[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 19575-19576]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MR. PETER SMITH

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 23, 2003

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great 
contributor to civil rights and to the empowerment of people in this 
country. Peter Smith has worked for almost forty years to promote civil 
rights and to provide legal services to those who have traditionally 
been denied such access--African Americans and other minorities, the 
poor, juveniles, and those with disabilities.
  In his Cornell Law School graduating class, he was one of the very 
few who chose to turn their backs on the prestige and financial rewards 
that would come to those who entered private law practice. In a period 
of our history where the fashion was ``me first'', Mr. Smith has 
without exception put ``you first.'' And for four decades, the ``you'' 
was individuals who for reasons of race, poverty, age or disability 
were denied equal access.
  In 1964, having worked there earlier during law school, Mr. Smith 
joined the staff of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of 
Justice. As a member of the small and elite Appeals and Research 
Section, he wrote and argued appeals in some of the most significant 
cases in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and played a role in 
drafting the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights 
Act of 1965.
  In 1966, again breaking new ground, Peter Smith joined the first 
legal services appellate section in the nation. He argued before the 
Supreme Court of the United States the landmark case that brought an 
end to welfare residence requirements. The work that he did in public 
housing and welfare reform continues to this day to promote the quality 
of lives of those people who are dependent upon government policy for 
their very survival.
  After five years of working to deliver legal services to those who, 
because they were poor or minorities, were denied access to such 
services, Mr. Smith concluded that the problems would never be solved 
unless the private bar was brought into the struggle. After much 
effort, he convinced an establishment Baltimore law firm to open a 
branch office in Baltimore's inner city that would deliver legal 
services to the underserved the same way the rest of the firm delivered 
legal services to the privileged. That office, under Smith's 
leadership, became a model for a number of other law firms in the 
country.
  In 1972, Mr. Smith joined the faculty of the University of Maryland 
School of Law and, almost immediately, created one of the first 
clinical legal education programs in the nation--a program with two 
parallel goals. The first goal was to change the way that law students 
were educated, by creating an opportunity for students to practice law, 
representing clients, while under very close supervision--a model that 
the medical community had long used. The second, and equally important 
goal was to deliver legal services to a class of people who ordinarily 
did not have access to such services--juveniles. Smith operated the 
Juvenile Law Clinic until 1979, representing many

[[Page 19576]]

clients in administrative and judicial proceedings including before the 
Supreme Court of the United States where he helped to guarantee key 
legal rights for juveniles.
  Almost without exception, the students who went through his clinic 
consider that experience to be the most significant of their law school 
education. In 1979 he spent a sabbatical in England helping to develop 
clinical legal education there.
  In 1991, Smith returned to his childhood home in New Hampshire where 
he assumed a new challenge--to provide legal services to yet another 
segment of American society that traditionally had been denied that 
access--individuals with disabilities whose legal problems were related 
to their disability. For the last few years Mr. Smith has narrowed that 
focus even more, representing parents of children with disabilities in 
cases where the school district was not complying with federal law.
  Mr. Speaker, on April 27th, Peter Smith celebrated his 65th birthday. 
While he continues to actively practice law, delivering legal services 
to those who have so long been denied that access, I did not want this 
occasion to pass without acknowledging his long service promoting civil 
rights for minorities, the poor and the disabled.

                          ____________________