[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 79 (Thursday, June 6, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E819]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        TRIBUTE TO WAVERLY DISTRICT IN COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 6, 2013

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a Sixth 
Congressional District community that celebrating its centennial 
anniversary. The Waverly District in Columbia, South Carolina, is an 
historic African American neighborhood that has built a very proud 
history over its 100 years in existence, and it is my honor to 
represent it in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  The Waverly District was named a National Register of Historic Places 
District in 1989, and is the only African American residential 
neighborhood to hold that distinction in Columbia. There is good reason 
it qualified for this designation. By the early twentieth century, 
Waverly was a thriving community of African American artisans, 
professionals and social reformers, many of whom made significant 
contributions to the social and political advancement of African 
Americans in South Carolina and in the nation.
  Among the Waverly District historic properties and sites are: the 
Heidt-Russell House, home of Edwin Roberts Russell, one of the few 
African American scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project in 
during World War II; the Matthew J. Perry site, location of a former 
home of South Carolina's first African American Federal Judge and 1963 
Edwards v. South Carolina lead attorney. The landmark breech of the 
peace case and its impact on civil rights was featured in May 2013 on 
C-SPAN's LCV Cities Tour; the Modjeska Simkins childhood home, former 
home of the ``Matriarch of the South Carolina Civil Rights Movement'' 
Modjeska Monteith Simkins, who hosted former Justice Thurgood Marshall 
during strategy meetings for Briggs v. Elliot, which became part of the 
historic Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case; and the 
Visanska Starks House, one of the few historic sites in America with 
residential histories of an antebellum white Southern woman, a Jewish 
immigrant from Poland, and an African American scholar who became 
president of three historically black colleges. The House and its 
carriage house were featured on a segment of HGTV's ``If Walls Could 
Talk'' and the site is a member of the International Sites of 
Conscience.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in recognizing 
the 100th anniversary of the Waverly District and congratulate the 
Historic Waverly Improvement and Protection Association President, 
Doris Hildebrand, and Association Historian, Catherine Fleming Bruce, 
for their efforts to commemorate this great occasion. The current 
residents and members of the extended community have dedicated 
themselves to preserving the Waverly District and its history, and they 
deserve commendation for their extraordinary work. This is a model 
preservation effort that is dear to my heart and serves as an example 
of the significant impact such efforts can make for future generations.

                          ____________________