[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING DOCTOR CHARLES JOHNSON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 21, 2009

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, on the occasion of the honoring of his 
lifetime achievement by one of Seattle's historic organizations and 
keeper of the arts, the Rainier Club, the people of the State of 
Washington hold up as a national inspiration the work of one of the 
world's most distinguished authors, Seattle's own Dr. Charles Johnson.
  Dr. Johnson made the journey to Seattle from Long Island in 1976 to 
teach at the University of Washington. He noted in Smithsonian Magazine 
in 2008 that Seattle is ``an ideal environment for nurturing 
innovation, individualism and the creative spirit.'' It is in this 
setting that Dr. Johnson has made a uniquely rich array of 
contributions to the arts and letters, and became one of his 
generation's most distinguished African American authors.
  While his works are too numerous to list, Madam Speaker, Dr. Johnson 
counts among his literary gems four novels, Faith and the Good Thing, 
Oxherding Tale, Middle Passage, and Dreamer; as well as short stories, 
screenplays, aesthetics, comic art, and King: The Photobiography of 
Martin Luther King, Jr. His awards and honors are as abundant as they 
are approbative.
  Dr. Johnson noted in Seattle's Post-Intelligencer on April 27, 2007 
that American society is threatened by a ``diminished literary 
culture,'' the cure for which is ``the experience of complex, well-
wrought, visionary books that challenge our assumptions, our 
intellectual laziness, and transform as well as deepen our perceptions 
of the world and ourselves.'' While he probably intended otherwise, 
this describes Dr. Johnson's own pivotal role in our literary ethos, as 
his works consistently have challenged readers' assumptions and 
intellectual laziness while transforming and deepening our world view 
and our self-knowledge.
  Dr. Johnson's influence is international, but it is our honor that 
his presence is local to Washington State's 7th Congressional District.

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