[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 139 (Wednesday, September 30, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H10123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN TRIBUTE TO DR. VASCO SMITH

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. I rise today to honor the life and legacy of a great 
Memphian and a great American, Dr. Vasco Smith. Dr. Smith was one of 
the stalwarts of civil rights in our city of Memphis and in the Nation. 
He served on the county commission with me from 1978 to 1980, but he 
served on the county commission in Shelby County from 1973 until 1994. 
He and his fellow county commissioner, Jesse Turner, Sr., were known as 
the Freedom Fighters.
  Jesse Turner, Sr., was the national treasurer of the NAACP. Dr. Vasco 
Smith's wife, Maxine Smith, was the national secretary of the NAACP. 
Vasco Smith and Jesse Turner worked on all things in civil rights in 
Memphis and stood up when others did not and were always a voice of 
conscience and reasonableness and morality in my community.
  Dr. Smith was a great county commissioner. He worked with me and 
others to build the Regional Medical Center, our general hospital in 
Memphis that serves the people that need health care. He was a dentist 
who served his community as a physician. He served in the Air Force and 
served our Nation.
  He was a special man to me because he showed moral rectitude of the 
type that's rarely seen. He knew justice beyond color. He will be 
remembered in Memphis as a great civil rights leader, as a husband, a 
father, a professional, and a great Memphian.
  He'll be buried Friday. I'll be there with him. His was a life well 
lived.

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