[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 173 (Monday, November 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2036]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JOE FRAZIER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 14, 2011

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a notable 
South Carolinian, who rose from humble beginnings to make an indelible 
mark on the world. Smokin' Joe--Joe Frazier--passed from this life on 
November 7, 2011, but his legacy lives on through his extraordinary 
achievements in the boxing ring.
  Joe Frazier was born to sharecroppers in Beaufort, South Carolina, on 
June 22, 1944. He was one of 13 children, who never had ``a little-boy 
life.'' He grew up helping his father chop wood. His father had lost 
his left arm after being shot as a young man, and Joe always took the 
left handle on a two-handed saw, which he attributes to helping him 
build his devastating left hook.
  Most people know of Joe Frazier's athletic accomplishments as 
America's first gold-medal winning boxer and his thrilling defeat of 
Muhammad Ali in March 1971. It was what occurred on April 7, 1971, that 
provided me my greatest memory of the boxing legend.
  At the time, I was the first African American to hold an advisory 
position with a sitting South Carolina governor. Governor John West 
hired me in January 1971 and just three months later, the governor and 
the South Carolina Legislature invited Joe Frazier, fresh off his 
defeat of Ali, to come speak to the South Carolina General Assembly.
  This was a remarkable occasion. In January 1971, the first three 
African Americans since Reconstruction were sworn in as members of the 
South Carolina House of Representatives. Desegregation was just 
beginning to take hold in many public schools in the state. And the 
South Carolina Human Affairs Commission had not yet been established to 
eliminate and prevent unlawful discrimination.
  Joe Frazier was the first African American since Reconstruction to 
receive an invitation to speak to the South Carolina General Assembly. 
As World Heavyweight Champion, he could have easily declined the 
opportunity. Instead, he chose to embrace it. He used the opportunity 
to try and build bridges and encourage race relations.
  In his remarks, Smokin' Joe said our country could get beyond our 
racial problems if blacks and whites would ``play together, work 
together and pray together.'' He went on to say, ``We must save our 
people, and when I say `our people' I mean white and black. We need to 
quit thinking about who drives the fanciest car or who is my little 
daughter going to play with, who is she going to sit next to in school. 
We don't have time for that.'' His 10-year-old daughter then stole the 
show by exclaiming, ``Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. My 
daddy is the one who whipped Muhammad Ali.''
  But Joe Frazier's most poignant comments were when he talked about 
attaining his dreams. ``I am here today as a young man whose boyhood 
dream was realized when I won the heavyweight championship of the 
world.'' That was proof he said ``you can do anything you want to do if 
you really put your heart and soul and mind into it.''
  That young man with his dream fulfilled used that same trip back to 
South Carolina to purchase his mother, Dolly Frazier, a new home to 
fulfill one of her dreams. He moved his widowed mother and his sisters, 
who remained at home, into what became known as the Frazier Plantation 
near Yemassee, South Carolina. This was a far cry from the small home 
he grew up in without indoor plumbing and holes in the roof.
  I had the great fortune of visiting and dining with Joe, his mother 
and sisters in the new Frazier homestead. They were great supporters of 
my political endeavors, and they remained salt-of-the-earth people 
despite the success of the youngest Frazier son.
  Joe Frazier died at the age of 67 in his adopted home of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He, like so many other young African 
Americans born in the segregated South, left to find better 
opportunities in the world. In doing so, Smokin' Joe made the world a 
better place.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in celebrating 
the remarkable life of Joe Frazier. He will always represent the 
extraordinary combination of talent and tenacity. He was blessed with 
tremendous determination and a mental toughness that served him well as 
a boxer and outstanding human being. He served as an inspiration to so 
many, and that is a true sign of a life well lived.

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