[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 136 (Thursday, September 24, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2355-E2356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNIZING HOWARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 23, 2009

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. 
Res. 684, recognizing and honoring Howard University School of Law's 
140-year legacy of social justice and its continued commitment to the 
training of capable and compassionate legal practitioners and scholars. 
The United States Congress chartered Howard University here in 
Washington, D.C. back in 1867, this bill honors not only their hard 
work, but the prescience of our forefathers.
  Howard University School of Law first opened its doors in 1869 during 
a time of dramatic change in the United States, after the civil war. At 
the time, there was a great need to train lawyers who had a strong 
commitment to helping black Americans secure and protect their newly 
established rights. Today Howard University's Law School carries on 
that tradition, educating its students to fight for those whose voice 
may not otherwise be heard.
  My home of Houston has a special relationship with the Howard 
University School of Law. Specifically, my city of Houston shares its 
name with a pillar of the Howard University School of Law community, 
its late dean, the legendary Charles Hamilton Houston. Educated at 
Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Houston was the first African 
American to serve as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. This feat by 
Houston paved the way for a young Harvard Law student who stood in 
Houston's shoes some 70 years later as the Harvard Law Journal's first 
Editor-in-Chief, President Barack Obama.
  Armed with his ivy league training, Houston returned to Washington 
where he was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1929. 
Beginning in the 1930s, Houston served as the first special counsel to 
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 
beginning a two decade career as a civil rights litigator. Houston 
later joined Howard Law School's faculty and ultimately became Dean, 
establishing a long-standing relationship between Howard and Harvard 
law schools. While at Howard, he was a mentor to Thurgood Marshall, who 
argued Brown v. Board of Education and was later appointed to the 
Supreme Court.
  Houston used his post at Howard to recruit talented students into the 
NAACP's legal efforts, among them Marshall and Oliver Hill, the first- 
and second-ranked students in the class of 1933, both of whom were 
drafted into organization's legal battles by Houston. By the mid-1930s, 
two separate anti-lynching bills backed by the NAACP had failed to gain 
passage, and the organization had won a landmark victory against 
restrictive housing covenants that excluded blacks from particular 
neighborhoods only to see the achievement undermined by subsequent 
legal precedents.
  Houston struck upon the idea that unequal education was the Achilles 
heel of Jim Crow. By demonstrating the failure of states to even try to 
live up to the 1896 rule of ``separate but equal,'' Houston hoped to 
finally overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had given birth to 
that phrase.
  His target was broad, but the evidence was numerous. Southern states 
collectively spent less than half of what was allotted for white 
students on education for blacks; there were even greater disparities 
in individual school districts. Black schools were equipped with 
castoff supplies from white ones and built with inferior materials. 
Black facilities appeared to be part of a crude segregationist satire--
a design to make black education a contradiction in terms.
  Houston designed a strategy of attacking segregation in law schools--
forcing states to either create costly parallel law schools or 
integrate the existing ones. The strategy had hidden benefits: since 
law students were predominantly male, Houston sought to neutralize the 
age-old argument that allowing blacks to attend white institutions 
would lead to miscegenation, or ``race-mixing''. He also reasoned that 
judges deciding the cases might be

[[Page E2356]]

more sympathetic to plaintiffs who were pursuing careers in law. 
Finally, by challenging segregation in graduate schools, the NAACP 
lawyers would bypass the inflammatory issue of miscegenation among 
young children.

