chicago serving as Chair of the department of history 
from 1967 to 1970. At Chicago, he was the John Matthews Manly 
Distinguished Service Professor from 1969 to 1982 when he became 
professor emeritus.
  Dr. Franklin is perhaps best known for his prolific writings 
including ``The Emancipation Proclamation,'' ``The Militant South,'' 
``The Free Negro in North Carolina,'' ``Reconstruction After the Civil 
War,'' and ``A Southern Odyssey: Travelers in the Antebellum North.'' 
For many African Americans and I, our first introduction to black 
history was through Dr. Franklin's book ``From Slavery to Freedom.'' In 
its pages we found--and some of us for the very first time--found an 
account of American history that really did affirm the dignity of black 
people and nobility of our struggle.
  Dr. Franklin was not only a noted historian but also living history 
himself. His accomplishments are as many as they are great. He was 
active in numerous professor and educational organizations including 
serving as President of the following organizations: The American 
Studies Association, the Southern Historical Association, The United 
Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Historical Association.
  One of Dr. Franklin's earliest and most important contributions was 
as a member of the team of scholars who worked with Thurgood Marshall 
to win the landmark school desegregation case Brown v. Board of 
Education.
  Madam Speaker, also just let me just say as I close, Dr. Franklin 
served recently as Chair of President Clinton's Race Initiative 
Advisory Board. And while we have made many, many strides and many 
accomplishments, as we witness the great historic election of President 
Obama, we still know, and Dr. Franklin reminded us, that race is still 
a factor. And he brought his intelligence, his wisdom, and his 
commitment to make America the place that we all know it should be as a 
result of his work on President Clinton's Race Initiative Advisory 
Board.
  So as we mourn his passing and we really--the loss of his wise 
counsel is something that we will greatly miss, but we will forever 
thank him and be grateful. And really, we do owe him a debt of 
gratitude for his lasting contributions which give us really a richer 
understanding of who we are as a people as African Americans, but also 
who we are as Americans and our journey as a people.
  Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for, once again, leading the Special 
Order.
  Ms. FUDGE. I would again like to thank the gentlewoman from 
California for her leadership and for her vision for the Congressional 
Black Caucus.
  Madam Speaker, I would now like to yield to the gentleman from North 
Carolina, Mr. Watt.
  Mr. WATT. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from Ohio for 
organizing this Special Order for an extremely special person who 
actually spent most of his time in North Carolina even though he was 
born in Ohio. So we all claim ownership of John Hope Franklin.
  I will be brief because we have other colleagues here who are anxious 
to express themselves about their memories and our memories of John 
Hope Franklin. And because the Congressional Black Caucus will be 
introducing a resolution, which I hope to have the opportunity to speak 
on, and because in conjunction with the Senator from North Carolina, 
Senator Hagan, who has dropped a resolution on the Senate side, and 
Representative David Price on the House side, we have dropped or are in 
the process of introducing another resolution to honor John Hope 
Franklin.
  It, perhaps, would be best stated in this way, my reaction, when on 
Friday of last week, a proposed wording of a resolution that was 
planning to be introduced by my colleague, Representative David Price 
of North Carolina, honoring the life of John Hope Franklin, was 
forwarded to me in North Carolina for my review and approval. And I 
wrote back this to the person who sent it to me on my staff: I said, 
``No words could ever do justice to the greatness of this man.'' And 
that's kind of the way we all feel about John Hope Franklin.
  Among all of his wonderful accomplishments and his education and 
mentorship of all of us in our community--not only African Americans 
but for the Nation as a whole--to make them understand that the history 
of African Americans is an integral part of the American history that 
we should honor and cherish.
  Among all of those accolades, he was first and foremost a wonderful, 
wonderful friend to me and to my wife and family. And we had the 
wonderful pleasure of spending time with him and just sitting and 
talking to him on occasion. You could get mesmerized in those 
conversations because there was not a single thing in history that he 
didn't already understand all of the historical trappings and 
connections that went with it. But then he would break it down and give 
you his own personal relationships to it and how he interpreted it in 
today's modern times, the implications that it had, the significance 
for young people, the significance for older people. He would just 
mesmerize you with his conversation.
  No words could ever do justice to the greatness of this man.
  We will miss him. We honor his memory. And the thing that I am 
constantly consoled of is that he died at age 94 and there was not a 
single day that he cheated life. I mean, he used every single day of it 
contributing wonderful things to our history, to our humanity, to 
others, and to me to a friendship that I will always cherish.
  I thank the gentlelady for reserving this time and for yielding me 
the time to express my sentiments this evening.
  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
for his remarks.
  At this time, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Virginia, 
Mr. Scott.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Thank you.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to join in the tributes of a truly great 
American. Dr. John Hope Franklin lived an extraordinary life. 
Throughout his 94 years, he was both a trailblazer in the history of 
black America, but at the same time he was the preeminent chronicler of 
that history. His groundbreaking work as an historian had influences on 
the academic world and the Nation as a whole.
  John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 1915, in Oklahoma, the son 
of a successful attorney father and a school

