[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 26785]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            A TRIBUTE TO THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE NEWSPAPER

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                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 4, 2009

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the 
Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest, continuously published African 
American owned newspaper in the nation. For 125 years the Tribune has 
chronicled the African American story while also being an important 
part of that story.
  The Tribune was founded in 1884 by Christopher Perry, only 19 years 
after the end of the U.S. Civil War. Perry, born in Baltimore, Maryland 
in 1856, moved to Philadelphia at the age of 17, intent on starting a 
newspaper. He said, ``For my people to make progress, they must have a 
newspaper through which they can speak against injustice.''
  Perry published the first edition of the Tribune Weekly when he was 
28. This one-page, one-man operation newspaper debuted the same year 
African American inventor Lewis Lattimer began working for Thomas 
Edison, Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute, and 
Harriet Tubman was still alive. After Perry died in 1921, the 
leadership of the newspaper passed to his son-in-law, E. Washington 
Rhodes.
  From 1922 to 1970, Mr. Rhodes was at the helm of the newspaper as 
publisher. Appointed by President Calvin Coolidge, Mr. Rhodes served as 
an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, the first African 
American to do so. Additionally, Mr. Rhodes served as president of the 
National Bar Association, was elected to the Pennsylvania House of 
Representatives in 1938, and was president of the National Publishers 
Association (NNPA), a national trade organization of African American 
owned newspapers.
  Committed to the newspaper's mission, the Tribune has been led over 
the past decades by Eustace Gay, John Saunders, Alfred Morris and 
Waverly Easley. Today under the leadership of Chairman Walter 
Livingston, Jr. and President/CEO Robert Bogle, the Tribune newspaper 
continues to expand and has been the recipient of numerous national 
awards including the NNPA's John B. Russwurm Award for ``Best Newspaper 
in America'' Award and the A. Phillip Randolph ``Messenger Award.''
  President Bogle stresses that after 125 years the mission of the 
Philadelphia Tribune has not wavered. ``For 125 years the Tribune has 
been the voice of those who would have been voiceless.'' For that 
reason, Madame Speaker, I salute the proud history, advocacy, and 
courage of the Philadelphia Tribune. The Tribune is an historic 
trailblazer whose light continues to lead on the path to justice and 
equality for the voiceless, and I ask my colleagues to join me in 
honoring them.

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