[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[Senate]
[Page 30897]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO REVEREND EDWIN ``D'' EDMONDS

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to Rev. 
Edwin ``Doc'' Edmonds, a retired pastor and civil rights leader from 
New Haven who passed away Tuesday, November 6. Reverend Edmonds, or 
``Doc,'' as his friends called him, was one of the smartest, warmest, 
and most effective people I have ever had the pleasure to know, and led 
a truly inspirational life.
  Born and raised in Texas, Edwin Edmonds was an excellent student, 
graduating high school at 15 years of age. In college he began losing 
his eyesight until he was legally blind. Despite having much difficulty 
reading and writing his assignments, he prevailed and graduated from 
Morehouse College in 1938, only 1 year later than expected. He would 
then go on to earn a bachelor's of sacred theology and a doctorate in 
social ethics from Boston University. In 1950, he was ordained in the 
Methodist Church.
  While teaching Sociology at Bennett College in Greensboro, NC, 
Reverend Edmonds became deeply involved with the civil rights movement, 
where he was elected president of the Greensboro chapter of the 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1958, he 
met the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the two exchanged letters 
until Dr. King's tragic death.
  He also was an adviser to the ``Greensboro Four,'' a group of brave 
college students committed to racial equality who would later lead the 
famous sit-in at a segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth's department 
store. This courageous protest is widely believed to be the first sit-
in of the civil rights movement. Many Greensboro historians consider 
Reverend Edmonds a pioneer in the fight for equal rights for the city's 
minorities.
  In 1959, Reverend Edmonds moved to New Haven to become pastor of the 
Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, which is now known as the United 
Church of Christ. As pastor, Mr. Edmonds soon became a fixture in the 
local community and quickly gained a reputation as one who was always 
willing to help those in need. His youngest daughter, Toni Walker, who 
serves as a representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, recalls 
that people in need often stayed at their home as guests. ``As long as 
they needed help, they were able to get it,'' Walker remembers.
  Reverend Edmonds' congregants all knew that he was around to address 
not just their spiritual needs, but also everyday needs such as housing 
and jobs. Under his leadership, the church built a housing development 
and a creative arts center for the community. In addition, he was 
involved with many community service groups, such as the Urban League, 
the New Haven Clergy Association, the Amistad Committee and the New 
Haven Inter-Faith Ministerial Alliance. He was also a long-time member 
of the New Haven Board of Education, serving as its chairman from 1979 
to 1988.
  Even after retiring from the church in 1994, Mr. Edmonds remained 
active in his community. In 2000, after a meeting with single mothers 
who had to defer going to school to raise their children, he helped to 
establish Edwin R. and Maye B. Edmonds Scholarship Fund for single 
parents.
  I bid farewell to ``Doc'' Edmonds and will keep his friends and 
family in my thoughts and prayers. I take solace in knowing that he 
will live on in all the people he helped to inspire to serve their 
community. As Clifton Graves, an activist and professor in New Haven 
who has known and looked up to Reverend Edmonds since he was a boy, 
said of his death: ``We mourn this loss, but we celebrate his life and 
the contributions he made not only to New Haven but to Connecticut and 
indeed, around the country.''

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