[[Page H4109]]

teacher mother. Despite being raised by two professionals, John's life 
was not immune from the pervasive racism of the time. His family lost 
everything in the Tulsa race riot of 1921 when the black section of 
Tulsa was burned and over 30 people murdered after a young black man 
was wrongfully accused of assaulting a white woman. There has been a 
campaign to provide reparations to the survivors of that riot. And 
tomorrow in the Judiciary Committee, we will be marking up a bill on 
this very issue that now bears the name of John Hope Franklin.
  Despite the hardships of his youth, Dr. Franklin excelled in school 
and after graduating valedictorian of his high school class, he 
attended Fisk University. At Fisk, he was a student leader and was also 
president of the campus chapter of both his and my fraternity, Alpha 
Phi Alpha. While at Fisk, he originally intended to study law, but at 
the suggestion of one of his professors, he took up history as his 
concentration. The suggestion took root and Dr. Franklin graduated from 
Fisk with a bachelor's degree in history in 1935. He then attended 
Harvard University where he received his master's in 1936 and Ph.D. in 
1941.
  Dr. Franklin was first and foremost a teacher. He began his academic 
career with instruction duties at Fisk, St. Augustine's College, and 
North Carolina Central College. In 1945, he was asked to write a book 
on black history, and that book was published in 1947. His signature 
book ``From Slavery to Freedom: A history of American Negroes.'' It has 
been reissued eight times, translated into five languages and still is 
considered the cornerstone work on black history used in colleges and 
universities today.
  That same year, Dr. Franklin accepted a teaching position at Howard 
University. It was there that his work as a scholar and his interest in 
law intersected. Dr. Franklin provided research that Thurgood Marshall 
and the lawyers of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund used in the crafting of 
their legal arguments in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. He 
would later lend his scholarly weight to the civil rights movement, 
even marching with Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
  Dr. Franklin was among the first black scholars in America to earn a 
prominent post at a predominantly white college or university. In 1956, 
he broke the color barrier at Brooklyn College where he was the first 
black man appointed to chair a history department at a predominately 
white institution. Dr. Franklin's accomplishment was tinged with the 
acknowledgment of how far race relations still needed to come in 
America because despite his credentials, he was denied service by banks 
and realtors in his quest to purchase a home near Brooklyn College. 
Real estate officials tried to redline him into African American-only 
neighborhoods. It took him nearly as long to find a home near his 
school as it did to write ``From Slavery to Freedom.''
  Dr. Franklin continued his teaching career at other prestigious 
schools--Harvard, the University of Chicago--and finally settling at 
Duke University as the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, the 
first African American to hold an endowed chair at that institution.
  The title of his autobiography, ``Mirror to America,'' is a perfect 
description of his life and work. With deep knowledge of American 
history, Dr. Franklin was able to reflect on the root causes of many of 
the problems of the day. In 1997, there was national recognition of Dr. 
Franklin's knowledge of race when Bill Clinton tapped him to chair the 
President's Initiative on Race in America.
  Dr. Franklin received over 100 honorary degrees, the NAACP's Spingarn 
Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest 
civilian award.

