[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 27, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO REV. McKINLEY WASHINGTON, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 27, 2022

  Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a dear 
friend, whose life was a testament to the biblical admonition ``faith 
without works is dead.'' Reverend McKinley Washington, Jr. spent his 
career in the pulpit while serving a quarter of a century in the South 
Carolina legislature. His passing on July 24, 2022, has silenced a 
beloved faith and community leader along the Sea Islands of South 
Carolina.
  McKinley was one of eight children born to the late McKinley 
Washington, Sr. and Mattie Peterson Washington in the Stackhouse 
community of Sumter County, South Carolina. He graduated from Goodwill 
Parochial School, the same institution that educated Mary McLeod 
Bethune. He subsequently attended Johnson C. Smith, a historically 
Black college, in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, he joined the 
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, helped organize civil 
rights marches, and was arrested for his activism. McKinley also made 
time for his studies and earned a B.A. in 1961 and a master's degree in 
divinity from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary in 1964.
  Although both of us were born and raised in Sumter County our paths 
did not cross until we arrived in Charleston County around the same 
time in the early 1960s. He had accepted a call to pastor at Edisto 
Presbyterian Church and I had accepted a teaching position in the 
Charleston County public school system. We both became actively engaged 
in local politics and it was not long before we and our wives became 
great friends.
  He was young, energetic, and determined to make a difference in his 
community and throughout the Sea Islands of Charleston County. In 
Charleston he rekindled his activism, establishing the Edisto Branch of 
the NAACP, helping to stand up the Franklin Fetter federally qualified 
community health center, and later, the Sea Island Comprehensive Health 
Care Corp.
  When I left the classroom and became a Counselor with the Charleston 
County Employment Security Commission in 1965 and later Director of the 
Charleston County Neighborhood Youth Corps and New Careers project, 
McKinley helped in my effort to get part time jobs for high school 
students and work experiences for high school dropouts. Our signature 
effort came through the creation of a Talent Search project that sent 
hundreds of low-income high school graduates to colleges and 
universities across the country. Most of those students went to 
Wilberforce University in Ohio. Among them were Larry Whaley pastor of 
St. Paul Baptist Church and the Rev. Nelson Rivers, pastor of Calvary 
Baptist Church and Vice President of National Action Network who is a 
dynamic faith leader in his own right.
  It was during this time that McKinley became an active board member 
of the South Carolina Commission for Farm Workers, an agency created to 
aid migrants and seasonal farm workers. After some fits and starts, 
that Commission hired me to be their Executive Director in 1968.
  McKinley and I bonded, and he became my go-to guy. We worked together 
to develop an adult education project, a Self-Help housing program, and 
he helped me form a rural version of the Talent Search concept to 
provide opportunities to the children of migrants and seasonal farm 
workers.
  After working in the trenches to improve the quality of life for his 
community, McKinley decided he could better serve his community by 
running for public office. Although he lost his first campaign for the 
State House of Representatives, he ran again during a special election 
and won; He went on to represent District 116 in the House from 1975 to 
1989, and then served in the State Senate representing District 45 from 
1990 to 2000. He continued his public service after 25 years in the 
State legislature by serving an additional eight years on the S.C. 
Employment Security Commission.
  His career in public service was marked by his dedication to issues 
of equity and justice. McKinley was always focused on providing for, 
``the least of these,'' and communities that have been historically 
neglected. To honor his service, the modern bridge that connects Edisto 
Island to the mainland is named in his honor. It is a fitting tribute 
to the man who spent his life building bridges and solving problems.
  Throughout his public service and community work, McKinley served 50 
years as pastor of Edisto Presbyterian Church until his retirement in 
2012. His faith informed his service and was at the core of who he was 
as leader. McKinley met Beulah Jeffries, the love of his life while at 
Johnson C. Smith, and the two became the proud parents of Michael and 
Katrina, and grandparents of two grandchildren.
  Madam Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in celebrating 
the life and legacy of McKinley Washington, Jr. May we all learn from 
the example of this outstanding South Carolinian, born during the Jim 
Crow era in the ghettoized Stackhouse Place community of Sumter County, 
South Carolina who went on to live a transformational life. It has been 
one of my life's blessed experiences to call him a dear friend.

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