[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 8 (Thursday, January 20, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E90]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING WILLIAM LOCKRIDGE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 20, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in honoring the life of William Lockridge, 
who tirelessly served the residents of the District of Columbia for 25 
years.
  A teacher by profession, William Lockridge devoted his life to 
improving education for the city's children and to community service 
for the people of the District of Columbia. He was a member of the D.C. 
State Board of Education and its longest serving member.
  Although born in Tennessee, raised in Chicago, and educated at 
Tennessee State University, in Memphis, William Lockridge became a 
quintessential Washingtonian, eager for many varieties of community 
service, once serving as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, president 
of the Alabama Avenue Task Force, president of the Ward 8 Democrats, 
board member of the Neighborhood Planning Council, the Parent Teacher 
Student Association, and the Action to Rehabilitate Housing, as well as 
a member of the National Alliance of Black School Educators, the D.C. 
Democratic State Committee, and the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People.
  William was ubiquitous in his devotion to his community, but 
education was his first love. His vision runs through the D.C. Public 
Schools, where he worked as a teacher, parent advocate for students 
with special needs, and a truancy officer over his 15-year career. But 
William Lockridge wanted to do more. He wanted to change the public 
schools. He immersed himself in accomplishing this mission as the Ward 
8 D.C. School Board member and then as the D.C. State Board of 
Education member for Wards 7 and 8 until the day he died.
  When it came to the children he represented in the communities east 
of the Anacostia River, William Lockridge would brook no compromise. So 
resolute was his advocacy that children everywhere in the District, 
particularly children from families of modest income, benefitted 
immensely from his service.
  Residents throughout the city were heartbroken when the trim, ever 
active William Lockridge fell suddenly and unexpectedly ill. From 
across the city, top officials and ordinary citizens alike flocked to 
the hospital and then to a vigil, where elected officials and residents 
spoke lovingly of William Lockridge, just below his hospital window.
  The Lockridge brand of passionate dedication to public service cannot 
be bottled. His devotion to the city's children and to their education 
got its authenticity from a unique source deep within the man. His work 
for those who needed him most became a part of William's identity. The 
District of Columbia and its children were the beneficiaries.
  Only William's own family, Wanda, his ``queen,'' as he called his 
wife, his two children, Joy and Stephan, and his four grandchildren, 
outranked his love for the city's children. Not content to tell other 
people how to raise and educate their children, Lockridge led by 
example as a model family man who lived what he taught, beginning at 
home, where children first learn by simply looking at their parents.
  William Lockridge left his beloved family and city far too soon, but 
he left them a complete and fulfilled life. He spent his productive 
life doing not only what gave his own life meaning. William Lockridge 
devoted his life to giving meaning to the lives of many others, 
especially the children of the District of Columbia. I ask the House to 
join me in honoring the worthy life of William Lockridge.

                          ____________________