[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 27965-27966]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO KENNETH T. WHALUM, SR.

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, the City of Memphis, Tennessee, has lost 
one of its finest citizens, Kenneth Whalum, Sr.
  Kenneth Whalum, Sr., passed away last night. He was a pastor, he was 
a two-time city councilman, he was a father, he was a family man, he 
was a leader in our community.
  For 30 years, he was the pastor of the Olivet Baptist Church and very 
highly respected in the community and among the clergy. For 8 years, he 
was a city councilman, one time as a district councilman in a community 
known as Orange Mound. Then when he saw a higher calling and the need 
to address a higher subject, he ran against an incumbent city 
councilman, at the time unheard of, and was elected at large, one of 
the first African Americans elected at large to the Memphis City 
Council.
  He was also a postal service employee and had a career there and rose 
through the ranks to director of personnel. For that reason, this 
House, and this week with the President's action, the post office at 
Third Street in

[[Page 27966]]

Memphis, Tennessee, will be named the Kenneth T. Whalum, Sr., Postal 
Building. That is a tribute to his work and all postal employees.
  He had a family of which the City of Memphis is proud. His son 
Kenneth, Jr., is a pastor and a member of the school board. His son 
Kirk Whalum is a world-renowned saxophonist, and his other son Kevin is 
a musician with a contract and a poet.
  There have been many great families in the City of Memphis to get 
involved in politics, but none greater than the Whalums. The hair of 
the hypocrite never was upon this family, and the idea of 
discrimination and bigotry or intolerance never disgraced them either. 
He was a leader in biracial politics and activities in the City of 
Memphis. He was a leader in being bipartisan as well.
  There have been few people like Kenneth Whalum, Sr., in the City of 
Memphis. There will be few to come. I share his loss greatly. He was a 
supporter of mine who, although he had a stroke and had difficulty 
walking, came down and did a political ad for me when he could hardly 
get up the stairs, and on television it was like an angel speaking. 
When John Conyers came to Memphis in February, he made it up a whole 
flight of stairs to see John Conyers, and a happier man I have not 
seen. He knew the post office was being named for him before he passed. 
I am happy he knew that and I am happy I knew him. We have lost a great 
leader.

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