[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 51 (Monday, March 25, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING MRS. VERNICE BLACK-AVANT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 25, 2019

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor 
Mrs. Vernice Black-Avant.
  Vernice Black-Avant was born November 18, 1949 in Como, Mississippi 
to the late Albert and Della Mae Black. She was the fifth born of 
thirteen children. She was diagnosed at the age of ten with a childhood 
spinal illness. She and her parents and friends spent many months at 
LeBonheur Children's Hospital for surgeries, treatments and follow up 
visits. She was blessed with praying parents and grandparents: Effie 
Dodson Washington and Armetha Walton Black, who both saw to it that she 
had a Christian upbringing. She grew up in a rural community just west 
of Como, Mississippi. Vernice attended Carruthers and Melrose 
Elementary and Como Junior High School. In 1968, she and her family 
moved to Longtown, MS. This move came after her family was told to move 
over night or be burned in that house because her parents had 
encouraged her to attend a predominantly all-white high school during 
her senior year in high school.
  After moving to Longtown, she met the man of her dreams, Robert Allen 
Avant, Sr. in 1968 and married six months later after graduating from 
North Panola High School. Following her wedding on July thirteenth they 
relocated to Chicago, Illinois for eighteen months. There she enjoyed 
cooking with her mother-in-law, Dorothy Jean Bishop-Avant and sitting 
in the window on Halsted Street watching the many Cadillac Eldorados go 
by as she waited for her husband to come home from work. After a couple 
years her aunt became sick, (her mother-in-law's sister) and they moved 
back to Longtown. After her Aunt passed, they moved to live with her 
mother-in-law in Memphis for a few months. Then in 1972, she began her 
career as an elementary school secretary at Crenshaw Elementary School 
where she worked for thirty-one years. While there, she served as 
lunchroom bookkeeper, doctor, counselor, negotiator, nurse, mediator, 
accountant, police/protector and friend.
  In 1973, Vernice and Robert were blessed with their first son, Robert 
Allen Avant, Jr. Issac Lanier was born five years later. In 1981, they 
were blessed with their third son, Albert Hosia Jerriod Avant. A year 
later, they moved into their first newly built home. Vernice and Robert 
enrolled and attended evening/night classes at Coahoma Community 
College at the Crenshaw Interested Community Builders Campus in 
Crenshaw, Mississippi and both graduated in 1986 with Honors, merit 
Scholarships, and with an Associate Arts Degree. From 1987 to August 4, 
2008, Robert Allen Avant, Sr. served as Panola County's District Two 
Supervisor with Vernice by his side in full support. After retiring for 
a short while, she went to work for a private corporation as secretary 
and bookkeeper for ten years. In August of 2008, following Robert's 
untimely death due to a very rare lung cancer, Vernice was sworn in as 
Supervisor of Panola County's 2nd District.
  Currently, Vernice is serving her district and Panola County as vice-
President of North Delta Planning and Development District, secretary 
for the Crenshaw P-16 Council for Crenshaw Elementary School and is an 
active member of McIvor Creek Missionary Baptist Church where she 
serves as President of the Mother Board. She is a Mississippi 
Association of Supervisors Education Committee member, former 
Mississippi Association of Supervisors Insurance Trust Board member, an 
active member of the NAACP and is an active member of Keep America 
Beautiful/Panola County. In her quest to be a servant to the people of 
Panola County, she made time to care for her brothers-in-law, Micheal 
Avant and Willie Avant, both of which lost battles to oral and throat 
cancers in 2009 and 2018 respectively. Vernice lost her eldest son, 
Robert Jr., to a long battle with diabetes and later colon and lung 
cancer in January, 2017. Vernice continues to serve with God as her 
focus point. She was recently nominated and awarded the ``Women of 
Excellence Award'' by the National Foundation for Women Legislators. 
All of Vernice and Robert's children have earned bachelor degrees. 
Lanier earned his Juris Doctor degree from Howard University in 2007 
and Jerriod is working on his PhD in English at The University of Rhode 
Island. Thanks for the opportunity to serve such great people.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mrs. 
Vernice Black-Avant for her dedication in serving her community.

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