[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3781-3782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY OF THE REV. AND MRS. BENJAMIN HOOKS

 Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, every day in towns and cities across 
America, moms and dads, uncles and cousins, gather, in time-honored 
tradition, to celebrate the milestones of their lives--the births, 
baptisms, and anniversaries that bind them together and make them one.
  Perhaps the most cherished of these is the celebration of marriage 
because it is marriage, after all, that creates the first and most 
essential cell of human society--the family.
  If they are blessed, Mr. President, these anniversary celebrations of 
marriage include larger circles of friends and colleagues who recognize 
not only the value of a special couple's commitment to each other, but 
also the value of that commitment to all of us as the larger family of 
God.
  On March 24, 2001, in Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. President, such a 
gathering will occur, and it is in honor of that occasion that I rise 
today to pay special tribute to a special couple, the Rev. Benjamin 
Hooks and his bride, Frances, who will celebrate 50 years as husband 
and wife.
  Mr. President, this son of Memphis, is a man whose accomplishments as 
a pioneer of the civil rights movement, a courageous leader of the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and, more recently, as 
Director of the NAACP are well-known to most Americans. Less known, 
perhaps, is his work as a public defender, the first African American 
judge in Tennessee elected since Reconstruction, an outspoken critic of 
media portrayals of minority stereotypes, and pastor of the Greater 
Middle Baptist Church in Memphis where I have been honored to worship, 
and where both Benjamin and Frances have tirelessly dedicated 
themselves to bringing the goodwill of the family to all society.
  But as important as their public work is and has been, it is the 
private union of these two remarkable human beings that we honor 
today--their affection and devotion, their deep and lasting commitment 
and, most of all,

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the love that encompasses not only each other but all who know them.
  Mr. President, it is my honor and privilege to join with their 
daughter, Patricia, their family, and all their many friends, in 
congratulating the Rev. and Mrs. Benjamin Hooks on 50 years of 
marriage. May the good Lord continue to bless them all the days of 
their lives.

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