                              {time}  2030

  On a personal note, Madam Speaker, my parents were long-time friends 
of Dr. Franklin. In fact, he participated in their wedding in 1942.
  Madam Speaker, America has lost a truly great thinker, a preeminent 
scholar, a dear friend of liberty and freedom. I know we will continue 
to learn from his work for years to come. I thank you.
  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his 
remarks and would now like to yield to the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Payne).
  Mr. PAYNE. Let me thank the gentlelady from Ohio for her continued 
leadership in the Congressional Black Caucus' weekly address to the 
Nation.
  As you may recall, last week we talked about the activities in Africa 
and problems in our Caribbean neighborhood of Haiti, the problems in 
Darfur and Sudan and the Congo to show that the Congressional Black 
Caucus is universal. We are the conscience of the Congress, not only 
for domestic issues but issues worldwide where people are in need.
  And so this evening, Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a great 
historian, and let me thank, as I mentioned before, Representative 
Fudge for her consistent support for our debates and discussions on 
Monday, but let me just speak about Dr. John Hope Franklin.
  As you've heard several of our previous speakers, he was just a great 
American. As a former teacher and a strong advocate for the inclusion 
of African American history in the school curriculum for all students, 
I place enormous value on the work of Dr. Franklin, the extraordinary 
man whose loss we mourn and whose life we celebrate.
  As a professional historian, he worked tirelessly to ensure the 
accurate sharing of American history--of course, as we know, history 
was distorted, and it took Dr. Franklin to lay it out properly--with 
its tragedies, as well as its triumphs, at a time when there were few 
voices willing to listen, to explore the painful legacy of enslaved 
people.
  In forging the inclusion of the African American experience, Dr. John 
Hope Franklin was instrumental in championing civil rights issues and 
breaking color barriers. He was engaged in the most pressing issues of 
the past and present.
  As the Chair of President Clinton's Initiative on Race, which he 
served with the former Governor of New Jersey, Tom Kean, who talked 
about how great Dr. Franklin was and how difficult it really was to get 
Americans to speak about race. People just wanted to avoid it, but it's 
something that Dr. Franklin and Tom Kean, in their responsibilities on 
the commission, attempted to have an honest dialogue.
  Dr. Franklin offered recommendations on ways to eliminate racial 
disparities. Dr. Franklin was quoted in the Emerge Magazine in 1994 as 
saying, ``I think knowing one's history leads one to act in a more 
enlightened fashion. I cannot imagine how knowing one's history would 
not urge one to be an activist,'' John Hope Franklin said. And he lived 
for nearly a century, and during that time, his scholarship inspired 
many activists.
  The permanent impact of Dr. John Hope Franklin's public service has 
cultivated a richer understanding and greater appreciation of African 
American history. He was a man of immense strength, courage and wisdom, 
and his contributions to American society are invaluable.
  As we celebrate the life of this great historian, we also mark this 
evening the important contributions of women of our Nation's rich 
history. As we are commemorating Women's History Month, we pause to 
remember the women who laid the groundwork, often at great personal 
risk, for rewards that future generations would reap.
  We remember a great woman in history, Harriet Tubman, who secretly 
guided 300 enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, the 
network of safe houses that enslaved people followed during the Civil 
War era. Many records still exist which document the dangerous journeys 
to freedom. Interestingly, because enslaved people were forbidden to 
read or write, many created quilts in order to leave messages and pass 
down stories about their lives.
  During Women's History Month, we also recall the great debt of 
gratitude we owe to strong women of the past like Sojourner Truth, the 
abolitionist and orator who risked her life to speak out against 
slavery. She even refused to sit in the back of a trolley car way back 
when she lived here in Washington, D.C. She defied the law.
  In most recent times, we have seen women trailblazers in all 
professions.

[[Page H4110]]

