[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 14, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H234-H236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PAYING TRIBUTE TO RICHARD BARNETT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Danny K. Davis) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the 
opportunity to come to the floor at this time.
  I come to pay tribute to a person who is not easy to describe. As a 
matter of fact, he has been called many things, has been many things, 
and will always be many things. As a matter of fact, his name is 
Richard Barnett. He held no title and he held no office. As a matter of 
fact, he never ran for public office, to my knowledge. But he probably 
helped more individuals get elected to judgeships in Cook County than 
anybody in the history of the county.
  As a matter of fact, he also happened to have been the manager of my 
first campaign for public office which was about 40 years ago. After 
the campaign was over, he went into the hospital. He had taken ill but 
would not go into the hospital until after the election was done. He 
finally did go after we had won, and he looked as though he only 
weighed about 90 pounds which means that he was just that sick, he was 
just that ill. But he bounced back and went back to work at his actual 
job which was that of a postal clerk.

[[Page H235]]

  He went back and worked until retirement. Then he became very 
actively engaged in the election of Harold Washington for mayor of the 
city of Chicago. He took a job and worked for the city until he quit 
that after Harold had passed away, because he really was not looking 
for a job or didn't want a job.
  He became significantly important because we have all heard the term 
political machine. We don't hear it as much now as we did in the past, 
but political machines have been described in many different ways, 
sometimes good, sometimes not so good, and sometimes bad.

                              {time}  1545

  One definition that people generally accept as being fairly common is 
that a political machine is a political group in which an authoritative 
leader or small group commands the support of a core of supporters and 
businesses, usually campaign workers, who receive rewards for their 
efforts. The machine is based on the ability of the boss or group to 
get out the vote for their candidate on election day.
  The term ``political machine'' dates back to the 20th century in the 
United States. In the late 19th century, large cities in the United 
States--Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York, 
Philadelphia, St. Louis, and others--were accused of forming, building, 
and making use of political machines.
  Chicago, being one of those, emerged as one of the big cities with a 
strong political machine. The machine was known to totally dominate and 
control all the machinery of government, especially in the immigrant 
and Black communities.
  When I came to Chicago in 1961, Chicago was seriously segregated, as 
it is today, and seriously politically organized, much more than it is 
today. These were what was called the movement years.
  This is the period when Dr. Martin Luther King came into Chicago. 
This is the period when we experienced the War on Poverty, great 
efforts to reduce and work on some of the issues plaguing individuals 
who were at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.
  That was when I met Richard Barnett. He was part of a small group of 
activists who felt and believed that the machine could be defeated.
  Notables like Leon Despres, Richard Barnett, himself, and others 
worked in ways to try to undercut the power and influence. People were 
meeting a great deal in Chicago, and there were meetings all the time, 
almost every day. We were young activists and would almost be looking 
for meetings.
  People would talk about everything. They talked about race issues. 
They would talk about poverty. They would talk about the need for 
programs. But very seldom would they talk about electoral politics.
  Richard was one of the persons who would, and he kind of checked 
people out at the meetings. When there was a campaign going on, he 
might call you up.
  I never will forget, he called me and asked me if I would be a poll 
watcher. I said, what am I going to watch? Am I going to watch the 
polls?
  He said, well, that is not exactly what it means, because I really 
did not know. I mean, I would go to the meetings and all.
  He said: No, you are going to go and watch to make sure that the 
election is fair.
  And I am trying to figure out how in the world can I make sure that 
an election is fair by watching the poll.
  The next time he called, he says: Would you like to be a LEAP judge?
  I said: Leap judge? Does that mean I am going to jump over somebody?
  He laughed and said: Well, that is not quite exactly what that means 
either. That means ``legal elections in all precincts,'' and we are 
working to try to make sure that the elections are fair and that the 
votes are accurate.
  That was Richard. Richard always had a telephone book and a bunch of 
names, and he was most effective with that.
  I also say that it was him and some other folk who got me to run for 
the city council. I had no intention of running, but I did agree to be 
chairman of a committee to help find a candidate. But we couldn't find 
anybody; nobody would run. We broke up the committee, and I ran into 
the person we were going to run against. He started to do what we call 
sell wolf tickets.
  He says: You guys have been talking about what you are going to do to 
me, and you can't even find a candidate.
  I went home that evening and said to my wife: I think I am going to 
run for the city council.
  She said: Who, you?
  I said: Well, yeah, me.
  She said: You can't run for no city council. You are not even a 
precinct captain.
  And I said: Well, I didn't know you had to be one to run.
  At any rate, I called Richard, and Richard said: Well, if you decide 
you are going to run, I will help you.
  That is exactly what he did, and he has been helping me ever since. 
He has been helping me every time I run. He has been helping other 
people every time they run. Never to my knowledge have I known him to 
get 1 cent for working a campaign or working in anybody's campaign.
  He became sort of an icon to those of us who believe in what we 
called independent politics, meaning independent of bossism, 
independent of not being able to make up your own mind and make your 
own decisions.
  I guess when I went to his funeral on Saturday, the individuals who 
were there, they were just down the line, down the line. I think some 
of what I experienced with Richard, I am sure that you experienced some 
of it also.
  Madam Speaker, I am delighted that Mr. Rush came over to join me as 
we talk about this community icon from our city. I might also add that 
Bobby's district was the first district that an African American won 
after African Americans were all put out or left or didn't come back at 
the end of the 18th century.
  Madam Speaker, I yield time to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Rush), the Representative from the First District in Illinois.
  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, the dynamic part of 
the dynamic duo, my brother who is known far and wide as being a voice 
of inspiration, a voice of reason, and a mighty voice of valor, my 
friend and colleague for many, many years, Congressman Danny K. Davis 
from the great Seventh Congressional District in the State of Illinois.
  I thank Congressman Davis for honoring the legacy of his friend and 
mine, Mr. Richard Barnett, who was a true visionary, whose outstanding 
efforts helped bring Chicago's local government and the State of 
Illinois' government closer to the people who consented to be governed, 
to the people who know governments are supposed to serve.

