[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 19, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E42-E43]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN MEMORY OF MRS. MARY YOUNG-CUMMINGS, TRAILBLAZER AND FIGHTER FOR 
                      ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 19, 2010

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life 
of my friend and former colleague, Mrs. Mary Young-Cummings, who passed 
away at the age of 66 on January 16, 2010. Mary was a woman of 
conviction and compassion who set an example for others through all the 
things she accomplished in her life.
  Mary Young-Cummings was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia, on March 1, 
1943, the 13th of 16 children. She was a proud product of the Ben Hill 
County School System, graduating from Monitor High School. At Savannah 
State College (now University), she served as president of the Honor 
Society and graduated in 1964 with a double major in mathematics and 
physics. She earned a law degree from Howard University in 1967 and 
then practiced with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York.
  Mary was a spirited and staunch advocate for social and economic 
justice. She founded the Savannah State College (now University) 
Chapter of the NAACP and participated in civil rights campaigns in 
Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. She also participated in 
the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
  Mary was also a trailblazer, forerunner and visionary. She was the 
first African-American female attorney in Albany, Georgia, and served 
under the tutelage of legendary civil rights attorney C.B. King. Mary 
brought a successful lawsuit against the city of Albany to end unfair 
election practices so that African-Americans could be elected to posts 
throughout the city. This action paved the way for her to be elected 
the first African-American woman commissioner in the history of Albany.

[[Page E43]]

She eventually became the first African-American woman from Albany to 
serve in the Georgia House of Representatives (1981-1992), and in 1992 
became one of the first African-American women to run for Congress in 
Georgia's Second Congressional District.
  In July of 2009, a play about Mary's life entitled ``Cotton Field 
Girl'' was performed at the Albany Civil Rights Institute in Albany. 
This play chronicled Mary's humble beginnings and her propensity for 
hard work and determination as instilled in her by her parents.
  Shirley Chisholm once said that ``service is the rent that we pay for 
the space that we occupy here on this earth.'' Mary Young-Cummings, in 
the same spirit as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Fannie Lou 
Hamer, fought for what was right, even if she had to stand alone. Our 
country and our world are better because Mary Young-Cummings walked 
among us with pride and dignity and served humanity so well.

                          ____________________