The first African woman to join a space mission, Dr. Mae Jemison, 
traveled aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on September 12, 1992. Dr. 
Jemison is a chemical engineer, scientist, physician, and astronaut who 
worked as a Peace Corps medical officer in Sierra Leone and in Liberia 
in West Africa.
  Of course, we now have a wonderful role model in the White House for 
our daughters and our granddaughters in Michelle Obama, our First Lady, 
who graduated cum laude from Princeton University in my State of New 
Jersey and went on to earn her law degree from Harvard before taking a 
position at a Chicago law firm.
  I would also like to remember a good friend and colleague, one that 
our Representative has replaced, a wonderful woman whom we lost last 
year, Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a true pioneer who was the 
first African American woman elected to Congress from Ohio. A former 
county prosecutor and a former judge in the Cleveland municipal court, 
she went on to break another glass ceiling when she successfully sought 
and won a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which no other 
African American woman had ever achieved before that time.
  In my congressional district, we are fortunate to have many 
accomplished women who are working actively every day for the 
betterment of their communities. The executive director of the Newark 
Day Center, Trish Morris-Yamba of South Orange, has worked tirelessly 
to provide services for local seniors and to send young children to 
summer camps through the Greater Newark Fresh Air Fund. She has been 
active in many organizations, including the Newark Public Library, 
where she served as board president. Prior to that, she ran an 
organization called CHEN, which was one of the very innovative day care 
centers in our City of Newark.
  Another dedicated community volunteer, a woman I have known and 
admired for many years, is Blanche Hooper, who has given generously of 
her time to serve as a senior citizen's commissioner and, up until 
2007, served as the director of the Nellie Grier Senior Citizen Center 
in the south ward of Newark. In addition, she is active in Mt. Zion 
Baptist Church, vice chairman of the South Ward Democratic Committee, 
and has been the recipient of an award for living the legacy of Dr. 
Martin Luther King.
  Barbara Bell Coleman has given her considerable energy and 
intelligence to a number of important causes in New Jersey. Barbara 
Bell Coleman, during the 1990s, served as the president of the Amelior 
Foundation, established by Newark philanthropist Ray Chambers to 
support urban education and other programs. As chairman of the board of 
the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark, she helped to coordinate youth 
development programs for thousands of young people in the City of 
Newark. She is the recipient of a United Way award for her outstanding 
work with youth.
  And last week, I had the pleasure of attending a retirement ceremony 
for a woman who has touched many, many lives in the course of her 
career, Dorothy Knauer, executive director of the Community Agencies 
Corporation of New Jersey. Over the past three decades, this remarkable 
woman has devoted her life to community service, notably through 
programs like Project Babies, the James Street Neighborhood House, 
Reading is Fundamental, and Community Partners for Youth. She has been 
honored by New Jersey's Office of Volunteerism and was recognized as a 
woman of distinction by the United Nations League.
  Madam Speaker, I know that my colleagues here in the United States 
House of Representatives join me in expressing gratitude to these women 
and the countless others who are contributing their time and talents 
each and every day towards making our communities a better place for 
all of us to live and to work.
  Ms. FUDGE. Thank you. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the 
gentleman from New Jersey for his continued participation in our CBC 
hours, our Special Orders on Mondays, and I would now like to yield to 
the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank Congresswoman Fudge and thank you again for 
hosting this very special hour this evening.
  Madam Speaker, tonight I'm pleased to join my colleagues to pay 
tribute to a highly esteemed American, who was both a historian and a 
history maker. Dr. John Hope Franklin passed away last week but left us 
with a rich legacy of scholarship that has strengthened generations of 
people, young and old, who have sought to understand race and racism, 
our country and our place in the world.
  A prolific and important writer, as you have heard, Dr. Franklin was 
most well-known for his landmark 1947 publication, ``From Slavery to 
Freedom: A History of American Negroes,'' which has been credited with 
``altering the ways in which the American narrative was studied.'' In a 
New York Times article yesterday, one of his colleagues pointed out 
that the book ``empowered a whole new field of study'' as the story of 
the marginalized became part of the mainstream.
  The article also pointed out that Dr. Franklin and his scholarship 
became an important part of the movement for civil rights as he advised 
Thurgood Marshall and his team of lawyers during the Brown v. Board of 
Education case. In this, as well as his participation in the march on 
Selma led by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the writer 
pointedly notes that he was a part of the history he so effectively 
brought to the forefront, and in doing so, he changed it as well.
  It was one of the highest privileges afforded me since coming to 
Congress to meet and be able to converse with Dr. Franklin at a small 
dinner hosted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters in my early years in 
Congress and when he was chairing President Clinton's Initiative on 
Race. I was also privileged to be present as he was honored by the 
Library of Congress a few years ago, one of many, many deserved honors. 
Dr. Franklin was a historian in the tradition of the African griot, the 
memory keepers who captured the important moments of time that 
contribute to the identity and culture of a people and the advancement 
of a country.
  In my district of the U.S. Virgin Islands, our historians, such as 
Dr. Gilbert Sprauve, Dr. Patricia Murphy, Dr. Gene Emanuel, Gerard 
Emanuel, Richard Shrader, Robert Johnson, Bill Cissell, George Tyson, 
Karen Thurland, Myron Jackson, Dr. Charles Turnbull, Ruth Moolenaar, 
Edgar Lake and many, many more work to preserve and retell our part of 
the Caribbean American story.
  Dr. John Hope Franklin left us with a rich legacy of writings which 
continue to inform our journey in these United States of America. We 
thank him for his scholarship and his dedication to truth telling and 
extend our condolences to his family and friends.
  Madam Speaker, as you have heard, March has also been designated as 
Women's History Month, and the Congressional Black Caucus is pleased to 
salute the role that women have played throughout our history in all 
endeavors, many of whom have never been recognized.
  Tonight, I would like to say a few words about two women with Virgin 
Islands ties who made valuable contributions to the historic tapestry 
that is the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as the United States, but who 
are little known to current generations.
  The first is Rebecca Protten, whose life has been documented in the 
book ``Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic 
World.'' She was born a slave, the child of European and African 
parentage. She lived in the 18th century and, remarkably for a black 
woman of that time, traveled between Europe, the Caribbean and Africa 
bringing the word of God to enslaved Africans and Europeans alike. She 
spent a lot of time in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, gathering the 
enslaved to the faith and was even imprisoned for her work in assisting 
them in their needs.
  According to historian and biographer Jon Sensbach, ``She was a 
preacher and a mentor, a provocateur and a profit, determined to take 
what she regarded as the Bible's liberating grace to people of African 
descent.''

                              {time}  2045

  A member of the Moravian faith, a church to which I also belong, 
which is credited with creating an educational

[[Page H4111]]

