[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 1, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E846-E847]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       HONORING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE HONORABLE U.W. CLEMON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ARTUR DAVIS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 2009

  Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the 
accomplishments of an outstanding lawyer who has recently retired from 
the federal bench, the Honorable U.W. Clemon.
  U.W. Clemon's ascension from racial apartheid in Alabama to the 
federal bench is a testament to the quickening pace of justice in the 
late twentieth century. His path is also evidence of how much that 
rising arc of justice depended on the stamina and the will of 
individual black Americans who resisted the permanence of segregation.
  When I trace U.W. Clemon's life, I am struck by how undeterred he was 
by the cruelty of his times. He was not yet a legal adult when he dared 
to testify to Birmingham's City Council that segregation ordinances had 
no valid legal authority. He was ejected from the council chambers and 
labeled an ``agitator'' and a ``militant'' for his efforts. Young 
Clemon was assigned by movement leaders to risk arrest by entering the 
Birmingham Public Library's segregated chambers. Through all of this, 
he knew that Birmingham's police had been vicious enough to brutalize 
children much younger than him.
  Clemon emphatically rejected the premise that even smart and brave 
young black men had no professional future in Alabama. He saw no reason 
why the valedictorian at a fine black college, Miles University, 
shouldn't also be a Columbia man with an Ivy League law degree.
  It would have been forgivable if Clemon had used his Ivy League 
ticket to escape the South--frankly, I would have if I had been his 
contemporary and numerous others did. The ``agitator'' in him won out, 
and the former student activist was soon camped out in Alabama's courts 
litigating to enforce school desegregation orders that had been 
withering on the vine. False memory says that a black U.S.C. running 
back's exemplary performance against the University's football team 
moved the legendary ``Bear'' Bryant to recruit black athletes; in 
reality, it was a lawsuit filed by young attorney Clemon.
  This initial pioneering phase of his life is the first reason U.W. 
Clemon will be honored on May 7, 2009 by the Alabama Civil Justice 
Foundation. The second reason is the character of the public service he 
has provided the citizens of my state. State Senator U.W. Clemon 
distinguished himself by the battles he waged to obtain representation 
for blacks on the governing board of state agencies and universities. 
Part of the reason for progress was undoubtedly Governor George 
Wallace's softening stance on race. Much another, major part of the 
reason state boards came to resemble the state's population was Senator 
Clemon's persistence and his effectiveness.
  When Clemon was nominated for the federal bench, the history making 
nature of the appointment guaranteed opposition and some of it was 
personal and ferocious. His stance against the constitutionality of the 
death penalty was used against him; his role in the political process 
was described as the wrong preparation for a judicial temperament-- a 
curious claim to make to a Senate that had confirmed Governor Earl 
Warren and Republican activist William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. 
It was even intimated that a civil rights litigator might have an 
untoward bias toward black plaintiffs.
  Clemon won the fight, and the prize of being the first black federal 
judge in my state's history. The subsequent twenty nine years are a 
model of judicial courage. Clemon's rulings have made my state's mental 
hospitals and its county jails more hospitable to human beings. His 
decisions have undone some of the environmental ravages that were 
becoming routine costs of doing business in some counties. His single-
handed implementation of a more inclusive jury selection wheel means 
that the administration of justice is more diverse than it is in any 
other federal district in my state, and that is a good thing if you 
conclude that the appearance of equal justice is an institutional value 
in its own right.
  This record of robust interpretation of the ideal of equal justice is 
the legacy Judge Clemon leaves. I have never understood the notion that 
the law is unreservedly neutral or that its interpretation is 
unconnected to a judge's deeply held sentiments of what kind of America 
we should aspire to be. Plessy v. Ferguson arose out of a value scheme, 
one that disfavored people of my kind and was inherently skeptical of 
our capacity for common ground. Brown v. Board is a variant of yet 
another value, one that trusts the capacity for collective gain if we 
are freed from bigotry and its stigmas. Both decisions arose out of the 
reading of the same constitutional clauses.

[[Page E847]]

  U.W. Clemon judged the same Equal Protection Clause, and its 
descendant, Title VII, with a vision. It seems to go something like 
this: discrimination still has deep roots in our culture; a reading of 
the law that is too parsimonious, or too cramped, will yield one kind 
of community, while a more heroic interpretation will generate a public 
sphere that shines more brightly. Finally, I think Judge Clemon always 
felt that corporate power should feel a little unsettled when it walks 
into a courtroom. It's an instinct that I appreciate the more I see the 
customary advantages that the entrenched and the privileged enjoy in 
most seats of power.
  I congratulate Judge Clemon on a noble, heroic career.

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