[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 19 (Tuesday, February 2, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E95]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





              A TRIBUTE: NATIONAL FREEDOM DAY ASSOCIATION

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 2, 2016

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate National 
Freedom Day 2016, a holiday established to recognize the day President 
Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment freeing enslaved Blacks. On 
February 1, 1941, Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr. invited national and 
local leaders to meet in Philadelphia to formulate plans to set aside 
February 1st each year to memorialize the signing of the 13th Amendment 
to the Constitution by President Lincoln on February 1, 1865. One year 
after Major Wright's death in 1947, a bill passed both U.S. Houses of 
Congress making February 1st National Freedom Day.
  Major Wright is recognized as a post reconstruction pioneer and 
trailblazer who dedicated his life to establishing this national day of 
commemoration of freedom. Each year on the first day of Black History 
Month, National Freedom Day Associations in cities and states across 
the nation come together for this annual observance to promote 
goodwill, harmony and equal opportunity and to rededicate the nation to 
these ideals.
  And, as we look back at the life of Major Wright, we discover a true 
American story of resilience, foresight and faith. He was born into 
slavery in 1855. And, as a child he encountered retired Union Civil War 
General Oliver Otis Howard, in an Atlanta classroom. Summoning up 
unbelievable courage he said, ``Sir, tell them we are rising,'' as a 
way to help northerners understand the hope of newly freed Blacks. 
These words came to be Major Wright's lifelong mantra.
  His personal ``rising'' included: serving as a major in the Spanish-
American War, founding and leading Savannah State College; attending 
the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 67; 
and, founding the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company, in 
Philadelphia, the only northern Black-owned bank at the time.
  Therefore, I am proud to honor the life and contributions of Major 
Wright, a great American visionary and trailblazer and the National 
Freedom Day Association as it stands as an historic reminder of our 
nation's promise of freedom and justice.

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