[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 188 (Thursday, November 16, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1588]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN MEMORY OF MRS. LAURA DIXIE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. AL LAWSON, JR.

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 16, 2017

  Mr. LAWSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Mrs. Laura Dixie, one of Tallahassee, Florida's foot soldiers in the 
Civil Rights movement, who passed away on Saturday, November 11, 2017 
at the age of 92. Laura Dixie was a civil rights trailblazer, and 
played a crucial role in the Reverend C. K. Steele's quest to 
desegregate Tallahassee's public transportation system in 1956. She 
also worked with Reverend Steel and others in the original 1962 lawsuit 
calling for the desegregation ofLeon County Schools.
  Laura saw early in life that obtaining civil rights was going to be 
challenging. One of her favorite stories was about going downtown one 
day with her parents and seeing water fountains marked for ``Whites 
only, and Colored only.''
  Life took Laura from sampling water on a dare, from a segregated 
Whites only fountain inside the Leon County Courthouse, ``to see if it 
was sweeter;'' to playing a pivotal role in the Tallahassee Bus 
Boycott. She traveled during troubled times to Mississippi, Alabama, 
and Georgia to participate in Voter Registration drives; to seeing a 
black man elected President of the United States. It was one of her 
proudest moments to see President Obama in the White House.
  In the early 1950's, Laura joined her husband Samuel L. Dixie at 
Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, where together they worked closely 
with the church and in the community to promote Civil Rights. Her 
involvement in Tallahassee's Civil Rights movement went along with her 
active membership in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the 
Inter-Civic Council in Tallahassee and the NAACP, of which she was a 
life member.
  At the time of her death, Laura lived in the house that she and her 
husband owned since the mid50s on Tanner Drive in Jake Gaither Park. 
They often found room in their house to help Florida A&M University 
students in need of a place to live when their funds were depleted.
  Mr. Speaker, Laura Dixie was simply a trailblazer and an icon, who 
fearlessly battled the horrors of being a black woman in the south 
during desegregation. Laura Dixie's spirit and attitude will be truly 
missed.

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