[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 134 (Friday, August 9, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO REVEREND DR. W. JEROME FISHER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 9, 2019

  Ms. BARRAGAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 
extraordinary life of the late Reverend Dr. W. Jerome Fisher, pastor of 
the first black church in Compton, California.
  Reverend Dr. W. Jerome Fisher was born March 11, 1924 in the small 
town of Merryville, Louisiana in an era of sharecropping and Jim Crow. 
After accompanying his father to Chicago, Illinois as a child, Jerome 
Fisher honorably served his country as a medic in Normandy during World 
War II.
  After serving in World War II, W. Jerome Fisher moved to Compton, 
California where he built the City's first black church, Little Zion 
Missionary Baptist Church.
  Under the leadership of W. Jerome Fisher, Little Zion's congregation 
grew from 13 members to over 2,000, forming several community outreach 
programs to meet the needs of the greater community.
  As pastor, Jerome Fisher, led Little Zion and the Compton community 
through times of pain and triumph for more than 50 years--including 
offering the opening invocation for the 100th Congress in 1988.
  Sixty-five years after its founding, Little Zion Missionary Baptist 
Church now stands as Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church--a beacon 
of Jerome Fisher's indelible legacy of distinguished service. That 
legacy lives on through its current pastor, Dr. Michael J. Fisher, his 
son, who took on the mantle of pastor in 2005.
  I, along with the residents of California's 44th Congressional 
District mourn the passing of Reverend Dr. W. Jerome Fisher and 
celebrate his service and remarkable work.

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