[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27263]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE REVEREND JAMES THOMAS

  (Mr. COOPER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, the Congress of the United States is honored 
today to have Pastor James Thomas, the reverend of Jefferson Street 
Missionary Baptist Church, to deliver the opening prayer.
  Pastor Thomas has been a force for good in the Nashville community 
since 1964 when he hitchhiked from Texas with $4 in his pocket to 
attend American Baptist Theological Seminary.
Our colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), and many other 
civil rights leaders were trained at American Baptist.
  Reverend Thomas was ordained as a minister of the gospel in 1970 and 
was called almost immediately in 1971 to lead Jefferson Street 
Missionary Baptist Church. There he has established a very powerful 
symbol for the grace of God on Jefferson Street, a street formerly 
known for its rock and roll music and blues. The church is now known 
around the Nation and around the world as a creative force in Christian 
leadership and community improvement.
  Reverend Thomas is one of 13 children raised in Beaumont, Texas; and 
his love for his native State is still so great that people call him 
``Tex''; but in Nashville, Tennessee, he is more likely to be called 
the mayor of Jefferson Street because he has always been a spokesman 
for the poor and the downtrodden, a spiritual leader for his 
congregation and the adversities of their daily lives, and a teacher of 
Governors and Senators and Congressmen and mayors and councilmen, 
including a Vice President, on what the right thing to do is on civil 
rights and many other social policy issues.
  A small example of Pastor Thomas' work is his prison ministry. I was 
in his congregation one day when an ex-convict stood up and repaid the 
money that Pastor Thomas had loaned him, in fact, paid him many times 
over, thanking the minister for his kindness.
  Pastor Thomas is a friend of the friendless. He is an activist who 
works hard every day to not only improve our lives in this life but to 
prepare us for the next. He is a man of God who speaks the word of God. 
And Nashville has been blessed for almost 40 years now to have this 
fine spiritual example, and we appreciate him every day.

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