[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 167 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1323-E1324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





            PAYING TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 21, 2019

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congressman 
Horsford of Nevada for anchoring this Special Order in remembrance of 
Chairman Elijah Cummings, the indefatigable champion of justice and 
equality, the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight, the Member 
of Congress from the Seventh Congressional District of Maryland since 
April 16, 1996, and above all, the devoted and beloved son of 
Baltimore.
  Chairman Elijah Cummings died Thursday, October 17, 2019 at Johns 
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland; he was 68 years old.
  Mr. Speaker, our friend Elijah Cummings was in every sense of the 
word a statesman and a gentleman who believed in bipartisanship and 
treated everyone equally and respectfully.
  Born January 18, 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Robert and Ruth 
Cummings, South Carolina sharecroppers, who followed the Great 
Migration north to factory jobs in Baltimore, Elijah Eugene Cummings 
was the third of seven children.
  After graduating from Baltimore City College High School in 1969, 
Elijah Cummings attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where 
he was elected President of the student government and graduated in 
1973 with a degree in political science, earning honors as Phi Beta 
Kappa.
  Mr. Speaker, you may be interested to know that Elijah Cummings went 
on to earn a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.
  Elijah Cummings' matriculation and graduation from the University of 
Maryland School of Law was poetic justice because a generation before 
it had denied admission to another son of Baltimore, the legendary 
Thurgood Marshall, who then went to the Howard University School of Law 
and later became the greatest social engineer and the architect and 
instrument of the strategy that defeated Jim Crow and toppled de jure 
segregation at the University of Maryland School of Law.
  Elijah Cummings practiced law for 14 years in Baltimore and in 1982 
he was elected to the House of Delegates of the Maryland General 
Assembly where he served for 14 years.
  In the Maryland General Assembly, he served as Chairman of the 
Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and was the first African American 
in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tempore, the second highest 
position in the House of Delegates, earning a reputation as a champion 
of progressive and liberal causes and constituencies and as a skilled 
census-builder.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1996 when Congressman Kweisi Mfume resigned to assume 
the presidency of the United Negro College Fund, Elijah Cummings ran in 
and easily won the special election created by the vacancy with 80 
percent of the popular vote.
  Elijah Cummings was re-elected to the 105th Congress and each of the 
succeeding Congresses until his untimely death, never winning with less 
than 70 percent of the vote.
  In Elijah Cumming's maiden address as a member of Congress he vowed 
that he would make use of his limited time in Congress:
     I only have a minute.
     Sixty seconds in it.
     Forced upon me, I did not choose it,
     But I know that I must use it.
     Give account if I abuse it.
     Suffer, if I lose it.
     Only a tiny little minute,
     But eternity is in it.
  Mr. Speaker, Elijah Cummings made good on that prophetic promise from 
the start.
  As a Member of Congress, Elijah Cummings served on the Committees on 
Transportation and Infrastructure and on Oversight and Government 
Reform.
  As a freshman member, Elijah Cummings championed and supported health 
care and labor legislation.
  In 2003, Elijah Cummings was elected as Chairman of the Congressional 
Black Caucus.
  In the 112th Congress, Elijah Cummings was elected by his colleagues 
to be Ranking Member of what is now known as the Committee on Oversight 
and Reform and in the 115th Congress was appointed by the Democratic 
Leader Nancy Pelosi to the Benghazi Committee.
  One of my proudest moments was working with Elijah Cummings to secure 
passage of H.R. 1076, the Fair Chance Act, which would ``ban the box'' 
in federal hiring by restricting federal employers and contractors from 
asking about the criminal histories of applicants until the conditional 
offer stage.
  The Fair Chance Act would give formerly incarcerated people a fair 
chance at a job and a piece of the American dream.
  I was proud to have been able to work with Chairman Elijah Cummings 
in support of this legislation and other legislative goals of mutual 
interest and concern like reducing gun violence and eliminating unfair 
policing in communities of color.
  Mr. Speaker, Elijah Cummings dedicated his life to serving and 
uplifting others and empowering the people he was sworn to represent; 
he was a man for and of the people, going to the streets and ensuring 
that their voices were heard.
  Elijah Cummings received national attention in 2015 when he walked 
the streets of Baltimore, his notable bullhorn in hand, and pleaded for 
calm after riots erupted in his neighborhood after the funeral of 
Freddie Gray, a young black man who died in police custody.
  Elijah Cummings took the issues of his constituents to heart; many of 
us recall how he fought for meaning in the death of young Deamonte 
Driver, a 12-year-old Maryland boy who died from an untreated tooth 
infection.
  Elijah Cummings often said that ``our children are the living 
messages that we send to a future we will never see'' and was committed 
to ensuring that the next generation had access to quality healthcare 
and education, clean air and water, and a strong economy defined by 
fiscal responsibility.
  Elijah Cummings had a servant's heart and was imbued with an ethic of 
service and inspired countless numbers of persons fight for their 
beliefs.
  Unsurpassed was this native of Baltimore's love for his hometown.
  That could also be seen by his response to the current President's 
belittling Baltimore and his congressional district as a ``disgusting, 
rat and rodent infested mess'' to which Elijah Cummings invited the 
President to join him in the important work of ensuring that all 
Americans had accessible, affordable, high quality health care.
  Elijah Cummings' passion was not reserved for his district and the 
city of Baltimore; he also deeply loved his country.
  As Ranking Member and the Chairman of the House Committee on 
Oversight and Reform, Elijah Cummings brought his intellect to what he 
called ``the fight for the soul of our democracy.''
  Elijah Cummings deeply believed in our democratic system and values 
and worked tirelessly to preserve them and exhorted everyone to the 
same:
  When we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked, in 
2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we 
stand on the sidelines and say nothing?''
  In the words of his widow, Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, Elijah 
Cummings ``worked until his last breath because he believed our 
democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective 
humanity and that our nation's diversity was our promise, not our 
problem.''
  Mr. Speaker, the life of Elijah Cummings is a testament to what a 
person of goodwill can accomplish with a servant's heart and the 
understanding that in the passion play of life you only have a minute, 
but all eternity is in it.
  Elijah Cummings did not waste his minute of eternity.
  Elijah Cummings will live forever in the hearts of the people of his 
hometown Baltimore, his state of Maryland, and the United States.
  To his widow Maya, his children, and family and friends he loved and 
who loved him so dearly, my deepest sympathies go out to them, and I 
hope they find consolation in the certain knowledge that our beloved 
Elijah is now dancing with the angels.

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