[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 2081-2083] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]PERSONAL EXPLANATION ______ HON. MARK E. SOUDER of indiana in the house of representatives Wednesday, February 14, 2001 Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, last evening I was unavoidably detained-- specifically, two consecutive flights from Fort Wayne were grounded because of mechanical problems--and missed the votes congratulating President Sharon of Israel and guaranteeing a lock box on Social Security and Medicare funds. Had I been here, I would have supported both bills. The problems in the Middle East are longstanding. I had the opportunity to meet President Sharon on several occasions. He is a tough but fair man. Israel, constantly pressed by those who challenge its right to exist, needs a strong leader at this time. We stand behind one as he faces the difficult times ahead. I would also like to insert the following articles about the late Reverend Joseph White into the Congressional Record. Reverend Jesse White was my friend. He was a friend to thousands and thousands of people. He was a friend even to many he did not know because through his pioneering efforts he advanced the basic civil rights of many who may have been deprived of such rights without his efforts. Not too many of us can look back and truly say we were a prophet. Dr. White was a prophet. He, and other pioneers in civil rights, had dreams that are now becoming reality. Complete justice has not been achieved. But without Dr. White there would be less justice. Not only does he leave behind a history, through his family, his legacy lives on. His sons carry on his ministry in different ways. [[Page 2082]] His daughter has been active in government and in promoting education training and opportunities. We will miss Dr. White's leadership in Fort Wayne and his national influence as well. Rev. White Demanded Equality If the civil rights movement over the last half-century was embodied in any single Fort Wayne resident, surely it was the Rev. Jesse White, 73, who died Monday. Tall, with a linebacker's physique and a booming baritone voice that was equally effective in soft conversation as a in delivering a sermon or demanding justice, the pastor of True Love Baptist Church had the rare ability to cut an imposing yet approachable presence in any room he entered. Parishioners, friends and public officials will remember the Rev. White as much for his compassion in helping and serving people as in his passion for fighting for civil rights. For instance, one of his longtime friends, former City Councilman Charles B. Redd, remembers White as the civil rights leader who charged into a closed Fort Wayne Community Schools board meeting. But he also remembers the minister who would open his wallet to people in need, a caring pastor who ordered a youth caught looting a parishioner's car be taken not to jail but to the front of the congregation, where he prayed with the youth and asked the congregation to grant forgiveness. His commanding presence and eloquence in giving voice to the wrongs of racism through a number of lenses--religion, the Constitution, economics, personally--made him a natural leader. He protested segregated Fort Wayne restaurants in the 1950s and 1960s. It was the Rev. White who helped direct a black boycott of Fort Wayne Community Schools in 1969, applying as much pressure on other black ministers to urge their congregations to participate as on the white leaders of the school system. The Rev. White chose his battles wisely, a natural ability borne from the heart and soul, not public relations concerns, self-interests or pressure from others. ``He was the kind of person who would do his own assessment, whether it was right or wrong, whether it was justice or injustice,'' Redd said. Though he kept his long, signature sidebars long after they had become passe in a fashion sense, the Rev. White's approach changed along with the times. As the leader of the local Operation Breadbasket in the early 1980s, White set about to address the economic legacy of racism, leading boycotts--and negotiations--with national department store and grocery chains, urging them to hire more blacks at their Fort Wayne outlets. By the 1990s, White concentrated on helping the economically disadvantaged people in his own southeast neighborhoods, opening the 30-unit True Love Manor for senior citizen housing and the 52-unit Adams and Bruce Housing for people with disabilities. True Love's computer learning center helped more than 1,500 students ages 6 to 86 learn and upgrade their computer skills. Through his ministry, his leadership in civil rights and his personal compassion, the Rev. Jesse White enriched his church, his neighborhood and Fort Wayne as a whole. He will be truly missed. ____ Fighter for Justice Changed the City (By Frank Gray) When NAACP President Michael Latham heard last month that the Rev. Jesse White was ill, he went to his house immediately. ``I'm in tears, and he's still Dr. White,'' Latham said. ``He never changed.'' A week ago, White was still teaching at True Love Baptist Church, treating the disease that would quickly kill him as just something else to deal with. Even on Saturday, as he lay in the hospital, unable to respond when Latham asked him whether he was OK, White signaled with his-hand that everything was all right. ``He was full of life, not afraid of death,'' Latham said. That's what White was