[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 120 (Tuesday, August 10, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING FANNIE MAE LAWSON

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                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 10, 2010

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
celebrate the life of one of my constituents, Mrs. Fannie Mae Lawson of 
Pittsburg, California. Born to James and Onnie Manning in Arkansas on 
May 27, 1925, Fannie Mae attended the C.S. Woodland School. In 1946 she 
married George Van ``G.V.'' Lawson in her hometown of Magnolia, 
Arkansas. Together they had four children: George, Willie, Sharon, and 
Audrey. In 1946, Fannie Mae and her family moved to Pittsburg, CA where 
she began her outstanding service to the community. She began 
volunteering at her local church, first as a member of the choir, then 
serving in the Ministries of Convalescent, as well as a Deaconess, and 
as a Mother of the church. She served the church for 64 years! Fannie 
was also actively involved in the Pittsburg branch of the N.A.A.C.P. 
where she served as President for 28 years, and she was also a foster 
parent for over 30 years and served on the Advisory Board for the 
Pittsburg Unified School District. At the age of 85, surrounded by her 
loved ones on July 27, 2010, Fannie Mae Lawson passed away. Sadly, she 
was preceded in death by her husband, G.V., her son George Earl, and 
two grandchildren. She will be missed not only by her three children, 
six grandchildren and many friends, but also by the people of the 
Pittsburg community whom she helped so much in life.

        Pittsburg Activist Left a Legacy, Longtime Residents Say

              [From the Contra Costa Times, Aug. 4, 2010]

                            (By Rick Radin)

       Pittsburg--The city's residents lost a powerful voice for 
     schools and for social justice with the death of longtime 
     community activist Fannie Lawson last week. Lawson, 87, 
     served as chairwoman of the Pittsburg NAACP for 15 years. She 
     was a leader in promoting equal rights in hiring in Pittsburg 
     businesses and advocating for after-school programs, said 
     Darnell Turner, the chairman of the legal redress committee 
     of the NAACP of East Contra Costa, the Pittsburg chapter's 
     successor. Funeral services were held Saturday at First 
     Baptist Church in Pittsburg, where Lawson was a member for 
     more than 60 years. ``She'll be missed,'' said Curlie 
     Jackson, a former NAACP branch chairwoman. ``If you had a 
     problem, she was the one you went to.'' Lawson and her 
     husband, George Lawson, moved to Pittsburg from Magnolia, 
     Ark., in 1946, and Fannie Lawson took a job in a cannery in 
     Pittburg, Turner said. The Lawsons were the first black 
     residents of Pittsburg's Bayside Knolls neighborhood in 1951, 
     and Fannie Lawson felt some bitterness about the experience 
     of being a pioneer. ``Can you imagine being looked at as too 
     low to live in this place or that place? It was hard,'' 
     Lawson said in a 2006 interview. ``A lot of things were said 
     that hurt my feelings, but you couldn't give up if you wanted 
     a place to live.'' Lawson took the experience and momentum 
     from fighting for housing rights into a series of other 
     campaigns for low-income residents in Pittsburg and East 
     County. When a release from the Pittsburg PG&E power plant 
     coated homes and cars in Lawson's neighborhood with dust, she 
     worked with the company to make sure the material was tested 
     for toxics, Turner said. ``The police blocked off the 
     neighborhood, and a hazardous materials team came in,'' 
     Turner said. The utility agreed to repaint cars and homes 
     that had been damaged by the release, he said. ``(Lawson) 
     continued to work with PG&E after the incident,'' Turner 
     said. ``They created a scholarship program to help 
     underprivileged students get an opportunity to pursue a two- 
     or four-year education.'' Lawson was the driving force in the 
     campaign to change the name of Montezuma Street in Pittsburg 
     to Herb White Way, after the city's first black mayor. She 
     also kicked into gear when Pittsburg teachers threatened a 
     strike a few days before the end of the school year in the 
     late 1990s. ``She wanted to make sure the students weren't 
     used as bargaining tools, that the graduation wasn't (tainted 
     by a work stoppage),'' Turner said. She responded to a cross 
     burning in Brentwood, working with the city to improve 
     communications and promote tolerance, he said. Lawson pushed 
     for tutorial programs for children who were having difficulty 
     in school, said former Contra Costa supervisor, state senator 
     and Pittsburg school board member Joe Canciamilla. ``She 
     wasn't shy,'' Canciamilla said. ``She was tenacious when it 
     came to advocating for people.''

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