system for enslaved Africans and their children in my home district, 
which was then the Danish West Indies, Rebecca may have been one of the 
first ordained black women and, according to her biographer, she 
``stood where the three currents of the 18th century black Atlantic 
world flowed together: The dramatic expansion of the slave trade, the 
Afro-Atlantic freedom struggle, and the rise of black Christianity.''
  Another Virgin Islands woman, Nella Larsen Imes, is known as the 
``mystery woman'' of the Harlem Renaissance and wrote two novels, 
Quicksand and Passing, which explored the difficulty of being a black 
woman in a society that marginalized both African Americans and women.
  While details about her life are vague, according to biographer 
Thadious M. Davis, Larsen, according to her own admission, was the 
``daughter of a Danish lady and a Negro from the Virgin Islands, 
formerly the Danish West Indies.''
  Madam Speaker and colleagues, both of these women defied the odds and 
expressed the causes dear to their souls, despite the difficulties of 
being black women in harrowing times. Their lives and history are worth 
further exploration by students of history as we take a fresh look at 
Women's History Month.
  I thank you again for yielding this time to me and for allowing me to 
share in this Special Hour this evening.
  Ms. FUDGE. I'd like to again thank the gentlelady from the Virgin 
Islands, who has really been of such help to me as I continue to anchor 
these hours. I thank you again.
  I would like to close, Madam Speaker, by talking about some special 
women to me as we celebrate Women's History Month. I would talk about 
those who are on the rolls of this very House, people that I have 
followed over the years. I'd like to begin with the Honorable Shirley 
Chisholm.
  Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to 
Congress. She was the first African American and the first female to 
run as a major party candidate for President of the United States in 
1972.
  Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant parents in 
1924. She earned her BA from Brooklyn College in 1946 and later earned 
her master's from Columbia University in elementary education in 1952.
  From 1953 to 1959, she was director of the Hamilton-Madison Child 
Care Center. From 1959 to 1964, she was an educational consultant for 
the Division of Day Care.
  In 1964, Chisholm ran for and was elected to the New York State 
legislature. In 1968, she ran as the Democratic candidate for New 
York's 12th District congressional seat and was elected to the House of 
Representatives. Defeating Republican candidate James Farmer, Chisholm 
became the first black woman elected to the Congress of the United 
States. Chisholm joined the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 as one 
of its founding members.
  As a freshman, Chisholm was assigned to the House Agricultural 
Committee. Given her urban district, she felt the placement was 
irrelevant to her constituents, and shocked many by asking for 
reassignment. She was then placed on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. 
Soon after, she was assigned to the Education and Labor Committee, 
which was her preferred committee. She was the third highest ranking 
member of this committee when she retired from Congress.
  All those Chisholm hired for her office were women--half of them 
black. Chisholm said that during her New York legislative career she 
had faced much more discrimination because she was a woman than because 
she was black.
  In the 1972 U.S. Presidential election, she made a bid for the 
Democratic Party's Presidential nomination. Chisholm's base of support 
was ethnically diverse and included the National Organization for 
Women. Chisholm said she ran for the office ``in spite of hopeless odds 
to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.''
  Among the volunteers who were inspired by her campaign was Barbara 
Lee, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, who continued to be 
politically active and was elected as a Congresswoman 25 years later. 
Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem attempted to run as Chisholm delegates 
in New York.
  From 1977 to 1981, during the 95th Congress and 96th Congress, 
Chisholm was elected to a position in the House Democratic leadership 
as Secretary of the House Democratic caucus.
  Throughout her tenure in Congress, Chisholm worked to improve 
opportunity for inner-city children. She was a vocal opponent of the 
draft and supported spending increases for education, health care and 
other social services, and reductions in military spending.
  She announced her retirement from Congress in 1982. After leaving 
Congress, Chisholm was named as the Purington Chair at Mount Holyoke 
College. Today, her portrait hangs in a very prominent place--a place 
of honor in the U.S. Capitol.
  Barbara Jordan. Barbara Jordan was a congressional Member from 
Texas's 18th Congressional District from 1973 to 1979. Jordan 
campaigned for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964. Her 
persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the 
first African American State Senator since 1883, and the first black 
woman to serve in that body. She served until 1972.
  She was the first African American female to serve as president pro 
tem of the Senate, and served for 1 day as acting Governor of Texas in 
1972.
  In 1972, she was elected to the United States House of 
Representatives, becoming the first black woman from a southern State 
to serve in the House. She received extensive support from former 
President Lyndon Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House 
Judiciary Committee.
  In 1974, she made an influential televised speech before the House 
Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of President Richard 
Nixon.
  Jordan was mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter in 
1976, and that year she became the first African American woman to 
deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Her 
speech in New York that summer was ranked fifth in a list of Top 100 
American Speeches of the 20th Century.
  Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor 
at the University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of 
Public Affairs. She again was a keynote speaker at the Democratic 
National Convention in 1992.
  In 1995, Jordan chaired a congressional commission that advocated 
increased restriction of immigration and increased penalties on 
employers that violated U.S. immigration regulations. President Clinton 
endorsed the Jordan Commission's proposals.
  She supported the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, legislation 
that required banks to lend and make services available to underserved 
poor and minority communities. She supported the renewal of the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965 and expansion of that act to cover other ethnic 
minorities.
  Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. It was 
only one of many honors given to her, including election into both the 
Texas and National Women's Hall of Fame. In 1995, she was awarded the 
prestigious United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award, 
becoming only the second female awardee.
  Upon her death on January 17, 1996, Jordan lay in state at the LBJ 
Library on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. She was 
buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, and was the first black 
woman interred there.
  The main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is named 
after her, as are a middle school in Texas and a high school in 
Houston.
  The Kaiser Family Foundation currently operates the Barbara Jordan 
Health Policy Scholars. This fellowship is for people of color who are 
college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates, and it is designed to 
provide them with a summer experience working in a congressional 
office.
  Carrie Meek. She is a former U.S. Congresswoman from Florida's 17th 
Congressional District from 1993 to 2003. She was the first African 
American elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction. Meek 
was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida. The granddaughter 
of a slave and the daughter of a former sharecropper, she spent her 
childhood in segregated Tallahassee.