  Madam Speaker, Richard Barnett was a man of enormous talents, skills, 
and abilities. Integral to his vision, though, was a focus on 
enfranchising those who had been intentionally excluded from the 
political process by Chicago's political elite.
  Richard was a courageous voice for the left out, for the locked out, 
and for those who were forced to live on the margins of political power 
in the city of Chicago.
  I guess the clearest example of this was the critical role that 
Richard Barnett played in the election of Chicago's first African 
American mayor, Harold Washington, and the defeat of Chicago's vaunted 
Democratic machine.
  But we can't look at one election and summarize Richard's 
contribution by just one election. Richard Barnett's transformative 
role in Chicago politics would come years earlier, following the 
untimely assassination of my dear friend and colleague, Fred Hampton.
  The story goes that after then-Cook County State's Attorney Edward V. 
Hanrahan led the political assassination of Hampton, who was chairman 
of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Richard Barnett 
encouraged all African Americans, all minorities, all good people in 
the city of Chicago, all those who cared about civil rights, law and 
order, and justice in our city, to refuse to vote for Edward Hanrahan 
in the upcoming general election.

                              {time}  1600

  That was the election in 1972. This was in spite of the fact that 
Richard was a Democrat, and most of the African American community was 
Democrat. We vote with the Democratic machine.

[[Page H236]]

