[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 19, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF OUR BELOVED FREEDOM FIGHTER AND FREEDOM 
                       SISTER DR. ANNIE B. MARTIN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 19, 2012

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to mourn the loss of our 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's life-long 
freedom fighter and freedom sister, Dr. Annie B. Martin. Dr. Martin 
served an unprecedented sixteen terms as President of the historic 
NAACP New York Branch, also known as the Harlem Branch; the first 
chartered Branch of NAACP's National Association, which celebrated its 
Centennial Anniversary in 2011. Under her leadership, the New York 
Branch became the largest NAACP branch in the Eastern region, with more 
than 6,000 members, and has received annual national awards for program 
activity.
  Affectionately known to many of us as Chief or simply Annie B, Dr. 
Martin was a devoted and dedicated member of the NAACP National Board 
of Directors. With her soft, but outspoken voice she led by example and 
with dignity. Annie B was my very dear friend and ally, and on behalf 
of my wife Alma, my sister Hazel Dukes and our beloved Village of 
Harlem, our nation has lost another soldier and angel of the civil 
rights and labor movement that dedicated her entire life fighting and 
speaking out against injustices and inequality. Dr. Martin committed 
her 91 years plus life to making our world an equal playing field for 
all to inspire and attain, and I will deeply miss my beloved friend and 
freedom sister.
  Annie B. Martin was a native of Eastover, South Carolina and was the 
seventh of eight children, which were born to Jacob and Queenie Martin. 
She was a graduate of Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina and 
earned a Master's Degree in both social work and guidance counseling 
from New York University. Dr. Martin was an important and dominant 
voice in the American labor movement, including service as executive 
board member of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and 
first vice president of the Black Trade Unionists Leadership Committee 
of the New York City Central Labor Council. Dr. Martin served as New 
York assistant commissioner of labor under former Governors Nelson 
Aldrich Rockefeller, Charles Malcolm Wilson and Hugh Carey.
  She also served as senior extension associate of Cornell University's 
School of Industrial and Labor Relations; secretary-treasurer of Local 
8 138, Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union; and adjunct professor at 
Columbia, Fordham and New York Universities.
  As director of labor participation for the American Red Cross in 
Greater New York, at the age of 81, Dr. Martin was on duty seven days a 
week after the terrorist attack on America on September 11, 2001, 
serving as liaison between labor, the Red Cross and the NYFD and NYPD 
departments. This remarkable woman coordinated survival and job-
placement issues for hundreds of members of organized labor and 
personally processed 290 claims for American Red Cross Emergency Family 
Gifts to families' beneficiaries who lost members at ``Ground Zero.'' 
Dr. Martin, freedom's mother of labor, was always there to serve her 
community and our great country.
  Dr. Annie B. Martin now takes her place in history alongside Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, Percy 
Ellis Sutton and Freedom Sisters Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 
Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, Ella Jo Baker, Dorothy 
Irene Height, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Charline Jordan, Betty Shabazz, 
Coretta Scott King and the countless of extraordinary African American 
Women and Men who have given so much of their entire lives and life-
work to preserving freedom and equality for all of us and our nation's 
children.
  Mr. Speaker, as I stand before you today, I ask you to join me and my 
colleagues in remembering the life of our beloved Freedom Fighter, Dr. 
Annie B. Martin. Her compassion and dedication to her community serves 
as a model for all Americans, our nation and the world.

                          ____________________