like, unafraid of any showdown. He was used to them. In his 45 years in Fort Wayne, he'd had plenty, with companies, schools, even his own church at one point. ``Rev. White realized that things weren't going to change if someone didn't take action, so he led the march, he made the pronouncements that things were unfair,'' said Charles Redd, a former City Council member who had worked with White for decades. ``This community should be grateful,'' said the Rev. Temae Jordan. ``We're enjoying the benefit of the struggles he took on.'' Sometimes it was fun. White would occasionally have lunch with Redd at the Chamber of Commerce so plenty of people would see them and wonder what they were planning, Redd said. In reality, most of their serious discussions of strategy took place while bowling, he said. Sometimes it was tense and serious. When a local manufacturing company fired a handful of black workers for minor infractions several years ago. White thought the firings looked like a setup. he supported the fired workers as they picketed the company. He took their case to the top of the company. The business was afraid of repercussions from white workers if the fired workers were rehired, Redd said, but White created enough pressure that the men were reinstated. Arguing that people without economic power have no power at all, White spearheaded boycotts of groceries and department stores to pressure them to hire more minority employees, and won. His best-known boycott sowed seeds that are still growing today. In 1969, White, along with officials in the Urban League and NAACP, protested that Fort Wayne schools were segregated. They presented solutions to the school board. They were quickly rejected. So White helped lead a boycott of Fort Wayne Community Schools. His and other churches established freedom schools and announced that black students would refuse to attend classes in the Fort Wayne schools. Ninety-five percent of black students honored the boycott. Photos showed classrooms empty or with only one or two students. Within days, the state took the side of the boycotters, forbidding the Fort Wayne district to build new schools or make additions to existing buildings. It took two years, but a plan to eliminate segregation was approved, and the first magnet school, which draws students from across the district, was established. The magnet school concept, long since expanded after later lawsuits, was first presented a generation ago by a group that included White. White was one of a dwindling group, a man who took to the streets to call attention to things he didn't consider just. In that sense he was a product of his time. He arrived in Fort Wayne at a time when the media didn't show up when a black man wasn't allowed to get on a bus. They only showed up when someone protested and boycotted. So that is what White did. That had changed in the last 10 years or so for two reasons. Times themselves had changed, Jordan said. Also, ``When you're out on the front line, you see issues, but as you get older you realize that your greatest calling is to be a shepherd.'' Until late last week, that was where the Rev. Jesse White could be found, shepherding people at the church he founded, though he knew he was also staring death in the face. ____ [From the Journal Gazette] Rights Activist Jesse White dead at Age 73 (By David Gilner) Nearly paralyzed by the brain tumor that would take his life three days later, the Rev. Jesse White insisted on leading a funeral service Friday for a parishioner he had baptized. Three mem physically supported the Rev. White, one of Fort Wayne's most renowned civil rights leaders, as he warned the audience about life's fleeting nature. ``Don't waste your time, young people, for time is a master,'' his daughter, Rhonda White, recalled him saying. ``Once a second or a minute or a day goes by, you can not grab it back.'' The Rev, White 73, knew how prophetic his words would be. About 2 a.m. Saturday, the pastor was admitted to Lutheran Hospital, where he died at 2:30 a.m. Monday. City officials and civic leaders throughout Fort Wayne mourned the loss of a man who spent more than half a century fighting racism. Glynn Hines, Fort Wayne City Council's only black member, said the Rev. White was an icon of activism, who lived by the seize-the-day philosophy he promoted with his final sermon. ``'That's his spirit of can-do, and I think he instilled that on many young people who came through his congregation,'' said Hines, who was baptized by the Rev. White in 1962. A potent speaker and powerful singer, the Rev. White was a key member of Fort Wayne's ``old guard'' civil rights leaders who organized marches and boycotts to raise awareness of inequality. Even in recent years, his thick glasses and thicker white sideburns could be spotted at rallies against crime on the city's southeast side. ``He may have been pleased with the inches of progress, but he was looking for miles,'' Hines said. ``He always used to say, `You'll know there's not a need to fight when there's not a need to fight.' '' The Rev. White was born in Natchez, Miss., in 1927. Traveling with a group of gospel singers, he first came to Fort Wayne in 1953. The next year, he made the city his home. He became pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in 1955 and married Ionie Grace England in 1956. They had nine children. In 1969, segregation sparked him to help lead a high- profile boycott against Fort Wayne Community Schools. He marched nationally