[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17578-17579]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 CELEBRATING THE CAREER OF GEORGE BROWN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 21, 1999

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my good friend and 
distinguished colleague, Congressman George Brown of California's 42nd 
Congressional District. I worked alongside of Representative Brown for 
33 years and will remember his service to Congress as one dedicated to 
improving the quality of life not only for his constituents but for all 
of us.
  George Brown started off his illustrious career not as the public 
servant we remember him by, but as a young student in the 1930's. It 
was on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles where 
he began his crusade for a better nation by organizing the first 
integrated campus housing. Being the great leader he was, George was 
the first to integrate UCLA's housing by taking on an African-American 
roommate. Later in his life Representative Brown was proud to continue 
his push for civil rights when he voted for the Civil Rights Act of 
1964. A picture of George, President Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy and 
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hung on his wall as a constant reminder to 
the signing of that act into law.
  Upon graduating from UCLA with a degree in Industrial Physics, Brown 
put his degree to good use with the City of Los Angeles. It was there 
that he helped organize the city's workers and its veteran's housing 
projects. Then in 1954 George Brown won his first election as a member 
of the city council in Monterey Park, CA. One year later in 1955 he 
became mayor of the same city. The dedication he held for the issues 
dearest to him kept Brown moving as he was elected to the California 
State Assembly in 1958. As a member of the state assembly Brown 
introduced an environmentally friendly piece of legislation that called 
for a ban on lead in gasoline, the first ever of its kind. What we 
later learned is that this was only the beginning of George's fight for 
a cleaner, safer environment.
  In 1962 George Brown ran for the 29th district in California. He won 
the House seat easily that year beating his opponent by an 11 
percentage point margin. Serving on the House Committee on Science and 
Aeronautics, Brown was a staunch supporter of the advancement of the 
space program and the pursuit of technology that would improve all of 
our lives. George believed that technology should be included in the 
education of our children and worked hard to accomplish this goal 
throughout his career. In more recent years Congressman Brown was found 
supporting international scientific cooperation and attempting to 
establish joint research programs between the United States, Russia and 
Mexico.

  During the 1960's and into the 1970's, Congressman Brown was a strong 
voice in protest to the Vietnam War. He argued that the no matter how 
long we fought and how many troops we sent over to Vietnam, we could 
not find world peace from a war that was slaughtering peasants. 
Throughout the war, he tried time and again to get the attention of the 
nation. One such time found Representative Brown outside on the steps 
of the Capitol Building demanding that if the police were going to 
arrest 13 peaceful war protesters for disturbing the peace, then they 
should arrest him too.
  When I think back to this time I'm reminded of the group that Bob 
Kastenmeier from Wisconsin, Don Edwards from California, George,

[[Page 17579]]

myself and several others formed to stop the war effort. After the 
release of the Pentagon Papers our efforts in the group intensified to 
bring an end to the war, perhaps the hardest worker of all of us being 
George.
  As hard as he fought the Vietnam War, perhaps the issue closest to 
the Honorable Congressman's heart was the environment. It was 
Representative Brown who first spoke out against the dangers of burning 
fossil fuel. It was George Brown teaching the nation about the harmful 
effects of freon in the ozone layer. It was Brown again telling us that 
we had better keep an eye on the global climate change for our sake and 
the sake of our children. And then it was Congress, following his lead, 
enacting provisions in the Clean Air Act that would help the nation 
monitor the levels of these pollutants in our air and keep a watchful 
eye on the ever-changing world climate. One of Representative Brown's 
most notable achievements was the work he put into the creation of the 
Environmental Protection Agency. Through this agency we can rest 
assured, knowing the policies of the fine Congressman from California 
will be followed through as he would want them.
  In looking back at George Brown's life, we look back at a life 
dedicated to promoting the beliefs of a man that was committed to 
making the world a better, cleaner, more peaceful place for us to live. 
His hard work on the tough issues will be missed, but most of all we 
will simply miss the strong-willed, intelligent, caring man that George 
Brown was.

                          ____________________