[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 59 (Friday, April 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H2379-H2380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING MAXINE SMITH

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today, in Memphis, Tennessee, a great lady 
passed away--a lady who is as fierce, as brave, and as courageous a 
woman who's ever lived in this country: a lady by the name of Maxine 
Smith.
  Maxine Smith was the executive secretary of the NAACP from 1962 up to 
around 2000. She served on the Memphis City School Board from 1971 to 
1995 and was on the National Board of the NAACP. She helped take 
Memphis beyond Jim Crow and beyond segregation into a great city in 
America and America's mainstream.
  Because the scourge of discrimination and desegregation stained this 
country, she was not allowed to enroll at Memphis State University. So 
she went to Spelman and then to Middlebury and got a master's degree. 
She went to work to help others and spent her life fighting against 
discrimination in all ways and all manners.
  She served on the State Board of Education in Tennessee and made sure 
people got a good education, whether they were White or Black; and she 
overcame all of the hate and discrimination that she faced. She was a 
beautiful woman who lived Dr. King's dream--seeing people and judging 
them by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
  She was a person to be emulated, honored, and remembered. She had a

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great life--a life extremely well lived. I will miss her and so will 
this Nation.

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