[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5468]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      TRIBUTE TO LU PALMER, CELEBRATED RADIO AND PRINT JOURNALIST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I would just add my voice to the 
accolades being given to George Mikan. He did his college basketball 
playing and attended DePaul University, which is in my congressional 
district. I can tell my friends from Minnesota that all of Chicago and 
Illinois are indeed proud of the accomplishments of George Mikan and 
the people at DePaul University salivate every time they hear his name. 
I join your comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening to pay tribute to one 
of our country's most celebrated and most effective print and radio 
journalists, Mr. Latrell ``Lu'' Palmer who is retiring and will be 
featured at a retirement celebration on April 14 at the Reverend 
Johnnie Coleman Complex, 119th and Loomis in Chicago.
  Lu Palmer was born in 1922 in Newport News, Virginia, and attended 
its schools there. He then went on to Virginia University and earned a 
bachelor's degree in 1942. Later on, in 1947, he earned a master's 
degree from Syracuse University and later on went to Iowa State 
University in 1955 where he completed the course work for a doctorate's 
degree. Lu never wrote his dissertation so he ended up with what people 
called an ABCD, that is, all but the dissertation degree.
  Lu Palmer then went on to have an outstanding career at the Chicago 
Daily Defender newspaper, the Chicago Courier, the Chicago American, 
the Chicago Daily News, and then established his own paper, the Black X 
Express, which he ran for several years. He also taught for 20 years, 
from 1970 to 1990 for the Association of American Colleges and 
Universities of the Midwest where he trained a large number of students 
to really understand urban life. Of course, Lu also worked at WBEE 
Radio and WVON Radio, was the editorial director for Congressman Ralph 
Metcalfe's communication vehicles and served as a public relations 
person for Michael Reese Hospital. He established the Black Business 
Network, Chicago Black United Communities, CBUC, which he operated for 
several years, and BIPO, the Black Independent Political Organization. 
He established Menhelco, a mental health program for boys who were 
suffering from mental retardation which continues to operate.
  As much of a journalist as Lu was, he was really noted more for his 
community action, community involvement, and was called upon to speak 
in colleges and universities and banquets all over the country, as a 
matter of fact. He generally could not keep up. Plus he was very 
selective and did not just accept any speaking engagement. It had to be 
something that he called relevant and meaningful if he was to go. Lu 
was very actively involved in generating outrage when Mark Clark and 
Fred Hampton were killed by the Chicago police, and later on was 
probably the single most effective voice in the election of Harold 
Washington for mayor of the city of Chicago because Lu had a slogan and 
the slogan sort of said, ``We shall see in '83,'' meaning that that is 
when the election was going to take place. Lu was called the drumbeat 
of the African American community. Everybody listened to his radio and 
everybody pretty much waited for WVON to come on in the evenings from 
10 to 12 so that they could listen to ``On Target'' and Lu Palmer.
  Lu finally decided that it was time to hang them up. He is about 80 
years old with diabetes and all the other things that would afflict 
one. But we would hope that he would put his memoirs together and that 
he would spend the rest of his life writing and putting in voice some 
renditions of that ``We shall see in '83.''

                          ____________________