[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 14, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E590-E591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING RONALD DELLUMS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 14, 2019

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, we celebrate our colleague and friend 
Ronald Dellums at a time of historic polarization in Congress. It is a 
good time to remember the peace advocate who chaired the Armed Services 
Committee with such equanimity that he won the respect, even the 
friendship, of those who opposed every cause, of the many into which 
Ron poured his considerable talent.

[[Page E591]]

  I first came to admire Ron even before being elected to Congress from 
my work in the Free South Africa anti-apartheid movement. For 14 years, 
Ron did not relent until he freed his landmark bill for South Africa 
divestment, overcoming a presidential veto.
  By the time I was elected to Congress, Ron had already been chair of 
the District of Columbia Committee for more than a decade. That 
committee is long gone, and nothing would have pleased Chairman Dellums 
more than its demise. But when freedom-loving Ron Dellums first came to 
Congress, he knew that if there had to be such a Committee, he wanted a 
seat on it. Just as Ron sought peace by serving on the Armed Service 
Committee, he sought to free D.C. from congressional control by serving 
on the D.C. Committee.
  He joined the D.C. Committee during his very first term in Congress. 
Upon becoming chair of the Committee, Ron framed his service as ``an 
advocate, not an overseer of District affairs.'' No sooner had Ron 
gotten to Congress in 1975, in his very first term, long before I even 
thought about becoming a Member, he introduced the first D.C. statehood 
bill.
  Ron would relish our progress today as we close in on enough votes 
for the D.C. statehood bill to pass in the House this term. We expect a 
vote soon in the Oversight and Reform Committee to send the bill to the 
House Floor. When that committee vote occurs, we will not be able to 
claim we are breaking new or historic ground. In 1987, more than 30 
years ago, Chairman Ron Dellums proclaimed, ``There should be no 
colonies in a democracy'' and led the District Committee in a vote for 
statehood for the District of Columbia that passed in his Committee.
  The American citizens who live in the nation's capital will forever 
remember Ron Dellums, prescient warrior for equality and freedom--and 
well ahead of his time--a leader for statehood for the District of 
Columbia.

                          ____________________