[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16359-16360]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING DR. JERRY DONAL JEWELL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simmons). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on August 17, 2002, Arkansas lost 
a great public servant and a fighter for social justice with the 
passing of Jerry Donal Jewell, a Little Rock dentist who made political 
history when he was elected in 1992 as the first African American 
president pro tem of the Arkansas State Senate.
  A sharecropper's son, Dr. Jewell, who was born during the Great 
Depression, died at the age of 71 in a Little Rock hospital after a 
brief battle with cancer. Born in Crittenden County, Arkansas, Dr. 
Jewell attended public school in West Memphis. He later earned his B.S. 
degree from AM&N College, which is now the University of Arkansas at 
Pine Bluff, and his doctorate of dental surgery degree from Meharry 
Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee.
  He continued to practice dentistry for over 30 years in Little Rock 
until his death. Dr. Jewell was the first African American since 
reconstruction elected to the State Senate for the State of Arkansas. 
Until his election in 1973, no African American has been elected to the 
State Senate in the State of Arkansas in 80 years. Between 1963 and 
1967 he was president of the Little Rock branch of the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He became a lifetime 
member and president of the Arkansas Conference of the NAACP from 1965 
to 1972. During this time and before, he worked throughout the State of 
Arkansas fighting segregation and racial injustice with the noted civil 
rights activist Daisy Bates and her husband L.C. Bates. Dr. Jewell 
played a role in national politics when he served on the National 
Democratic Party Credential Commission in 1972 and the National 
Democratic Party Charter Commission from 1972 to 1974.
  Dr. Jewell was a hard worker and dedicated public servant who 
survived the harsh struggles of poverty to succeed not only in 
education but politics and medical practice. He became the acting 
Governor of Arkansas, as a matter of fact, when President Clinton was 
elected President; and when Governor Jim Guy Tucker left the State to 
come to the inauguration for 5 days, Dr. Jewell was acting governor, 
and during that time granted executive clemency to two individuals who 
were facing death row. Of course, that created quite a stir; but 
nevertheless he prevailed and hung in.

[[Page 16360]]

  I am proud to know that we attended the same university, we are 
members of the same fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and I am 
pleased to note that a great American did indeed provide tremendous 
service, not only to the State of Arkansas, but to the Nation as a 
whole.

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