[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 25243-25244]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM CLAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, I have a very privileged 
opportunity today, and it is one in which I feel that is at an 
especially honorable time.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to pay a special tribute to the gentleman from 
Missouri, our friend, our colleague, Congressman Bill Clay. There are 
not many people around like Bill Clay. He is a unique person. He is a 
scholar, a mentor, a founder, and an inspirational leader, a fighter, 
and a fierce person for equity and civil rights for all.
  Bill Clay is announcing his retirement in this body after the close 
of the 106th Congress. Bill Clay is honored, Madam Speaker, to take his 
place among the great leaders of this Nation who have successfully and 
courageously walked the halls of power in Congress.
  Bill Clay has been an unwavering advocate for civil rights. We are 
going to miss him, Madam Speaker. He has walked in such a way that we 
are standing on his shoulders, those of us who are here today, even 
when it was not popular to do so.

[[Page 25244]]

  Representative Clay, like many other black-elected officials, 
realized that the road to equality for black America was through 
continuous struggle and through fighting a racially-charged system that 
was obsessed with keeping black Americans from even the most basic of 
human and civil rights.
  I tell this Congress and I tell the world, this is a brave man. As a 
young man in the military, Representative Clay and his wife jumped into 
the all-white military swimming pool, scattering all the whites in 
screaming horror. He has been jumping in and out of dangerous and 
unfriendly waters ever since.
  He is unafraid, Madam Speaker. As a founding Member of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Clay has served as a leader 
and mentor to the junior Members of Congress. To each one of us, we 
follow his lead. We watch his button. We ask for his counsel.
  His statesmanship and fearlessness, however, did not begin in 
Congress. Madam Speaker, a St. Louis native, Representative Clay 
graduated from St. Louis University in 1953 and was drafted into the 
Army. He was married with 3 children and the assistant manager of an 
insurance company when he jumped into politics with a successful race 
for the Alderman Ward 26 in St. Louis in 1959. That same year, he was 
arrested, along with two companions, for seeking service at a whites-
only counter at a local Howard Johnson's restaurant.
  The foundation of Representative Clay's popularity was cemented in 
1963, when still as a young St. Louis Alderman, he helped lead a 
landmark antidiscrimination protest at Jefferson Bank. He was jailed 
for 112 long days for violating a court order and rose, like a phoenix 
out of the ashes, to claim his place as a fearless civil rights leader 
. . .
  Representative Clay ran for Congress in 1968, the same year that Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. He was Missouri's first 
African American to win election to the United States House of 
Representatives, and since he has emerged as the region's most 
prominent and powerful black-elected official.
  Representative Clay was sworn into this body on January 2, 1969, and 
since then has enjoyed many legislative wins and accomplishments.
  Among his many achievements are the Family Medical Leave Act, the 
first piece of legislation signed into law by President Clinton, and 
increases in the minimum wage. Representative Clay has helped to steer 
through legislation on higher education, vocational education and 
disabilities legislation.
  In the field of education and labor, Representative Clay's legacy is 
solid. He leaves behind a stack of legislative accomplishments ranging 
from increased funding for historically black colleges and universities 
to bolstering health and safety protection for workers.
  In the House of Representatives, Representative Clay has served as a 
historian of the Congressional Black Caucus, and in doing so has, 
himself, created a long and outstanding history.
  He can very easily be called the historian of the Congressional Black 
Caucus because he has kept the history of this Congress. He is a 
prolific writer and academician. He faced many trials and tribulations.
  When the history of this body is written and the heroes are 
identified, the name of Bill Clay will be at the top.

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