  We refused to just be ignored and disrespected, and we defeated the 
Democratic machine in Chicago in the election of 1972 for Cook County 
State's attorney but, for the first time in the history of the city of 
Chicago, elected a Republican as the State's attorney of Cook County, 
Bernard J. Carey. The evil Edward V. Hanrahan would lose the general 
election, mostly because of Richard Barnett's political acumen and 
activism.
  This defeat by the Cook County Democratic machine would ignite a 
political awakening in Chicago that would begin with the 1983 election 
of Harold Washington. But it would go even beyond that and would go on 
to inspire African Americans all across the country to run for public 
office, including yours truly.
  Barnett's work elected strong political voices, committed political 
voices, dedicated, passionate political voices up and down the ballot, 
year in and year out. Richard Barnett helped elect scores of members of 
the city council, aldermen, appellate court judges, judges in the 
circuit court, State representatives, State senators, Members of 
Congress, other elected officials.
  I guess, personally, for me, Richard Barnett's legacy was centered 
around his strategic and informed advice. I mean, you would just 
marvel, sitting in a political education class, where Richard Barnett 
would take a group of--not an organization, but just well-meaning 
individuals from different places, some Ph.D.'s and some GEDs and no 
Ds, bring them into a room, spend time telling them about not only how 
to win an election, but why they should win an election.
  Barnett would tell us how to use the very tactics that precinct 
captains had been using for decades and use it against those same 
precinct captains. He would teach us how to canvass an election.
  The first time I ever heard anything about a canvass, it flowed from 
Richard Barnett's lips: how to take a poll sheet and go from house to 
house and building to building and floor to floor asking people would 
they vote for your candidate, and then summarize that by either putting 
a plus or a minus.
  If they were going to vote for your candidate, they were a plus 
voter; if they were going to vote against your candidate, then they 
were a minus voter; and if they were undecided, then you put a zero. 
And you just didn't stop there. The minuses, you left them alone, but 
the zeroes, you went back to them.
  Richard Barnett told us all of that every day from the announcement 
to the decision day in an election, and that was election day, and how 
you had to really be prepared for election day because, as Congressman 
Davis indicated, we didn't have poll watchers in the polls, passing 100 
feet outside of the polls. If you didn't go and locate your plus voters 
and get them to the polls, then you would not win that election.
  So Richard Barnett taught us the strategy and the discipline of how 
to win an election.
  Barnett shaped a lot of community leaders, politicians, and activists 
through his example and through those political education classes. The 
list is prominent, exalted, endless: Congressman Danny K. Davis; yours 
truly, Congressman Bobby L. Rush; Congressman Chuy Garcia; former 
Congressman Luis Gutierrez. We all sat at Richard Barnett's knee and 
learned how to win elections from this eminent political strategist and 
teacher.
  Even Barnett's charisma, his character, his teaching transcended into 
the mindset, the strategies of the former President of the United 
States.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, the gentleman just 
talked about Representative Garcia, who has just joined us and come in. 
I think we have got about 5 minutes left.
  Mr. RUSH. Certainly, Congressman Davis. I just wanted to add my voice 
to the Richard Barnett story that the Nation must know about.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 
to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia). We call him ``Chuy'' in 
Chicago, but everybody knows him that way.
  Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to be on the 
floor this afternoon and to join the gentlemen in honoring the life and 
the memory and the legacy of Richard Barnett.
  Richard was a neighbor of Chicago's Lawndale community. He lived just 
a few blocks from my house. He worked as a U.S. Postal Service employee 
prior to his retirement in 1982. He was very devoted to his wife and 
his children and was involved in his local community--in the schools, 
in the parks, and in the churches--and every aspect of civic life as a 
good community resident.
  But Richard was also a mentor to me in my earliest days as a 
candidate for political office. From the early 1980s, when I first 
stepped up, I learned how to organize in communities of color so that 
they could become politically empowered at the local, State, and 
Federal level.
  He helped enrich my understanding of the Voting Rights Act and how 
the Federal law could help Chicago's Latino communities in the early 
1980s elect people to Chicago's city council, to the State general 
assembly, to the Cook County board, and, yes, even to the Federal 
Government, a position that I can say I hold, in part, because of the 
mentorship of Richard Barnett.
  Richard was deeply committed to dismantling the infamously corrupt 
and discriminatory and exclusionary Chicago political machine with new 
political movements that were rooted in Chicago neighborhoods, and he 
wanted to usher in an era of equitable and honest government.
  Richard was instrumental in bringing together multiracial, 
multiethnic, and faith coalitions across Chicago to advance progressive 
public policies.
  He helped me in my elections to the Chicago City Council, to the 
Illinois Senate, to the Cook County board, and to Congress. I will be 
eternally grateful for all of his assistance and mentorship and 
friendship over nearly a period of four decades in the city of Chicago.
  Richard was a true son of his community, his people, and people all 
over Illinois and across the country because he sought to empower and 
to give a voice to the people who were voiceless.
  Long live Richard Barnett.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent that Members may have 5 days in which to revise and extend 
their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield back the 
balance of my time.

                          ____________________