[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 178 (Wednesday, December 9, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF MILDRED HAILEY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 9, 2015

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mildred Hailey, 
tenant activist and community leader, who passed away on November 18, 
2015.
  Mrs Hailey was born in Jackson, Mississippi eighty-two years ago. As 
a child, her family moved to Boston. At the time, Boston was not as 
open to diversity as it is today. Mrs. Hailey's family, being among the 
first African-American families in their neighborhood, suffered from 
discrimination and were treated by some of their neighbors with 
antipathy. Mildred approached this as a challenge to become a community 
leader.
  By the 1960s, Mrs. Hailey had taken a leadership role at the Bromley-
Heath housing development and, with co-founder Anna Mae Cole, 
incorporated the Bromley-Heath Tenant Management Corporation (TMC). The 
TMC was the nation's first tenant-run public housing development.
  Initially, TMC, under Mrs. Hailey's leadership, tackled basic quality 
of life issues on behalf of Bromley-Heath residents: fixing broken 
windows, making sure basic utilities were in working order, ensuring 
trash pickup. Eventually TMC moved on to residents' greater needs, such 
as creating a day care program, developing a health center on the 
Bromley-Heath campus and running its own security force. Finally, Mrs. 
Hailey and TMC became instrumental in guiding development around 
Bromley-Heath, partnering to bring a supermarket to the neighborhood, 
protesting to successfully halt a planned highway close by and lending 
an outspoken voice in planning the Southwest Corridor Park. Through it 
all, Mrs. Hailey always had time and energy to bring together the 
members of her beloved Bromley-Heath community to work out 
disagreements and support one another. She was truly an indispensable 
leader.
  In closing, I salute Mildred Hailey for her leadership, selflessness 
and passion for her community.

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