[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 53 (Thursday, April 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H2582]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN MEMORY OF REVEREND BENJAMIN HOOKS

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, a great cedar, a great lion, a leader, a 
golden-throated warrior and silver-tongued orator of the Gospel, and a 
great civil rights icon, Benjamin Hooks, fell in Memphis, Tennessee 
this morning.
  The Reverend Benjamin L. Hooks was the head of the NAACP from 1977 to 
1992. He was also the first African American on the Federal 
Communications Commission, appointed by President Nixon. He served 5 
years, from 1972 to 1977. And the first African American trial court 
judge in Tennessee, appointed by Governor Frank Clement in 1965, and 
elected in 1966.
  The Reverend Hooks led this country through some of its more 
difficult times in civil rights. He joined with Dr. King in the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1956 after he had been 
ordained as a minister in Memphis at Middle Baptist Church. He was an 
attorney, he was a businessman, he was a minister, he was a civil 
rights leader.
  He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2007, and 
recently was up here in Congress and talked to many Members of the 
Congress in the Rayburn Building just 2 months ago. He leaves his wife 
Frances and many, many millions who benefited from his leadership and 
his courage. His was a life well lived.
  Thank you for coming our way, Benjamin Hooks.

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