[[Page H4112]]

  Meek graduated from Florida A&M University in 1946. At this time, 
African Americans could not attend graduate school in Florida, so Meek 
traveled north to continue her studies, and graduated from the 
University of Michigan with an MS in 1948.
  After graduation, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune Cookman 
College in Daytona Beach, Florida, and then at her alma mater, Florida 
A&M University.
  Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice 
president of Miami-Dade Community College. The school was desegregated 
in 1963 and Meek played a central role in pushing for integration. 
Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community 
projects in the Miami area.
  Elected as Florida State representative in 1969, Meek was the first 
African American female elected to the Florida State Senate in 1982. As 
a State Senator, Meek served on the Education Appropriations 
Subcommittee. Her efforts in the legislature led to the construction of 
thousands of affordable rental housing units.
  In 1992, Meek was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from 
Florida's 17th Congressional District. This made her the first black 
lawmaker elected to represent Florida in Congress since Reconstruction.
  Meek has received numerous awards and honors. She is the recipient of 
honorary doctor of law degrees from the University of Miami, Florida 
A&M University, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and 
Rollins University.
  Meek was a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, in 
addition to serving on the Subcommittee of Treasury, Postal Service, 
and General Government and the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and independent 
agencies.
  Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She was a U.S. congressional Member from 
Ohio's 11th Congressional District; the first black woman to represent 
Ohio in the House; former chairman of the House Ethics Committee since 
2007; first black woman to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee.
  Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1949, Tubbs Jones graduated from the 
city's public schools. She earned a degree in social work from Flora 
Stone Mather College of Case Western Reserve University in 1971. In 
1974, she earned a JD from the Case Western Reserve University School 
of Law.
  Tubbs Jones was elected a judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court in 
1981, and subsequently served on the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga 
County from 1983 to 1991. She then served as the Cuyahoga County 
prosecutor from 1991 until resigning early in 1999 to take her seat in 
Congress.
  In 1998, Tubbs Jones won the Democratic nomination for the 11th 
District after 30-year incumbent Louis Stokes announced his retirement. 
She was reelected four times.
  Tubbs Jones was a cochairman of the Democratic National Committee. 
She opposed the Iraq war, voting in 2002 against the use of military 
force. Despite representing a heavily unionized district, she was a 
strong proponent of free trade. Tubbs Jones most recently took a lead 
role in the fight to pass the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement in 
November, 2007.
  In 2004, she served as the chairwoman of the platform committee at 
the Democratic National Convention and as a member of the Ohio 
delegation. She strongly supported Senator John Kerry in his campaign 
to become President of the United States.
  On January 6, 2005, she joined U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in 
objecting to the certification of the 2004 U.S. Presidential election 
results for Ohio. As the sponsor, she was one of 31 House Members who 
refused to count the electoral votes from the Ohio House in the 2004 
election.
  She was selected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as chairperson of the House 
Ethics Committee to watch over the standards of ethical conduct for 
Members of the House.
  Tubbs Jones was popular in her district and was routinely reelected 
against nominal Republican opposition.

