[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 134 (Thursday, September 17, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1309-E1310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ALICE THOMPSON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CEDRIC L. RICHMOND

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 17, 2015

  Mr. RICHMOND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Alice 
Marie Thompson, a civil rights icon and Freedom Rider, who passed away 
on August 24, 2015.
   Alice was born on September 25, 1939, the sixth of eight children, 
born to Cora Mae Atlas and John Henry Thompson, Sr. and was the

[[Page E1310]]

granddaughter of Susie Lee and Louis Balfour Atlas, Sr. and Alice 
Piercey and Norah Thompson. In 1944, Alice and her family moved from 
Lake Providence to New Orleans' Ninth Ward. Alice attended Lockett, 
V.C. Jones, McCarthy, and Joseph S. Clark schools and graduated from 
George Washington Carver High School in 1959. She later attended and 
graduated from Southern University in New Orleans with a Bachelor of 
Arts degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Alice worked for many years 
as a social worker until her retirement in 2002.
   Between 1959 and 1960, Alice, and her sisters Jean and Shirley, 
became members of the Youth Council of the New Orleans branch of the 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The 
Thompson Sisters, as they famously became known, soon sought more 
direct action, and in 1960 joined the New Orleans chapter of the 
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) under the leadership of Rudy Lombard 
and later Oretha Castle Haley. Alice was active in countless pickets, 
sit-ins, and sit downs. She integrated a number of high-profile public 
places in the city, including McCrory's, Woolworths, the Loews Theater, 
and the City Hall Cafeteria.
   In 1961, when the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed 
segregation on buses, terminals, restrooms, restaurants, Alice's CORE 
members began testing the ruling throughout the Deep South. Their first 
test was in New Orleans at the Trailways bus terminal on Tulane Avenue. 
Alice and her comrades faced violence, intimidation and even 
imprisonment. In Poplarville, Mississippi, Alice was arrested and 
charged with breach of peace. She was placed in the same cell that Mack 
Charles Parker was placed in, taken from, and beaten two years earlier. 
In McComb, Mississippi, she and her fellow riders were viciously 
beaten. Alice volunteered for numerous projects during the U.S. Civil 
Rights Movement such as Mississippi and Louisiana Freedom Summer, and 
was present at the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963. 
Alice was honored for her work by the State of Mississippi, the City of 
New Orleans, and by Oprah Winfrey during her show commemorating the 
50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders.
   In addition to her courageous civil rights advocacy, Alice was 
active in her community. She was one of the founding members of the 
Southern Organization for the Unified Leadership (SOUL), a founding 
member of the Lower Ninth Ward Development Association, an organizer of 
the New Orleans Health Corporation, and an organizer of the Copeland-
Sanchez Center in the Lower Ninth Ward.
   Alice loved to have a good time. She was always a centerpiece of 
family gatherings. With her signature beer in hand, she could always be 
seen recounting hilarious stories of her life and times, especially 
things that happened while she was in the Civil Rights Movement. She 
will be sorely missed by her family, her friends, and all of those who 
benefitted from her life's work--to bring freedom to all Americans.
   Mr. Speaker, as a beneficiary of the courage, commitment and 
sacrifice of Alice Thompson, I celebrate her life and legacy, because 
she made America a more perfect union.

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