[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 99 (Thursday, June 11, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF BENJAMIN SWAN, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. RICHARD E. NEAL

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 11, 2026

   Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the remarkable life and 
legacy of Benjamin Swan, Sr., a son of the Civil Rights Movement, a 
champion of our great Commonwealth, and one of the most consequential 
figures western Massachusetts has ever produced.
  Born in 1933, Ben spent the next 92 years proving that one person, 
committed to justice and rooted in community, can change the arc of a 
city. From the marches of the 1960s, where he proudly stood alongside 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the great halls of the Massachusetts 
State House, where he served the people of Springfield for more than 
two decades, Ben Swan never stopped pushing and never stopped believing 
that this country could live up to its great promise.
  When Ben came to Springfield, he made it his own. He led the Greater 
Springfield NAACP. He championed desegregation in schools. He fought 
for police reform. He stood up for the homeless, the working poor, and 
every constituent who walked through his door or stopped him on the 
street. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 
1995 to 2017, and during that time, he became not only a good 
legislator but also a mentor. Elected officials across this region 
trace their path to public service back to a conversation with Ben 
Swan. He gave people the courage to run, the wisdom to serve, and the 
living example of how to do it with grace.
  Springfield named a street for him. Springfield named a school for 
him. Those are extraordinary honors, and yet no honor will ever 
adequately reflect his legacy. The truest monument to Ben is the 
generations of leaders he inspired and the constituents whose lives he 
forever changed.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in recognizing 
the extraordinary life and service of Benjamin Swan, Sr. My thoughts 
and prayers are with his family and loved ones during this difficult 
time. Ben Swan gave everything he had to this community, and it is this 
community that will carry his legacy forward.

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