[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING MODEANE THOMPSON

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 12, 2019

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of the 
late Modeane Nichols Thompson, a founding member of the Memphis Panel 
of American Women, whose quiet resolve to establish racial and 
sectarian reconciliation and understanding during tense times in the 
1960s will be long remembered. Mrs. Thompson, a longtime family 
advocate with Family Service of Memphis, died February 25 at the age of 
89. An African American and Roman Catholic, Mrs. Thompson joined with 
Joyce Blackmon, Dorothy ``Happy'' Jones, Jeanne Varnell and Jocelyn 
Wurzburg to demonstrate that people of different races and religions 
could establish lasting relationships and bridge cultural divides. Mrs. 
Thompson was a calming influence in Memphis as a voice and early 
advocate for the communities of South Memphis where lives were 
disrupted by urban renewal. She was quoted in the nationally circulated 
Redbook magazine in 1964 in an article about racial prejudice entitled 
``What Can I Tell My Children?'' She was a natural fit for the women's 
panel, which she told The Commercial Appeal was ``designed to confront 
historically difficult issues in an open and civil manner. We hoped 
open dialogue and minds between people for the first time.'' A lifelong 
member of the NAACP and the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 
her work was honored by the National Underground Railroad Freedom 
Center in Cincinnati in 2006 and by the Women's Foundation for a 
Greater Memphis, with its Legends Award, in 2014. I extend my 
condolences to her five children, seven grandchildren and three great-
grandchildren, her extended family and her many friends.

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