[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   TRIBUTE TO JUDGE FRANK M. JOHNSON

  (Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, on July 23 the Nation lost a great American 
when Judge Frank M. Johnson died at his home in Montgomery, Alabama.
  Judge Johnson was truly an American hero, a man of decency and 
courage, and whose dedication to the principles of the Constitution 
ensured that all Americans might enjoy the rights and privileges 
accorded to the citizens of this Nation by that great document.
  His most celebrated decisions came in the early years of the civil 
rights movement in this country. After Rosa Parks refused to give up 
her seat on a Montgomery bus, Judge Johnson ruled that the regulation 
that required her to stand in order that a white passenger might sit 
was in violation of the 14th Amendment.
  Following the savage beating of civil rights marchers, who included 
our own colleague the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) by Alabama 
state troopers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, 
Judge Johnson moved that those marchers should be allowed to express 
their grievances through a peaceful demonstration.
  In his ruling, he said that those marchers were doing nothing more 
than exercising their Constitutional right to assemble peaceably to 
seek redress of grievances.
  He struck down laws that prohibited African-Americans from serving on 
juries, signed the order to force the integration of the University of 
Alabama, took part in the case that led to the one man, one vote ruling 
by the Supreme Court and had a hand in scores of other cases that led 
to desegregation of public facilities throughout the South.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe this great man did indeed yield true justice. 
The country has lost a great man.

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