[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNIZING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF WOMEN OF COLOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Lee) for organizing the special order that was supposed to be on 
women's history, although it had been altered.
  I would just like to offer my remarks for this evening. Let me also 
add that the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) has certainly put 
her stamp on history through her outstanding work here in the House of 
Representatives and being the first African American woman to be 
elected to her district.
  It is fitting indeed that we honor the achievements of women of 
color, who for too long were neglected in our Nation's history. In 
recent years, it has been exciting to watch school children learn about 
African American women of strength, courage, and dignity who shaped the 
course of history.
  We can point with pride to women like Harriet Tubman who secretly 
guided over 300 slaves to freedom on the ``Underground Railroad.'' She 
spent time working in my home State of New Jersey at Cape May between 
1849 and 1852.
  We honor the legacy of Sojourner Truth, who was freed from slavery by 
the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827, became famous in her 
lifetime as a preacher and abolitionist and lecturer. When war broke 
out, she raised money to buy gifts for the soldiers and went into Army 
camps and distributed them by herself.
  We recall the contributions of Mary McLeod Bethune, who built 
Bethune-Cookman College in Florida and founded the National Council of 
Negro Women. She was the first black woman to receive a major 
appointment in the Federal Government.

                              {time}  2230

  She served as an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt and to 
President Truman.
  There have been so many remarkable women of color that it is 
impossible to pay tribute to all of them tonight. We have all had the 
opportunity to meet women who were personal heroines in our own lives, 
and I would like to pay tribute to three women who have had the 
greatest impact on my early life, African American women who have made 
a direct contribution to my growth and development. And these three 
women, other than my late mother and grandmother, have had a tremendous 
impact on my development.
  The first one I would like to mention is Mrs. Madeline Williams, who 
was an adviser of the NAACP Youth Councils and College Chapter of the 
Oranges and Maplewood in New Jersey. When I was invited to join the 
NAACP as a college student she provided the opportunity for young 
people to become involved in civic activities and public service. She 
helped me develop an interest in civil rights at a time in history when 
we were all moved to become involved. I remain grateful to her for 
giving me the opportunity to become involved in civil rights and 
government affairs.
  Another great woman who exerted an enormous positive influence on my 
life was Mrs. Mary Burch, founder of a group called The Leaguers, which 
helped young people from the inner city to become more involved in 
their activities in their cities.
  Belonging to the Leaguers opened up a whole new world for young 
people like myself, a world from which we otherwise would have been 
excluded. Never before had we been able to have the opportunity to wear 
formal attire when I was a young boy; to learn the waltz and to attend 
cotillion dances in a ballroom. It was an uplifting experience which 
taught us about social graces and made us feel special.
  The Leaguers sponsored many innovative programs. I recall as a 
teenager my excitement over my first real trip as a high school student 
away from home, to visit Philadelphia, through a Leaguer exchange 
program. Later, the student I visited, Joe Wade, stayed at my home in 
Newark. Forging friendships and relationships with young people from 
different cities was exciting, it was novel, and it was a great 
experience. This year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 
founding of the Leaguers.
  Finally, let me just mention another exceptional woman from New 
Jersey whom I was pleased to join at a celebration recently at her 
hundredth birthday at the YWCA in Montclair last week, and that is Mrs. 
Hortense Tate. Her career spanned seven decades of service through 
education as a teacher and guidance counselor, the enrichment and 
development of young women through the Montclair YWCA and the AKA 
sorority, and over 70 years of service to her church.
  When I was a young teacher at Robert Treat School in 1957, Mrs. Tate 
guided me and inspired me. She comes from an outstanding family; her 
father worked his way up from a blue collar job to become a principal 
of an African American school in Topeka, Kansas. As we all know, the 
1954 Supreme Court case was based on the Topeka Board of Education that 
said separate but equal is unconstitutional. He was acquainted with 
Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.
  Mrs. Tate entertained Mary McLeod Bethune and Dorothy Height. Her 
son, Herb Tate, was a distinguished foreign diplomat, and her grandson, 
Herbert H. Tate, Junior, is President of the State of New Jersey Board 
of Public Utilities.
  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues join me in honoring these women of 
achievement who have, as the theme of this Women's History Month goes, 
``put their stamp on America.'' I am so pleased to have the chance to 
express my personal gratitude and admiration for women who have meant 
so much to me throughout my life. I would not be here if it were not 
for the faith, confidence and direction that these persons have had on 
my life.

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