                              {time}  2100

  She received 83 percent of the vote in her final general election in 
2006 against Republican Lindsey String. She faced no opposition in the 
2008 Ohio Democratic primary.
  I want to say that all the women I have recognized today are 
certainly people that I have a great deal of respect for. I have 
followed them to this House. And I want you also to know that they are 
all my sorority sisters.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, that would close this hour of the CBC Special 
Order, and we hope to see you again on next Monday as we continue our 
work in being the conscience of the Congress.
  Mr. MEEKS of New York. Mr. Speaker, Dr. John Hope Franklin was one of 
the most important Americans of the 20th century. He was a citizen of 
the world, a towering intellectual giant and scholar who ceaselessly 
endeavored, as one of the preeminent historians in our nation's 
history, to ensure that the contributions of African-Americans would 
not be relegated to the status of a footnote. Rather, through dedicated 
scholarship, he brought to light the rich contributions African-
Americans have made to the United States of America.
  As he once said so eloquently, ``My challenge was to weave into the 
fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the 
story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly.'' He 
understood intimately that the story of the greatest country on earth, 
the United States of America cannot be told without telling the story 
of African-American history and that in fact, they are one and the 
same.
  Dr. John Hope Franklin was considered the Dean of African American 
historians. John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 1915 in 
Rentriesville, Oklahoma. His family relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma 
shortly after the Tulsa Disaster of 1921. Franklin's mother, Mollie, 
was a teacher and his father, B.C. Franklin, was an attorney who 
handled lawsuits precipitated by the famous Tulsa Race Riot. Graduating 
from Booker T. Washington High School in 1931, Franklin received an 
A.B. degree from Fisk University in 1935 and went on to attend Harvard 
University, where he received his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in history.
  Franklin began his teaching career at Fisk University before moving 
on to St. Augustine's College. It was at North Carolina Central 
University, in 1945, with a $500 advance from Alfred A. Knopf, and help 
from his wife, Aurelia, that Franklin began writing the classic African 
American history text, From Slavery to Freedom. The book, co-authored 
by Alfred A. Moss, Jr., has been published in several different 
languages.
  In the early 1950s, Franklin served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund 
team led by Thurgood Marshall that helped develop the sociological case 
for Brown v. Board of Education. This led to the 1954 United States 
Supreme Court decision ending the legal segregation of black and white 
children in public schools.
  Dr. Franklin taught at Howard University for nine years, before 
becoming the first black to chair the History Department at Brooklyn 
College in 1956. He was then hired by the University of Chicago in 1964 
and chaired the History Department from 1967 to 1970. There, he served 
as the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor from 1969 to 
1982, when he was made Professor Emeritus. In 1982, Franklin joined the 
faculty at Duke University as the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of 
History.
  Dr. Franklin was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, 
Incorporated, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity 
established for African Americans. He was an early beneficiary of the 
fraternity's Foundation Publishers, which provides financial support 
and fellowship for writers addressing African-American issues.
  Active in professional organizations, Franklin served as president of 
the Southern Historical Society, the Organization of American 
Historians and the American Historical Association. He was a life-long 
member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and 
History, where he served on the editorial board of the Journal of Negro 
History. In 1997, he was appointed by Former President Bill Clinton as 
chairman of the advisory board for One America, the President's 
Initiative on Race.
  Dr. Franklin wrote hundreds of articles and at least 15 books. His 
recent works include Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantations with 
Loren Schweninger, George Washington Williams: A Biography and a book 
about his father My Life and an Era: the Autobiography of Buck Colbert 
Franklin as well as his own autobiography, The Vintage Years. In 1978 
Who's Who in America selected Franklin as one of eight Americans who 
have made significant contributions to society. Among his many other 
awards are the Organization of American Historians Award for 
Outstanding Achievement and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 
nation's highest civilian honor.
  Dr. Franklin was the personification of academic excellence, dignity, 
self empowerment and faith. He was the scribe of a generation

[[Page H4113]]

of African-Americans who advocated, persevered, and helped to uplift 
our country to live up to its creed as the land of equal opportunity. 
On March 25, 2009, the world lost the beacon of light that was Dr. John 
Hope Franklin. To his family, I offer my deepest sympathies and 
condolences for their loss. And while our nation has lost one of its 
best and brightest, I know that his legacy is one that will surely 
endure.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to first thank my colleagues in the 
Congressional Black Caucus for organizing tonight's Special Order to 
recognize the contributions of Dr. John Hope Franklin. CBC Chairwoman 
Barbara Lee appointed Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and Delegate Donna 
Christian-Christensen to lead our CBC message team and they have done 
an outstanding job of helping to inform our colleagues in Congress and 
our constituents at home about some of the important work being done by 
the Congressional Black Caucus.
  Throughout his long life, John Hope Franklin wrote prolifically about 
history--more than 60 years after its publication, one of his books, 
From Slavery to Freedom, is considered a core text on the African-
American experience. Dr. Franklin not only wrote about history, he 
lived it. Franklin worked on the Brown v. Board of Education case in 
1954, he joined protestors in a 1965 march led by Martin Luther King, 
Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama and he headed President Clinton's 1997 
national advisory board on race. Franklin accumulated many honors 
during his long career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 
the nation's highest civilian honor. He shared the John W. Kluge Award 
for lifetime achievement in the humanities and a similar honor from the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical 
Society, the nation's two oldest learned societies. He also was revered 
as a ``moral leader'' of the historical profession for his engagement 
in the pressing issues of the day, his unflagging advocacy of civil 
rights, and his gracious and courtly demeanor.
  Dr. John Hope Franklin was described in the Washington Post recently 
as a man who ``lived what he taught.'' I don't think there are many 
higher accolades. For those of us who knew him and called him friend, 
it feels as though collectively we've lost a grandfather--a very wise 
and generous teacher and mentor. For those who don't know about the 
contributions of Dr. John Hope Franklin, I wanted to come to the floor 
tonight to add my voice of appreciation and to highlight some of his 
contributions that I believe are important.
  John Hope Franklin, the grandson of a slave, was born on January 2, 
1915, in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, a small black community. His parents, 
Buck Colbert Franklin and Mollie Parker Franklin named their son after 
John Hope, the President of Atlanta University. His mother was a school 
teacher and his father was a community leader and they recognized the 
importance of education.
  The realities of racism hit Franklin at an early age. He said he 
vividly remembered the humiliating experience of being put off the 
train with his mother because she refused to move to a segregated 
compartment for a six-mile trip to the next town. He was six years old. 
With his parents, he lived through the Tulsa Race Riots in 1921, 
believed to be the single worst incident of racial violence in American 
history. Later, although an academic star at Booker T. Washington High 
School and valedictorian of his class, the state would not allow him to 
study at the University of Oklahoma because he was black. So instead, 
in 1931 Franklin enrolled at Fisk University, a historically black 
college in Nashville, Tennessee, intending to study law.
  However, a history professor, Theodore Currier, persuaded him to 
change his mind and his major and he received his bachelor's degree in 
history in 1935. Currier, who was white, became a close friend and 
mentor, and when Franklin's money ran out, Currier loaned the young 
student $500 to attend graduate school at Harvard University, where he 
received his master's in 1936 and doctorate five years later. He began 
his career as an instructor at Fisk in 1936 and taught at St. 
Augustine's and North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina 
Central University), both historically black colleges.
  In 1945, Alfred A. Knopf approached him about writing a book on 
African-American history--originally titled From Slavery to Freedom: A 
History of American Negroes--and he spent 13 months writing it. Then in 
1947, he took a post as professor at Howard University in Washington, 
DC, where, in the early 1950s, he traveled from campus to Thurgood 
Marshall's law office to help prepare the brief that led to the 
historic Brown v. Board of Education decision.

