[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23]
[House]
[Pages 31412-31413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 MOMENT OF SILENCE IN MEMORY OF FORMER REPRESENTATIVE AUGUSTUS FREEMAN 
                      (GUS) HAWKINS OF CALIFORNIA

  (Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. STARK. Madam Speaker, it is often as the dean of the California 
delegation a sad duty to report the passing of a colleague, but I have 
to say today that I want to announce and celebrate with you the life of 
a distinguished former colleague who died last Saturday at 100 years of 
age. Augustus Freeman Hawkins had a 28-year career in this body, and I 
just briefly want to celebrate with you the accomplishments of this 
gentleman.
  Gus, as we all knew him, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 
31, 1907, about the same time my dad was born in California. He moved 
to Los Angeles. He was elected to the State assembly in 1935. He was 
elected to Congress in 1962, and served here 28 years.
  During that 28-year service, he chaired the House Administration 
Committee, he chaired the Committee on Education and Labor, a whole 
host of joint committees, Printing, the Library Committee, and decided 
not to run for reelection in 1990. But among his many accomplishments, 
and Gus authored more than 300 State and Federal laws in his career, 
but what he will be most known for, I think, is authoring title VII of 
the Civil Rights Act which created the Equal Opportunity Employment 
Commission.
  He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. He 
sponsored and was noted and will be remembered most perhaps for the 
Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act that he sponsored with Senator 
Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota at that time.
  I just want to pay tribute to one of the great careers of one of our 
great colleagues.
  I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. I appreciate very much my colleague 
yielding, and I rise also to pay tribute to one of the great Americans 
who provided a level

[[Page 31413]]

of leadership in terms of public policy in this House like few have and 
most would want to be.
  Gus was a wonderful friend over time, and his best roommate, a guy by 
the name of Frank Baca served us in and around the Vatican for some 
years, a wonderful guy as well. They lived a short distance from our 
house. My bride and I used to walk in the park and run into Gus often. 
The conversations were about the House first, briefly, but then from 
there the fact that the best thing about this place, if we will let it, 
it is a place where people of great difference can become very dear and 
warm friends.
  Gus Hawkins was one of the great Americans to ever serve in the 
Congress. While he has passed, it is a tribute to America that we can 
have men and women in the House of Representatives of the style and 
class of Gus Hawkins.
  I appreciate my colleague yielding.
  Mr. STARK. I am glad to yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman, and I thank 
him for taking this time.
  As one who had the honor of serving under Gus Hawkins when he was 
Chair of the Education and Labor Committee, I would just like to say to 
my colleague that this was a man of great vision for young people, for 
students, and for working families. I knew Gus long before I came to 
the Congress. I knew him as a young man when he and my father served 
together in the State legislature and they were engaged in the great 
civil rights battles at that time, the great battles over education and 
school quality. Gus died when he was 100, but he was thinking about 
things 120 years from now because that's the way he always was.
  Gus was always looking over the horizon for new opportunities and new 
ideas and new ways of doing things. He was a great pioneer, but he was 
also a great visionary and he honored us with his service in this body.
  I thank the gentleman for taking this time.
  Mr. STARK. I would like to yield, if I may, to the gentlewoman from 
California who now represents the district that our friend Gus Hawkins 
represented.
  Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much.
  I would like to join with the head of our delegation, Representative 
Stark, and others, in paying tribute to an extraordinary man.
  Gus Hawkins was one of the most profound public policymakers that 
ever served in this House. You heard Pete Stark allude to some of that 
legislation. That legislation has been good for America, it's been good 
for African Americans, it's been good for this House.
  I am so proud that when Gus Hawkins decided that he was not going to 
stand for reelection in 1990, he called me and he said, ``I'm calling 
you first because I believe that you would do well representing this 
district by serving as a Member of Congress.'' And so I have tried to 
live up to his legacy.
  Gus Hawkins, however, was very, very strong. He understood how 
government works. He was understated. He got along with everybody. He 
made a lot of friends in this House. And people responded to him in a 
terrific manner.
  And so I am standing here in great sympathy and in pain, because I 
know that we wanted to get him up here one more time when we focused on 
the Hawkins-Humphrey Act with Barney Frank in the Financial Services 
Committee. We were not able to do that. And so all that we can do now 
is honor him with this tribute and say, ``Rest well, Gus.''
  I would request a moment of silence, please, before we resume our 
schedule.

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