[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S4986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING JOHN W. DOUGLAS

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the life and 
career of John Woolman Douglas, who passed away on June 6, 2010, at the 
age of 88.
  We are all familiar with the images of the 1963 civil rights march, 
which took place here in Washington, DC, and is still one of the 
largest demonstrations of its kind in the Nation's history. It was 
during this march, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, with the National 
Mall flooded with demonstrators, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
delivered his iconic ``I Have a Dream'' speech.
  The images of that day, and of Dr. King's speech, have left an 
indelible mark on U.S. history. These events are remembered as some of 
the most important moments in the struggle against racial 
discrimination. They are also remembered as a nonviolent and hopeful 
affair--a stark contrast to the violence which characterized earlier 
demonstrations in the deep south.
  Much of the credit for the success of this historic event goes to the 
tireless work of an Assistant Attorney General at the Justice 
Department. His name was John Douglas. As the head of the Justice 
Department's Civil Rights Division, Douglas was charged by President 
Kennedy with the responsibility for the logistics and security of the 
march. For five weeks in the summer of 1963, he worked tirelessly with 
local law enforcement, the march's organizers, and the city of 
Washington to ensure a peaceful, effective demonstration.
  Though his efforts went largely unnoticed to most Americans, it was 
vital to the success of this iconic event. It was also a testament to 
Mr. Douglas's personal belief in ensuring that the laws of our nation 
protect and promote the civil rights of all citizens.
  His commitment to the rule of law, and to the advancement of basic 
human and civil rights in the United States and across the globe, 
helped John Douglas find himself at the forefront of some of the most 
significant moments of the 20th century--events that helped shape that 
century into one of progress and promise.
  The son of the late U.S. Senator Paul Douglas, John was a 1943 
graduate of Princeton University. After serving in the Navy during 
World War II as an officer on a PT boat in the Pacific, he enrolled at 
Yale Law School, in my home State of Connecticut. In 1948, he went on 
to London as a Rhodes Scholar and returned to clerk for Supreme Court 
Justice Harold Burton. He then embarked upon a career in private law 
practice and in government, during which he sought to advance the cause 
of justice both at home and abroad.
  In 1962, Douglas was one of four men who negotiated the release of 
more than 1,000 anti-communist prisoners, captured and held by Cuban 
leader Fidel Castro after the Bay of Pigs invasion. He then served in 
the Kennedy Justice Department, where he was Assistant Attorney General 
until leaving to help his father run his final campaign for U.S. Senate 
in 1966.
  Upon returning to private practice, he served as cochairman of the 
Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In 1970, he learned that 
schools in the South were still placing black students in separate 
classes and preventing them from participating in after school 
activities. Under his direction dozens of volunteers travelled to the 
South to assist in taking legal action to stop these injustices. 
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, he continued working actively on civil 
rights issues, serving as the cochairman of the Washington Lawyers' 
Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and also as president of 
the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
  Internationally, Mr. Douglas worked to advance human rights through 
the development of democracy across the globe. In 1985, he traveled to 
South Africa, where he demonstrated against apartheid. He then returned 
to that nation as an official election observer in 1994--the year that 
Nelson Mandela was elected as President of South Africa in the first 
multi-racial election in that nation's history. He also served as an 
election monitor in the African nation of Namibia on three occasions in 
the 1980s and 1990s.
  When he saw the rule of law warped into the tool of oppressive 
regimes, John Douglas stood courageously on the side of justice and 
human rights. As chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International 
Peace from 1978 to 1986, he advocated for international arms controls. 
He also travelled to Chile in 1986 to protest the violent, oppressive 
regime of General Augusto Pinochet.
  Clearly, he knew, just as my father Thomas Dodd, one of the lead 
prosecutors of the Nuremberg trials did, that the law is humanity's 
strongest and noblest weapon against tyranny and oppression. This is a 
fundamental value that John Douglas truly took to heart, and throughout 
his career he fought for the rule of law over the rule of the mob both 
at home and abroad.
  His contributions to the advancement of these principles shall never 
be forgotten, and I extend my deepest condolences to his family for 
their loss.

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