  In 1956 he became chairman of the previously all-white history 
department at Brooklyn College. Despite his position, he had to visit 
35 real estate agents before he was able to buy a house for his young 
family and no New York bank would lend him the money.
  Later, while at the University of Chicago, he accompanied the Rev. 
Martin Luther King Jr. on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in 
1965. He spent 16 years at the University of Chicago and then joined 
the faculty of Duke University in 1982. He retired from Duke's history 
department in 1985, then spent seven years as professor of legal 
history at the Duke Law School. Franklin will be honored with a newly 
endowed chair at Duke Law School.
  Franklin was a prolific writer, with books including The Emancipation 
Proclamation, The Militant South, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 
George Washington Williams: A Biography and A Southern Odyssey: 
Travelers in the Antebellum North. He also edited many works, including 
a book about his father called My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of 
Buck Colbert Franklin, with his son, John Whittington Franklin. 
Franklin completed his autobiography in 2005, which was reviewed 
favorably in many media outlets across the country.
  He received more than 130 honorary degrees and served as president of 
the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the American Studies Association, the 
Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American 
Historians and the American Historical Association.
  Franklin's best-known accomplishment in his later years was in 1997, 
when he was appointed chairman of the advisory board for President 
Clinton's One America: The President's Initiative on Race. The seven-
member panel was charged with directing a national conversation on race 
relations. When he was named to the post, Franklin remarked, ``I am not 
sure this is an honor. It may be a burden.'' The panel did provoke 
criticism, both from conservatives who pressured the panel to hear from 
opponents of racial preference and others who said it did not make 
enough progress. Franklin himself acknowledged in an interview with USA 
Today in 1997 that the group could not solve the nation's racial 
problems. But Franklin said the effort was still worth it.
  And, in 2001, Duke University opened the John Hope Franklin Center 
for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, where scholars, 
artists and members of the community have the opportunity to engage in 
public discourse on a variety of issues, including race, social equity 
and globalization. At the heart of its mission is the Franklin 
Humanities Institute, which sponsors public events and hosts the 
Franklin Seminar, a residential fellowship program for Duke faculty and 
graduate students.
  In a statement to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002, 
Franklin summed up his own career:
  ``More than 60 years ago, I began the task of trying to write a new 
kind of Southern History. It would be broad in its reach, tolerant in 
its judgments of Southerners, and comprehensive in its inclusion of 
everyone who lived in the region . . . the long, tragic history of the 
continuing black-white conflict compelled me to focus on the struggle 
that has affected the lives of the vast majority of people in the 
United States. . . . Looking back, I can plead guilty of having 
provided only a sketch of the work I laid out for myself.''
  In 2007, John Hope Franklin lent his formidable effort to the issue 
of reparations for African Americans. Franklin returned to Oklahoma to 
testify in a hearing urging Congress to pass legislation that would 
clear the way for survivors of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, one of the 
nation's worst race riots, to sue for reparations.
  For Franklin, who continued his scholarly work and public appearances 
well into his 90s, the work he began in the 1940s still was not 
finished. He was interviewed earlier this year, when President Barack 
Obama was inaugurated, and he noted that he never thought he would live 
to see the first African American President of the United States, but 
he was so very glad that he did.
  Mr. Speaker, I am so very glad that John Hope Franklin shared his 
life and his work so generously. He taught us about our lost history, 
and in the process, he set a sterling example of living what he tried 
to teach that will inspire many generations to come.
  Ms. FUDGE. I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________