[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 183 (Thursday, December 1, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING LORETTA KING

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 1, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues in the 
House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Loretta King, a 
champion for civil rights, a loving wife and mother, and a dedicated 
public servant.
  Today, Loretta is celebrating her retirement most recently as the 
career Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States 
Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. In total, Loretta has 
dedicated more than 32 years of her life in defense of our Nation and 
the public at large.
  Loretta's career is one self-sacrifice and commitment to protecting 
the rights of all Americans, without regard to race, gender, or 
political affiliation.
  As a career-track civil servant, Loretta epitomizes a Justice 
Department lawyer; Loretta did so without seeking the limelight, year 
after year, day in and day out, for all her career. Starting as a law 
clerk while completing her studies, Loretta literally rose up the ranks 
at the Justice Department to become the Acting Assistant Attorney 
General for Civil Rights, the government's chief civil rights advocate.
  After graduating in 1990 from American University, Washington College 
of Law, Loretta was chosen by the Justice Department's Legal Honors 
Program. From 1980 to 1990, Loretta served as a line attorney in the 
Civil Rights Division's Employment Litigation Section, tasked with 
enforcing Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In this post, Loretta 
led and settled the Justice Department's first sexual harassment case 
as well as its first paternity leave case. Over the next 20 years, 
Loretta worked in both the Justice Department's Civil and Civil Rights 
Divisions. In 1992, Loretta was tapped to serve as the Deputy Chief of 
the Civil Rights Division's Voting Section. In 1994, Loretta was 
elevated to her current role as the Civil Rights Division's Deputy 
Assistant Attorney General, where she has served continuously for 17 
years, except during temporary assignments to other senior roles in the 
Division. Specifically, in 2009, Loretta served as her Division's 
Acting Assistant Attorney General, pending confirmation to that post of 
Thomas Perez. From August 2010 through June 2011, Loretta led the Civil 
Rights Division's Employment Litigation Section as its Acting Chief.
  A civil rights legal pioneer, Loretta became one of the highest 
ranking women and persons of color to serve in the Justice Department, 
and the first African-American woman to hold the positions in the Civil 
Rights Division of Acting Assistant Attorney General and Deputy 
Assistant Attorney General.
  As a Member of Congress representing Americans who know all too well 
the sting of injustice, I am here to salute Loretta's tireless work and 
long service upholding the civil and constitutional rights of all 
Americans. As Robert F. Kennedy once said, ``few will have the 
greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a 
small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be 
written the history of this generation.'' Loretta has done just that.
  Again, I ask the House to celebrate Loretta as a servant to her 
family and country as well as defender of the civil rights of all 
people, including the residents of the Nation's capital.

                          ____________________