[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 168 (Monday, November 16, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO SWEET ALICE HARRIS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KAREN BASS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 16, 2015

  Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize and celebrate 50 years and 
community improvement in Watts and South Los Angeles, California, under 
the inspiration and leadership of Sweet Alice Harris.
  Sweet Alice, as she is universally known, began speaking up against 
the health disparities and lack of access to services that she saw in 
her neighborhood five decades ago. She founded the organization Parents 
of Watts to give voice to those who were no longer willing to accept 
the circumstances in which they found themselves and their children 
after decades of civic neglect. Parents of Watts provided a platform 
for community organizing and self-empowerment.
  Watts and greater South Los Angeles might be a very different place 
without Sweet Alice Harris. Fifty years ago she began clearly and 
effectively insisting that her children, her neighbors and her 
community should have the same access to education, health care, safety 
and employment that others have. Through her unrelenting, focused 
advocacy, her effective story-telling, and her development of 
relationships with both the neediest and the most powerful in Los 
Angeles, she has improved the quality of life for people well beyond 
her immediate reach.
  I offer my personal thanks and congratulations to Sweet Alice on 50 
years of service. I remember the founding of Parents of Watts, an 
organization that has grown to provide an array of services to a 
diverse segment of the community, including emergency food and shelter 
for the homeless, college preparation for teenagers, drug counseling, 
health seminars and parenting classes. I am pleased that this work has 
been recognized over the years, including by Essence Magazine, the 
California Lieutenant Governor's Woman of the Year Award, the Minerva 
Award from the California Governor & First Lady's Conference on Women, 
President George H. W. Bush's #702 Points of Light Award, and an 
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern 
California.
  With a list of accomplishments too lengthy to list here, her greatest 
success is that her work will continue to benefit Watts and South Los 
Angeles for the foreseeable future. It is an honor to recognize her 
work.

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