and at home to raise awareness of discriminatory hiring at banks, super-markets and retailers. He became a confidant of Jesse Jackson, whose presidential campaigns the Rev. White helped coordinate in 1984 and 1988. Progressive Baptist grew under the Rev. White's leadership, becoming Greater Progressive Baptist Church after moving into its [[Page 2083]] seventh home in 1972. A power struggle and allegations of financial impropriety led the Rev. White to resign from Greater Progressive and found True Love Baptist Church in 1974. Both churches became major players on Fort Wayne's civil rights front. Any friction between the two was forgotten, said Greater Progressive Pastor Ternae Jordan. Jordan became pastor 16 years after the Rev. White's resignation, and he was excited about the chance to work alongside the Rev. White. ``There was no animosity between Dr. White and myself,'' Jordan said. ``I knew the name of Jesse White before I even came to Fort Wayne. I grew up in the home of a minister, and Jesse White was a household name in African-American homes across the country.'' The Rev. White became president of the local Council of Civic Action, brought Operation Bread-basket to Fort Wayne and was president of the local chapter of Jackson's Operation P.U.S.H. His first wife died in 1993, and he married Vanessa Atkins in 1995. Funderal services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at True Love Baptist Church, 715 E. Wallace St. Calling will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at Calvary Temple Worship Center, 1400 W. Washington Center Road. A memorial service will be 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. He will be buried in Lindenwood Cemetery. ____ Rev. Jesse White Remembered as ``Drum Major for Justice'' (By Kevin Kilbane) The Rev. Michael Latham remembers the phone calls. When Latham first became a pastor 12 years ago, the Rev. Jesse White would call once a week to see how the younger man was doing. At least once a month, White would call on Sunday morning to encourage Latham before the young man went off to lead Renaissance Missionary Baptist Church in worship. White, the pastor of True Love Baptist Church, always ended the conversation with the words, ``Preach good.'' ``He was my mentor,'' Latham said of White, 73, who died Monday after a short illness. During nearly 50 years of ministry in Fort Wayne, friends and White showed the same concern for other young pastors, people in need and those facing racial discrimination. ``I guess you could call him a drum major for justice,'' said Hana Stith, chairwoman of the African/African-American Historical Museum. ``He really was.'' The funeral service for White will be 10 a.m. Saturday at True Love Baptist, 715 E. Wallace St. Calling will be 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Friday at Calvary Temple Worship Center, 1400 W. Washington Center Road. A memorial service will follow from 5 to 8 p.m. White, who moved to Fort Wayne in the early 1950s, first made an impact locally during the civil rights struggle of the late 1950s and early 1960s. As president of the Civic Action Committee, he led other local African-American pastors in opening restaurants that had refused to serve minorities, recalled the Rev. James Bledsoe of St. John Missionary Baptist Church. The committee intervened when companies refused to hire minorities or to treat them fairly, said Bledsoe, president of the local African-American pastors' Inter-denominational Ministerial Alliance. In addition, White and the committee led protests against racial segregation in the Fort Wayne Community Schools district. In fall 1969, for example, the pastors organized a boycott that kept 1,300 children out of schools. Children attended ``freedom schools'' in the churches for nine days before FWCS agreed to provide the students with equal educational resources. ``He didn't fear any retribution,'' Stith said. ``He just stepped up and did what was right.'' White also touched many lives through his dynamic preaching and as a mentor, clergy said. First as pastor of Progressive Baptist Church from 1955 to 1974, and then as leader of True Love Baptist, which he founded in 1974, White was a frequent guest speaker at local pulpits. ``If anybody would call Dr. White to come and speak, he would never say no,'' Latham said. White's preaching ability also frequently set up and preached at out-of-town crusades as part of his duties as chairman of the National Baptist Convention's evangelistic board, Bledsoe said. ``I do a lot of traveling,'' Bledsoe said, ``and when I say I'm from Fort Wayne, they say, `Oh, you are from Jesse White's town.''' But despite a busy schedule, White was always willing to help with a community or personal need, said the Rev. Vernon Graham, executive pastor of Associated Churches of Fort Wayne and Allen County. ``He was like the tall oak tree,'' Graham said. ``He was one of the pastors the younger pastors would turn to for advice and counseling.'' Graham also frequently asked White's help in planning or carrying out Associated churches' projects. Those efforts have included establishing food banks and other programs to help the needy, and initiatives to heal racial division. Through White's work, Latham and other pastors noted, present generations enjoy the freedom and opportunities they have now. ``Dr. White was one of the ones who paved the way,'' Latham said ``I think what we are doing today is standing on his shoulders.'' ____________________