[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 161 (Friday, September 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING REP. H.M. ``MICKEY'' MICHAUX

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 28, 2018

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 
leadership and service of Representative Henry McKinley ``Mickey'' 
Michaux, who is retiring from the North Carolina General Assembly after 
nearly five decades of distinguished and impactful public service.
   For many residents of Durham and the State of North Carolina, Mickey 
Michaux's life of service has been synonymous with our growth and 
progress as a region as well as the challenges we have faced as a state 
and nation. A native of Durham, Michaux spent his childhood in 
segregated schools and public establishments, attending the prestigious 
boarding school, Palmer Memorial Institute, and graduating from North 
Carolina Central University (NCCU) in 1952. He went on to serve his 
country in the United States Medical Corps and Army Reserves from 1952 
until 1960.
   As a young business and civic leader, Michaux was at the forefront 
of the civil rights movement as it swept through the South. Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s first visit to Durham in 1956 came at Michaux's 
invitation, building on a friendship that would extend until King's 
untimely death. His early involvement in local civil rights struggles 
led him to pursue a career in law; he earned his Juris Doctor from N.C. 
Central in 1964 and was appointed as the Chief Assistant District 
Attorney for Durham County in 1969.
   In 1972, Michaux was elected to the North Carolina House of 
Representatives, becoming just the third African American to hold a 
seat in the 20th century. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him 
to serve as the first African American U.S. Attorney in the Middle 
District of North Carolina: after a distinguished term of service, he 
returned to the North Carolina House representing Durham's 31st 
District. He has served continuously since then, making him the 
longest-serving member of the North Carolina General Assembly.
   Throughout his more than four decades in the legislature, Michaux 
has been a visionary and effective advocate for equal rights, social 
justice, and shared prosperity. Nearly every progressive accomplishment 
of the last few decades--investments in education and worker training, 
support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, expansions of 
voting rights and ballot access reforms--have benefited from his 
guidance and persistence. He served as the Senior Chair of the 
Appropriations Committee, overseeing numerous vital investments to 
create opportunities for North Carolina families. He has been a 
tireless ambassador for his community of Durham, for example by 
shepherding legislation unifying the city and county school districts 
through the state House. And he has led efforts to ensure that North 
Carolina honors its history as an epicenter of the civil rights 
movement, for example by establishing the Hawkins Brown Museum at 
Historic Palmer Memorial Institute.
   Mickey Michaux has not hesitated to take on difficult causes. My 
wife Lisa greatly admired his introduction in the early 1990s of 
legislation designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands; her hope in 
founding North Carolinians Against Gun Violence was to make his cause a 
less lonely one.
   Lisa and I have known Mickey for the 45 years we have been back in 
North Carolina. I worked with him as state Democratic chairman and then 
benefitted from his counsel and encouragement when I decided to seek 
office myself. He was especially welcoming and helpful when my district 
was redrawn to include Durham in 1997. I had a lot to learn, and I will 
always be grateful for Mickey's generosity in easing my way.
   Mickey has received countless awards and recognitions for his 
service, including the Order of the Long Leaf Pine earlier this year. 
He has been a mainstay of numerous bar and real estate associations, 
the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and St. Joseph's 
AME Church. He is a member of the Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, 
served as an NCCU Trustee, and was National President of the N.C. 
Central Alumni Association for three terms. The H. M. Michaux, Jr. 
School of Education Building at NCCU was dedicated in his honor in 
2007.
   On behalf of North Carolina's Congressional delegation and my 
constituents in the Fourth District, I join Mickey's many friends, 
colleagues, and constituents in thanking him for his commitment and 
service to the city of Durham and the State of North Carolina. He 
leaves his community stronger than he found it, better equipped to 
nurture future generations of conscientious and effective leaders. All 
North Carolinians are in his debt. We wish him, his wife June, and 
their family well as he begins the next chapter in his life.

                          ____________________