  The successful ruling handed down in the Brown decision was testament 
to the master strategy formulated by Houston. This strategy is often 
referred to as the Houstonian philosophy of social engineering, based 
upon his legendary saying ``A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's 
a parasite on society.'' . . . A social engineer was a highly skilled, 
perceptive, sensitive lawyer who understood the Constitution of the 
United States and knew how to explore its uses in the solving of 
``problems of . . . local communities'' and in ``bettering conditions 
of the underprivileged citizens.''
  Houston's philosophy has left a lasting mark on Howard University 
School of Law as evidenced by the quantity and quality of its 
graduates, producing more Black lawyers than any other institution. 
Further, as outlined in the text of this resolution, Howard trained 
lawyers have excelled and climbed to some of the highest leadership 
positions in the world.
  The first African-American to serve as a Member of Congress, John 
Mercer Langston, was also a member of the Howard University School of 
Law community. Today's Congress also includes a Member of the Howard 
University School of Law, namely Mr. Meek of New York. U.S. Senator 
Roland Burris of Illinois, the only African-American in the other 
Chamber, is a 1963 graduate of Howard Law.
  Howard University School of Law alumni also serve in a variety of 
staff posts throughout both houses of Congress. In my tenure, I've 
hired numerous Howard law alumni. Currently, both my Chief of Staff and 
Chief Counsel are both outstanding alumni of Howard University School 
of Law.
  In my District, Howard University School of Law alumni have a 
distinguished legacy, particularly in the judiciary. Two Houston 
jurists exemplify the Howard University School of Law legacy. The 
Honorable Gabrielle Kirk McDonald graduated first in her class at 
Howard University Law School in 1966. Upon returning home to Houston, 
Judge McDonald practiced as a private lawyer until her appointment as a 
United States District Judge for the U.S. District Court for the 
Southern District of Texas. At the age of 37, Judge McDonald made 
history by becoming the first African-American to be appointed to the 
federal judiciary of Texas. She was only the third African-American 
woman to be ever selected for the federal judiciary.
  In 1993, Judge McDonald presided over the three-judge panel that 
heard the first criminal trial of that international court, sitting in 
a courtroom of the new Tribunal building in The Hague, Netherlands. By 
this service, Judge McDonald became one of the first United States 
judges to be involved in international courts, apart from the 
International Court of Justice and the International Military Tribunal 
at Nuremberg. Before hearing the first case of the International 
Criminal Tribunal in Yugoslovia, Judge McDonald and her colleagues had 
to develop procedural rules for the Tribunal. She consulted with 
colleagues at Texas Southern University where she was a member of the 
adjunct faculty at that university's Thurgood Marshall School of Law. 
Those consultations resulted in the preparation and adoption of the 
first procedural rules for the Tribunal.
  Judge McDonald, so well regarded by her colleagues, was sent by the 
United Nations to Tanzania, in Africa, in the spring of 1997 to assist 
in the organizing efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal for 
Rwanda, established by the U.N. to hear cases involving genocide in 
that country.
  In November 1997 she was elected President of both criminal 
tribunals, a position she held until her resignation from that position 
in 1999.
  She now serves as one of three American judge/arbitrators on the 
Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, hearing claims by Iranian and 
U.S. citizens, and the respective governments of the two countries, 
that resulted from the take-over of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 
November 1979 by Iranian militants and the holding of U.S. Embassy 
personnel as hostages.
  The Honorable Hazel B. Jones of the 338th Texas District Court is a 
1996 alumnae of Howard University School of Law. Born and reared in 
Houston, Texas, Judge Jones developed a sense of commitment to the 
Houston community by witnessing the examples of her parents, the late 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert and Larnita Jones, who served as educators and 
administrators in North Forest ISD and Houston ISD, respectively, for 
more than thirty years.
  Judge Jones attended Mary Brantly Smiley High School in North Forest 
Independent School District, where she was voted ``Miss Smiley'' and 
graduated Magna Cum Laude. Thereafter, Judge Jones received a Bachelor 
of Arts degree in biology from the University of Texas at Austin, where 
she was a Texas Achievement Award Scholar and became a lifelong member 
of Delta Sigma Theta Public Service Sorority, Inc.
  After graduation, Judge Jones worked as a research assistant in the 
Hematology/Leukemia division of the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson 
Cancer Center. She prepared drug study experiments with cancer cells; 
she performed DNA extraction for amplification in polymerase chain 
reactions and isolation in gel electrophoresis. While Judge Jones found 
her work in cancer research extremely rewarding, she heeded a personal 
calling to pursue a career in law.
  While attending Howard University Law School, in Washington, DC, 
Judge Jones worked at the Howard Law Criminal Justice Clinic, defending 
citizens charged with misdemeanors and representing prisoners in 
disciplinary hearings. During her summers as a law student, Judge Jones 
honed her legal skills by interning in the 151st Civil District Court, 
Harris County, TX and as intern for the Honorable Judge Vanessa Gilmore 
in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
  Since graduating from law school, Judge Jones Hazel Jones has been an 
active member of Houston's legal community. She served the Harris 
County District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney 
from 1996-2003 obtaining extensive trial experience handling 
misdemeanor and felony cases in addition to handling juvenile and 
family violence cases. From 2003-2005, Judge Jones worked as a Special 
Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney's 
Office, Southern District of Texas; her primary focus was to pursue the 
federal government initiative of ``Project Safe Neighborhoods'' which 
focused on the prosecution of armed felons and felons carrying firearms 
during drug trafficking crimes. In January of this year, Judge Jones 
was sworn in as a member of the local judiciary and we expect that her 
career will be no less stellar as that of her fellow alumna, Judge 
McDonald.
  Mr. Speaker, I salute Howard University School of Law for its service 
to my District, to America, and to the world. For this reason, I 
strongly urge passage of this important Resolution.

                          ____________________